I’m grateful to my friend and Regenerative Design Lab colleague Ellie Osborne for this model.
On the second day of our Cohort 5 Autumn Residential, we were sitting around the fire discussing interconnection in design. More explicitly, how connected do we feel to the places where we take materials from to build our buildings.
A key factor in how regenerative systems stay in balance is through local feedback loops: knowing how much material is available and how much can be used without causing harm.
The feedback loop gives information about what is available. But perhaps a more human way to understand this feedback is to think of it as understanding.
If a developer decides to build a new building in the city using material dug from just outside the suburbs, I am likely to have a much stronger view about this decision than if the material comes from a distant place I have never heard of.
I have an understanding of what it would mean to double the size of the open-pit mine if it were right here, compared to elsewhere.
Now, mining, at small scale, can have a positive impact on habitats, and has been an important part of human construction for millennia. But that’s not the point.
The point is, the closer the site, the stronger the feedback. The stronger the feedback, the stronger the understanding.