Reinventing practice
Participating practices in the Regenerative Architecture Index discuss the challenges they face.
Portraits by Timothy Soar
Kieran Hawkins
In Edinburgh’s gritty, ever-changing Leith, a new kind of architecture is taking place. It’s low-tech, hands-on, and entirely regenerative. From hempcrete mixed like porridge to screw-pile foundations and low-carbon concrete, Kieran Hawkins, founder of Cairn, proves that small material changes, collaborative building, and clear values can drive big shifts in how, and why, we build.
Rupert Cook and Socrates Miltiadou
Rupert Cook and Socrates Miltiadou co-lead London practice Miltiadou Cook Mitzman Architects. They talk to AT about their beginnings in construction and stonemasonry and how they translate this experience into regenerative practice.
Barbora Vanek
Barbora Vanek is one of AHMM's five Building Performance Specialists. As the only one based in their Bristol office, she speaks to AT about the privilege of working across such a broad architectural portfolio; from challenges to triumphs.
Stallan-Brand
Based in a former police training academy in Glasgow's Laurieston, Stallan-Brand work in a neighbourhood that has suffered brutal and dislocating changes, but which they are helping to heal and evolve in a gentle and organic way.
New Practice (part of Civic)
By engaging early with clients, being honest about what's possible and embedding co-design throughout the project lifecycle, Glasgow's New Practice (part of Civic) are challenging extractive traditions in a movement towards restorative and regenerative architecture.
Alasdair Ben Dixon
Alasdair Ben Dixon of Collective Works shares why regenerative design is about far more than environmental performance - it's about restoring communities, embracing collaboration over competition and aligning purpose with practice.
Alexander Buck
Buckley Gray Yeoman’s Sustainability Specialist, Alexander Buck, embeds regenerative design into every stage of an architectural project. From rethinking materials, to environmentally responsible AI use, Alexander tells us what it takes to champion systemic change whilst drawing deep inspiration from nature and community.
Jude Barber
Jude Barber and Collective Architecture have been leading the way with Social Sustainability long before it hit the mainstream. Now, as sustainability and inclusivity have become central to regenerative practice, they feel at home in this space, and are continuing to re-shape Glasgow's green future.
Noa Barak
AT speaks to Noa Barak at Sheppard Robson about what it means to be their Sustainable Materials Specialist, the importance of material circularity policy, and the wasted oyster shells she's been monitoring at Broadway Market.
Tom Bennett
Tom Bennett, Director of Studio Bark, speaks to AT about their bespoke carbon analysis tools and U-Build's new acoustic interior partition, 'U-What'.
Tonkin Liu
Tonkin Liu’s studio is shaped by nature. From watching light change over the seasons to collecting seeds on their travels, Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu share how reconnecting with the rhythms of the natural world is key to designing for the long term.
Project Orange
From regenerative design to material rationing, Christopher Ash and James Soane from Project Orange explore the urgent need for a paradigm shift in how we build, renovate, and engage with communities.