From Sustainable to Regenerative Design

Sustainable design is about minimizing negative impacts on the environment, the health and well-being of building occupants, and maximizing functionality without wasting resources, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are reducing energy use and carbon emissions of buildings. However, the effects of ongoing climate change have highlighted the fact that simply reducing energy use is no longer sufficient. Therefore, as opposed to sustainably designed buildings, which are based on the concept of only using the minimum resources, regenerative buildings are designed and operated to reverse damage and have a net-positive impact on the environment. This paper discusses the principles of the built environment design, aimed at achieving a regenerative design. Therefore, the concept of sustainable design should be replaced with the new concept of regenerative design, where the buildings should interact with the environment and its inhabitants