Designing for living environments using regenerative development

Abstract

How can ecology inform urban planning and design and the shape of our buildings, streets, and neighbourhoods? Recognition of the importance and necessity of incorporating nature in cities, for health, wellbeing and provision of essential urban ecosystem services, points to new opportunities for designing cities, their neighbourhoods, and buildings with ecology. This chapter uses concepts of urban ecology and social-ecological systems, and applies these to considerations of regenerative development, informed by ecological design thinking. The chapter presents a case study of The Paddock, a regenerative development in Castlemaine, a small country town in south-east Australia, to demonstrate how to embed regenerative development principles into the design and construction of housing. Applying these approaches builds understandings of the site’s social-ecological system, its flows that bring it to life, and the relationships that nourish and enrich the site now and across time.