Regenerative architecture: teaching and learning for a new design in architecture

Abstract

Regenerative architecture arises as an approach that goes beyond the idea of sustainable buildings.  More than a deep relationship with the environment it intends to promotes living systems regeneration through a full understanding of the location in order to design regenerative structures. In this context, it sets up a new concept in architecture, requiring specific knowledge that must be inserted in academic education. Such knowledge is interdisciplinary, geometry being a field of specific interest. Geometry supports the analysis of the activity patterns that shape local forms, to understand how these patterns influence the regeneration process; the performance evaluation of structures on the thermal conditioning of the projected building; the formal proposal of structures in a generative process, achieved through parametric techniques of digital representation. In this paper, we discuss the concepts necessary for the insertion of regenerative design in architecture and present some initiatives developed in training and professional contexts.