Case study of architectural co-design for regenerative urban life

This paper accounts for the empirical application of a co-creative methodology based on regenerative design; a theory-based process anchored in ecological principles from landscape architecture and systems ecology. In urban contexts, regenerative design can help recreate and enhance urban ecosystems’ ability to generate useful, nature-based, and sustainable products and services. It can also provide high social and aesthetic values. The aim of this paper is to explore how co-creation may assist in operationalizing regenerative design empirically through co-design in a formal planning context. For this purpose, a case study was conducted in Stockholm Royal Seaport, Sweden, a modern urban district with official sustainability ambitions. Based on regenerative design criteria, this entailed solution-oriented co-design in collaboration with the City of Stockholm, emphasizing how material structures (tectonics) could be utilized to enable biological and ecological processes (tropism). A design studio constituted the empirical basis for the work, in which facilitated discussions and sketching was performed by a group of planning professionals, supported by a professional illustrator. Emerging ideas were translated into sketches of potential interventions that would establish regenerative processes at the physical site. The result is a comprehensive proposal to address current challenges and future possibilities, visions towards architecture for regenerative urban life.