Creativity training and teaching for engineers
On 29th January 2025, we ran our ‘How to Have Ideas’ workshop with DYSE Structural Engineers in Manchester, exploring the creative process in design and how engineers can generate and test ideas effectively.
The session focused on:
Today, Oliver was in Cambridge delivering his workshop “Things to Think and Feel about a Brief,” as part of his teaching on the Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) Masters programme.
Continue reading “Unlocking the Power of Design Briefs: Workshop at the IDBE Masters Programme”
With the launch of our fourth Regenerative Design Lab cohort next week, we’ve updated our regenerative design reading list.
Interestingly many of the books don’t even mention the phrase regenerative design, but what they share in common is an alignment with the a holistic world view, within which regenerative design sits.
Continue reading “Just updated, our regenerative design reading list”
We are happy to announce the release of our latest report, detailing the findings from the third cohort’s six-month exploration into how policy changes can unlock regenerative design. Our report is now available for download, the findings of which offer a starting point for our next cohort investigating the intersection of policy and regenerative design.
Continue reading “Report Release Announcement: Exploring Policy and Regenerative Design”
Last week, we were at the Institution of Structural Engineers delivering our ‘How to Have Ideas’ workshop to graduate engineers from Ridge Consulting.
Creative thinking is often the gap in the formal education and training of engineers. Yet, in the context of the climate emergency and a rapidly changing economy, creative thinking is crucial for developing designs that meet the needs of people and our wider ecology.
Continue reading “How to Have Ideas: Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There”
Today, Oliver concluded his series of six workshops as part of the Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) Masters program in Cambridge. In this final session, participants reviewed the material covered over the last five sessions, spread out over two years, and set objectives for their continued professional growth.
The series of six lectures aimed to integrate collaborative design skills into the Masters program, focusing on both creativity and collaboration.
Continue reading “Buying Bags of Kaleidoscopes: reflecting on how far ideas in teaching can travel”
Earlier this month, we unveiled the Pattern Book project, an innovative workbook designed to guide professionals in the built environment towards regenerative design principles. The Pattern Book is the next evolution in the development of the Regenerative Design Lab.
The Pattern Book aims to be an emergent, collaborative resource, offering a collection of tools, techniques, and resources under Creative Commons.
Continue reading “The Pattern Book – a new collaborative project in regenerative thinking”“We see in patterns, we recognize patterns, we create patterns. To create a world in which construction brings about thriving rather than destruction, we need new patterns for thinking about how we design and build,”
Oliver Broadbent
The news is that we have now published our report from the second cohort of the Regenerative Design Lab. Each cohort of the Lab represents an evolution in our shared understanding of regenerative design. The breakthrough in this cohort was to test tools, techniques and language that make regenerative design easier to understand. These methods bring much-needed clarity to the broader conversation about how work in the construction industry can create thriving.
Our reports are written to be shared; the content to be used. So download a copy and please do share with anyone who you think would be interested.
Applications are now open to join Cohort 4 of the Regenerative Design Lab. For this cohort we are partnering with Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator to ask how can we create policy that delivers regenerative design. We are looking to build a mixed cohort of policy writers, designers and people interested in influencing policy. All the details on the cohort 4 page.
The Regenerative Design Lab community is growing. In 2022, the first 20 people began their journey through our pilot of the lab. Now over 50 people have completed the lab programme (and some of them have been through twice!).
So now our work as conveners of the Lab is as much about nourishing this existing community of regenerative practitioners as it is about recruiting more. And so to help support and further the work of this group of change-makers, we are holding our second summer research workshop.
Continue reading “Announcing the Regenerative Design Lab Summer Research Workshop”