Regenerative Architecture as a Paradigm for Enhancing the Urban Environment

Abstract

The building and construction industry is considered one of the highest contributor to many issues our world is facing today, especially in a country undergoing a rapid urbanization and industrialization like Egypt, where the higher percentage of buildings are designed and constructed specifically for the circumstances and needs of the moment that don‟t consider the environment conditions, ecology or occupants needs and activities. Architecture in general tend to be dealt with as static entities that will stay the same over the decades, while interacting too little with its occupants and its surrounding urban environment, therefrom the human built environment is now considered the largest consumer of the world‟s energy resources, freshwater resource, and natural resources. From there, many new architectural design concepts are presented every day in order to change the common conception of the traditional built environment, such as Regenerative Architecture which aims to leave a positive environmental impact on a site instead of creating a project that has as little impact as possible, where more is given to the environment over a building‟s lifetime than is taking during its construction and operation. The main objective of this paper is to promote the use of regenerative architecture as a thinking paradigm for sustainable architectural design on a larger scale throughout studying its concept, history, implementation strategies and the fundamental principles that should be considered in the design process. The research methodology consists of a theoretical study about regenerative architecture, it then uses the analytical approach, by studying a certified example that incorporated regenerative architecture principles, to evaluate the efficiency of its regenerative solutions. The study found that regenerative buildings offer an exceptional opportunity to emphasis the value of ecosystem services in an urban context, as it provides such a huge ecosystem services to its surrounding urban environment.