The Pattern Book for Regenerative Design is built around three mindset shifts: interdependence, abundance, and emergence. These are foundational to regenerative design and my aim in writing this book has been to embed these mindsets not only in the content, but in the structure of the book—and in how it gets used.
Focusing today on interdependence:
Regenerative design is rooted in connection—connection to community, to ecology, to the places where we make, as well where we take.
An interdependence mindset recognises that we are part of all these systems—and we rely on them thriving. We are not independent from the world we design, from the harm we might cause or from the thriving we might create.
This is a book for engineers (and other humans) who want to work with this mindset and strengthen those connections. The 12 patterns in the Pattern Book help readers connect with different contexts:
- Patterns for working with different clients and collaborators
- Patterns for developing our own understanding, tailored to different ways of thinking
- Patterns for engaging with supply chains, local regions, and policy-making
The book is designed to grow over time, with contributions from readers showing how they’ve used and remixed the content for their own specific scenarios. In doing so, this builds stronger connections across a growing community of regenerative practitioners in industry.
Specific motifs in the Pattern Book that support interdependence include:
- The Second Site – deepening the connection between where we make and where we take
- Better feedback – understanding the conditions that allow better signals to flow between designers and the places their choices impact
- Carrier wave – tracing how information flows through projects
- System Survey – identifying the opportunities for, and barriers to, connection in different scenarios
Our mutual interdependence is nothing new. But as our communities and ecosystems reach the limits of the stress they can handle, that interdependence becomes harder to ignore.
This book helps designers work more consciously with shared connection.