Regen

"When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability." ~ Janine Benyus

A global strategy of achieving sustainability requires a holistic approach from architects, including a slowly emerging environmental, economic, architectural and social framework to create systems that are not just more efficient than what we have now, but aim to have positive social and environmental impacts. Could we live in what McDonough & Braungart describe as a world of ‘abundance and delight’ rather than a world of limits? Regen works across different scales of systems thinking; it simultaneously considers the large-scale and the tectonic. Within the catchment of the North Tyne River – from Kielder Forest to Hexham – we explore regional material flows through systems mapping, with a focus on locally grown materials, while understanding that we as designers can influence these systems through material selection and application.

Anna Czigler and Ben Bridgens