COLreg: The Collective Regenerative Region

She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 2019

There is a metabolic rift running through our economy and culture, and it is distracting our attention from care for the biosphere. To heal this rift, the diverse groups of people that make up humankind need a shared purpose that everyone can relate to and support. A strong candidate for that shared purpose is care for the bioregion-bioregioning-as an activity that creates value. In this article, I present a number of design actions and case studies that demonstrate how design can contribute to system change, for example via the reconnection of urban and rural ecosystems, the design of social infrastructures that enable the emergence of new enterprises, and the deployment of technology.

2018

The mission of the present trans-disciplinary community project COLridor is to generate a situation of eco-systemic co-living across local species and abiotic agents in an urban environment through their co-design. Located in the city centre of Prague, the case study bio-tope is a part of larger bio-corridorthat has evolved namely thanks to the adjacent railway and water stream. Though the prevailing opinion of European urbanists is that cities should remain dense and separate from the rest of nature (see illustration Figure 1), landscape ecologists and biologists tend to disagree. There is no nature on Earth without human beings and these together evolved reflecting each other’s impact and interaction. A great variety of species have adapted and evolved for the urban environment that, at the moment for many, offers a safer living environment than agricultural land. Through systematically co-designed and co-created so called ‘prototypical urban interventions’ (Doherty, 2005), the pr...

2nd International Conference on Urban Planning - ICUP2018, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Niš., 2018

The consequences of climate change have already affected European urban areas, as numerous researches show that intense urbanization leads to degradation of natural habitats and reduction of biodiversity. Scientific findings on ecology and climatology, as well as global and national policies requires a shift of the planning process towards the development of urban adaptable ecosystems. In this article, we look at possibilities to apply green infrastructure as urban planning approach that provides polyvalent space for ecosystem services and human well-being. Focus of the research presented in this article are Block 45 and 70 in New Belgrade and Savamala neighborhood in the old city center. Even though they are characterized by different ecological, urban, morphological and social characteristics, they share direct contact with Sava River. Therefore, the adaptive potential of these spatial segments will be the subject of the analysis presented in this article, and the emphasis will be on applying biophilic design within the integrated network of green infrastructure.

Asian Social Science, 2014

In this review article, an attempt is made to analyze the problem of gradual though accelerating degradation of the environment in the Russian Federation, its reasons and outcomes. The factors aggravating the problem are classified, and their impact is assessed. Intensive industrial development, enormous gas and oil consumption, a huge number of cars and other vehicles in urban and rural areas are among the most substantial factors. The co-authors insist that if the humankind follows this path, it will lead the Earth to the ecological catastrophe. The co-authors also try to find out why the humankind took this path, and conclude that the present-day consumptive treatment of the nature is the outcome of the technology-intensive trend of the western civilization. However this development pattern may be reversed by the green building efforts, including Masdar City designed by Norman Foster in Abu Dhabi, Tianjin municipality in China, and other projects implemented worldwide. Moreover, the co-authors address the research works written by V.I. Vernadsky, a prominent Russian scholar, and developed by V.A. Ilyichev, member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, who believes that the rational correlation between the biosphere and the technosphere is a must. The authors believe that the theory developed by V.A. Ilyichev may serve as a means for the reasonable and rational preservation and development of the natural environment.

Agriculture, 2021

Over the years, rural areas have faced a number of problems and difficulties, such as an increase in the average age of the population, desertification, loss of employment and the abandonment of rural and agricultural activities, which have led to the emergence of new initiatives aimed at revitalizing these territories from a social, economic and environmental perspective, such as the successful Bio-districts or Eco-regions (e.g., Bio-district of Cilento). Understanding and establishing a proper framework for each territory based on agroecology and participatory methodologies is still a challenge. In this sense, based on the analysis of two European examples—Cilento, Italy and São Pedro do Sul, Portugal—we described each of the building processes and defined a set of drivers that might constitute guiding principles to serve as a basis for the creation of Bio-districts or Eco-regions. The drivers’ matrix identified was discussed in three focus groups carried out in Portugal in 2020. ...

AGATHÓN | International Journal of Architecture, Art and Design, 2022

AGATHÓN issue number 11 is a collection of essays, studies, research and projects on Greenery | Its Symbiosis with the Built Environment. It recalls the role that nature and greenery, in general, can play in the short term to address the current global warming and climate change challenges. They are caused by deforestation and forest fires, urban sprawl, indiscriminate use of non-renewable raw materials and an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. These elements cause a devastating impact on our fragile ecosystem, society and the economy. In 1969, Simon had already guessed the potential of a ‘new ecology’ whose animate and inanimate elements of the built environment characterise a ‘unified’ landscape. Beynus’ studies are a knowledge heritage useful for the informed and responsible regeneration of the built environment. Over the millennia, Nature has perfected strategies and solutions, processes and mechanisms to adapt to different climates and physical conditions through the rationalisation of the use of matter and energy by optimising material and immaterial metabolic exchanges. While the Modern Movement has considered landscape, urbanism, architecture and design as separate disciplines, in the new millennium there is a ‘scalar shift’ in which they are considered part of a unified territorial system, in which we are called to overcome anthropocentrism and to design for man and living beings, in a connection made of profound knowledge and understanding of the trajectories and reciprocal needs of human and non-human beings. The relationship between the parts of the system takes on crucial importance when we adopt a broader and more systemic vision, supported by a holistic and participatory approach. Digital technologies can support this ‘double convergence’ in their shift towards a ‘cybernetic ecology’ allowing us to see the natural and artificial world as a unicum. The theoretical and experimental framework presented by AGATHÓN issue number 11, although not exhaustive of the potential of nature-based solutions, shows that their cross-disciplinary essence can relevantly help – both with traditional and vernacular approaches/techniques and using IoT and digital technologies – to counteract the effects of climate change by creating a more resilient built environment, less vulnerable to erosive transformation dynamics, and to create healthier environments, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services, improve quality of life, foster new economic and social opportunities and create value chains, while acting on urban regeneration processes with the circularity and multi-scalar tools as pillars. To achieve these goals in the shortest possible time and overcome the greenwashing bad practice in design, it is necessary to start a new paradigm based on the ‘shift from an economics of growth to an economics of belonging’ and on a ‘new ecology’ in which man and nature characterize an unprecedented ‘unified’ landscape in a profound bond made of mutual knowledge and understanding to build a relationship based on symbiosis, inclusion and adaptation at the different scales of the project. For example, by stimulating training initiatives such as those of the Valldaura Labs of the IAAC in Barcelona, which aim to disseminate practices for holistically integrated ecological and technological landscapes.

2011

This volume focuses primarily on society at the local and regional levels and on a scenario in which human beings coexist harmoniously with nature. This ideal society is examined in terms of the relationships between villages or towns and their natural environment. It also looks at how these villages and towns can achieve local or regional independence in the face of pressures toward centralization and globalization. This book highlights the importance of developing a society in harmony with nature through the networking of diverse communities to promote and achieve local independence

Relating Systems Thinking and Design 9, 2020

The paper unfolds a work of Synergetic Landscapes unit of Master of Architectural Design at the Welsh School of Architecture. This collaborative design unit focuses on generating potentials for coperforming landscape of human and non-human, living and non-living, natural and artificial participants of Grangetown community, Cardiff, Wales, UK. The term community in this project is extended from what used to be understood in anthropocentric culture. In 21 st century, i.e. rivers (such as Whanganui River) and others are reclaiming their legal personhood. This work aims to integrate variety of living and non-living agents within the community in codesigning flourishing environment with and for All. It aims for transition towards the era of Post-Anthropocene where living and non-living beings and systems coexist together in synergy. The methodology of Systems Oriented Design and full-scale prototyping has been implemented into a real life codesign laboratory that is performing in real life and real time.

2018

Given the inherent ecological damage associated with post-industrial sites, their remediation offers an opportunity to apply the concept of symbiotic urbanism, a type of urban development that not only prevents ecological degradation, but also restores the natural environment while concurrently benefitting adjacent communities and economies, to their rehabilitation. Analogous to symbiotic urbanism, definitions of regenerative urban development and regenerative cities capture the notion of urban development that goes beyond preventing environmental damage to also encompass the replenishment of natural resources, but few case studies of how the entirety of the idea can be implemented exist. In contrast to commonly referenced examples of regenerative urban development this paper will discuss an application of symbiotic urbanism that offers a proposal for the comprehensive rehabilitation of a post-industrial site. The proposal uses the site's industrial legacy as inspiration for entering a new era of production that engages in the research and development of innovative technologies that simultaneously remediate existing environmental degradation while stimulating new economies and opportunities and reconnecting communities to long-abandoned places.

FormAkademisk, 2018

The mission of the present trans-disciplinary community environmental project COLridor (Davidová, 2017b) is to generate a situation of eco-systemic co-living across local species and the abiotic agency in an urban environment through their co-design. Located in the city centre of Prague, the case study biotope is part of larger bio-corridor that has evolved, namely due to the adjacent railway and water stream. Though the prevailing opinion of European urbanists is that cities should remain dense and separate from the rest of nature, landscape ecologists and biologists tend to disagree. There is no nature on Earth without human beings, and these together evolved, reflecting each other's impacts and interactions. Therefore, there is also no social justice without the environmental one and vice versa. A large variety of species have adapted and evolved for life in the urban environment, which at the moment for many, offers a safer and more habitable living environment than agricultural land with its herbicides, pests, antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Through systematically co-designed and co-created so-called eco-systemic 'prototypical urban interventions' (Doherty, 2005), the project aims to motivate the generation of an edible landscape and a social, cultural and habitable urban environment across species. It is claimed here that designers should no longer be designing for but rather designing with the overall ecosystem. This case study helps justify the first author's ratified design field Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance, covering a fusion of a variety of co-designs across the ecosystem in process-based fields.