Marks Barfield Architects, Studio Knight Stokoe, Buckley Gray Yeoman, Sheppard Robson, and Grain Architecture explain how their practice purpose is aligned with the planetary emergency.
Social enterprise MATT+FIONA is an architect and educator-led practice wholly focussed on driving change in the built environment by giving a voice to young people. Rubble Garden – a public space within Tendring and Colchester Borders Garden Community – forms part of a 7,500-home masterplan currently being implemented to the east of Colchester, and is the result of an intensive three-day summer design studio with local schoolchildren. (Credit: MATT+FIONA)
Being a good ancestor
Part 1 of the Regenerative Architecture Index focuses on ‘being a good ancestor’. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. This requires innovative thought, as current models are rarely beneficial in the long term. Responses in this section were assessed by Architects Declare steering group members Michael Pawlyn, Alasdair Ben Dixon, Zoe Watson and Zuzana Sojkova, with expert insight from Regenerative Architecture Index ambassador, social philosopher and author Roman Krznaric. Read more about Part 1 of the RAI here.
Practice Question 1
Does the practice have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We’re looking for a bold ambition here, and a practice culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking. For example, a strong mission, a theory of change, or a sustainability roadmap.
Answers breakdown
Front-runner
Marks Barfield Architects
MBA is in transition. In 2021, we wrote an MBA strategy for change inspired by Architects Declare. It was created by the whole office, aiming to become a regenerative design practice aligned with the planetary emergency, where all projects are designed, constructed and operated within planetary boundaries, maximising social justice and biodiversity outcomes. The practice now has a regenerative design roadmap, for which we have whole practice workshops each year to update the strategy giving a one-year, two-year, and five-year plan aiming towards 2030 and beyond with a process that includes advocacy, knowledge sharing, fostering circular economy principles, mining the Anthropocene, material audits, material passports, and identifying reuse opportunities to reduce upfront and life cycle embodied carbon, and waste. We have refocused on retrofit and reuse, adopted the donor-recipient building model, and – as a test case – are attempting to build a project entirely out of used materials.
The Urban Mining Tondo illustrating Marks Barfield Architects’ circular process. MBA’s regenerative design roadmap includes advocacy, knowledge sharing, fostering circular economy principles, mining the Anthropocene, material audits, material passports, and identifying reuse opportunities to reduce upfront and life cycle embodied carbon, and waste.
Runner-up
Studio Knight Stokoe
Our studio demonstrates a clearly stated purpose aligned with addressing the planetary emergency through its bold ambition and forward-thinking culture. We have established a mission centred on regeneration and ecological resilience, outlining steps to reduce carbon emissions, enhance biodiversity, and promote circular economy principles.
Our company has amended its Articles of Association to recognise the environment and society as key stakeholders, legally embedding our commitment to environmental and social regeneration into our corporate governance. As a Certified B Corp, we meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency, benefiting all business stakeholders, workers, customers, communities, and the environment.
Our studio operates under three overarching design drivers: resilient, regenerative, and empathic. These principles guide us in creating solutions that withstand environmental stresses, restore ecological systems, and consider social equity, ensuring all strategic decisions promote a regenerative and inclusive future.
Ones to watch
Buckley Gray Yeoman
In 2022, Buckley Gray Yeoman produced and adopted a practice roadmap in response to the AD Practice Guide and Practice Action series, outlining our journey towards best practice. Our colleagues contributed to coordinating and hosting the Architects Climate Action Network component of the Practice Action series and were able to embed learnings in our own practice roadmap and sustainability strategy. Grounded in our five practice principles – find opportunities in the site and local context; clever use of materials and resources; maximise biodiversity and connection to nature; prioritise the wellbeing of users and affectees; and long-term, adaptable design – the roadmap is remapped periodically to assess progress. We publish the roadmap on our website, within our Carbon Reduction and Regenerative Practice Plan.
Sheppard Robson
We first published our Sustainability and Innovation Charter in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic as a public pledge to prioritise sustainable recovery. The charter includes a summary of our interpretation of our industry commitments and the sustainable development principles that we subscribe to. Drawing on our exemplar projects, the document outlines seven key tenets which shape our work and thinking. In 2022, we updated the charter to strengthen, refocus and reflect on how we’ve responded to these tenets since 2020, and to keep ourselves accountable to the commitments made. It is available on our website to download, and we are committed to reviewing and updating the document every three years. As a practice, we are committed to not losing sight of, or failing to focus on, our responsibility to combat climate change.
Grain Architecture
We believe that it is our duty to consider multiple generations into the future and the long-term impacts of each decision we make on all species. We don’t just talk about this, we actively prioritise and promote materials that can be reused again and again, recycled and ultimately composted to feed rather than poison the future planet. First and foremost, we question what building work is necessary, recognising the significant impact of construction.
Secondly, we prioritise improving the energy efficiency of what is already there through responsible retrofit and intelligent spatial design. Where new buildings are needed, we not only build to high- performance standards, but also design for adaptation, resilience, deconstruction, and reuse, causing minimal harm by using low-carbon, non-toxic, renewable, bio-based materials, without ‘waste’.
We do this to enable people to live low- impact lifestyles that focus on regenerating community and biodiversity health, creating a planet where life thrives.
Assemble
Our mission, vision and values emphasise climate alongside spatial and social justice as our core ambition. Our collective purpose document states: We work cooperatively to make the built environment more generous, more equitable, and more careful towards people and the planet. We do this through design, construction, organisation, advocacy, education, and communication. We make good work, and work which does good.
MATT+FIONA
Our stated mission is to trust and support children and young people to make more inclusive and representative places and spaces. As part of this, we recognise the long-term thinking that is required about the Climate Emergency and how youth voices are important in spotlighting these issues. While we do not have a formalised theory of change, central to our work is supporting young people to be informed and active citizens with the tools to understand the impact that the built environment has on accelerating climate breakdown.
Nested Living
We are regenerating for a new way of living. Many individuals and businesses are stuck in the past, clinging to outdated 20th-century linear, mechanistic methods, applying sustainability or social practices as an add-on to their narrow models. Through our regenerative living approach, we co-create the conditions in our living environments for life to flourish. Nature takes centre stage as we educate, inspire, and revolutionise mindsets towards a whole new way of living. Pioneering a holistic life-centred design approach, we apply our Regenerative Living Framework to heal our associations with ‘place’; to reimagine the places we live, work and play in; to reconnect with nature; restore ecosystems and reunite communities, collectively enhancing the health of people, place and planet. We have a green policy that we are following and are currently writing a manifesto to update our roadmap.
Studio 8FOLD
By 2050, an additional 2.1 billion people will need water, food, shelter, sanitation, education, and more. What does this world look like? How dense can we go? What about the rural lands that support our cities? How do we do this while going beyond protecting – and begin regenerating – the planet? Disruptive technologies are transforming the way we inhabit the world and lead our lives, and design must engage. We believe that starting with infrastructure at a neighbourhood scale can expand to a planetary shift, where we move from living on a planet to living with our planet. Design is the art of synthesis across all disciplines, and with the right strategy has the ability to tackle our challenges of tomorrow. Albert Einstein said, “A problem cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created it.” Studio 8FOLD is driven to innovate and create meaningful change through design and strategy.
