AT chats to… Anna Lisa McSweeney about educating politicians, the Regenerative Architecture Index and why every practice has a part to play.
What’s happening at Architects Declare?
It’s a really exciting time. There has been the appearance of dormancy, but there’s been all this stuff bubbling away in the background and it suddenly feels as though this is the year that it’s all coming together. We are presenting our manifesto, Building Blocks to Transform the Built Environment, to MPS and Peers ahead of the general election. We’re publishing the Regenerative Design Primer to support practices. Personally, I’ve been working on the Regenerative Architecture Index, launched in partnership with Architecture Today. The Index supports the Regenerative Design Guide and, hopefully, they will both feed into one another. It’s an opportunity to really start to celebrate and identify glimpses of the regenerative mindset we are starting to see across the industry. It’s about thinking about regenerative architecture as constantly evolving over time. So it’s not about celebrating any one finished project, but recognising elements of practice that are incorporating regenerative thinking.
How does your role on the steering group of Architects Declare tie in with your role at White Arkitekter?
It works two ways. There’s so much that I learn from my time at Architects Declare that feeds into my thinking and the way I approach my work at White; I’m UK Head of Sustainability, so I’m involved in reviewing and assessing projects against our own in-house targets, but I also have a more strategic role which is looking at the wider research networks, setting our workflows and defining action plans and business plans. It’s really exciting being able to tap into thinking from the UK. White is a Swedish company, and the UK is always looking to Scandinavia for progressive ideas, but there is so much thinking going on in the UK around regeneration and measurements and definitions. It’s definitely a two-way process.
What would you say to anyone who is wondering whether to take part in the Regenerative Architecture Index?
I’d say anybody and everybody should be entering. There’s no boundary that defines what’s successful and what isn’t – that’s why we call it an index. It’s role is to inform and inspire, and the more people who are engaged with it, and the more information it contains, the more effective it will be. Within the index, we’ve highlighted three pillars of regenerative design. How are we co-evolving with nature? Are we being good ancestors and ensuring that we have a positive effect over the very long term? And are we creating a just space for people; are we brining everybody along with us? These are high level categories and we don’t think the economic system in which we currently operate includes any examples of truly regenerative practice, so what the index, and these categories do, is provide an opportunity to really celebrate and speak about the things you are doing well, even if it’s just a glimpse of something that falls within one of those categories. Taken together, we hope the Index will give a picture of what regenerative practice could look like across the board.
Source: Architecture Today