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Regenerative Design

Regenerative Design

The built environment is responsible for approximately 34% of global carbon emissions and around one-third of global energy consumption, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. It is also a major driver of resource extraction, land-use change and biodiversity loss. Despite decades of sustainable development, these challenges continue to intensify, suggesting that reducing harm alone may no longer be enough. Regenerative design asks not only how we reduce these impacts, but how design can contribute positively to the health of people, place and nature.

Facts

  • The built environment accounts for approximately 34% of global carbon emissions and around one-third of global energy consumption.  (UNEP)
  • Around 80% of a project’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage, placing significant influence in designers’ hands.  (widely cited; European Commission)
  • More than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and the ecosystem services it provides.  (World Economic Forum) 

Beyond Sustainability 

Regenerative design starts from the understanding that every project is part of a larger living system. Rather than viewing interiors as isolated spaces, it considers the relationships between ecological, social, cultural and economic systems, recognising that changes in one part affect the whole.

It is not a set of products or sustainability measures added at the end of a project, but a way of thinking and a process that runs from the earliest stages of discovery through to long-term stewardship. At its heart, regenerative design is about designing for life: creating the conditions for people, communities and ecosystems to thrive.

Beginning With Place

Interior designers already invest significant time understanding their clients and developing a vision. Regenerative design widens the lens beyond the client and the building to include the wider context a project sits within: its landscape, ecology and community, the bioregion of which it is a part.

It seeks to understand the essence and potential of a place, asking not only what the project needs to achieve, but how it might contribute to its ongoing flourishing. This place-based perspective matters increasingly as pressures on land intensify; the UK’s Land Use Framework, published in 2026, sets out how to balance housing, food production, climate resilience and biodiversity recovery within the same landscapes. 

From Nature As Resource To Nature As Relationship

Traditionally, design decisions have prioritised human needs while treating nature as a resource to be managed. Regenerative thinking starts from a different premise: we are nature, inseparable from the living systems that sustain us.
For interior designers, this changes the questions we ask. Rather than focusing solely on what a client wants from a space, we consider how a project can support the health of the wider ecological and social systems of which it is a part. Much of this is not new; regenerative thinking learns from indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge that has long understood people as part of living systems, not apart from them.

Learning From Nature

Regenerative design draws on approaches such as biophilic design, neuroarchitecture and biomimicry. A living-systems perspective holds these within a wider frame: it values what nature offers people but asks how design can support the health of the whole system, not human benefit alone.

Biodiversity Gain Starts With Every Decision

Biodiversity is often viewed as the responsibility of planners or ecologists, yet interior designers influence biodiversity through every material and product they specify. Choices around timber, natural fibres, finishes, sourcing and circularity all have consequences beyond the building itself. Understanding where materials come from, how they are produced and what systems they support is an important part of regenerative practice. Since February 2024, most developments in England must deliver a minimum 10% Biodiversity Net Gain, with habitats secured for at least 30 years (DEFRA / gov.uk). Supporting regenerative supply chains and collaborating across disciplines can help contribute to biodiversity gain and nature recovery.

Materials In Living Cycles

Bio-based materials such as timber, hemp, cork, wool, clay and mycelium offer more than low impact. Many are grown rather than extracted, store carbon during their use, and can return safely to biological cycles at the end of their life. Circular economy thinking helps keep materials in use and design out waste. Regenerative design builds on this by asking not only how we reduce waste, but how materials can give back to the living systems around them.

Seeing Interiors As Living Systems

Regenerative design draws inspiration from living systems, where health emerges through relationships rather than individual parts. Factors such as daylight, air quality, material health, acoustics and thermal comfort do not operate independently; they interact as part of a wider system that shapes how people experience and inhabit a space. Understanding these relationships encourages designers to create environments that support both human and ecological flourishing.

Thinking Long-Term

Regenerative design asks designers to develop themselves as well as their projects. It requires the ability to work with complexity, understand relationships and consider the wider impacts of design decisions. It also encourages longer-term thinking. What is designed today may be inhabited by generations not yet born, prompting designers to consider the lasting effects of their decisions on people, place and the living world.

Applying Regenerative Design

Regenerative design can be applied at every stage of a project.

  • Understand the wider ecological, cultural and social context of place and its bioregion
  • Prioritise healthy, low-toxicity and responsibly sourced materials
  • Favour bio-based, carbon-storing materials that can return to biological cycles
  • Design for longevity, repair, adaptability and future disassembly
  • Support local makers, craftspeople and regenerative supply chains
  • Consider biodiversity impacts when specifying materials and products
  • Create spaces that strengthen wellbeing, belonging and connection to nature.

Resources

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