Beau Lotto of Hummingbird Learning Lab, Piers Taylor of Invisible Studio and Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects are hosting an interactive brainstorm at Regenerative Design 2026, exploring how to help clients get radical projects off the ground and challenge the conventions that hinder collaborative, regenerative design.
From left to right: Beau Lotto from the Hummingbird Learning Laboratory, Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects, and Piers Taylor of Invisible Studio.
For the last 12 months the Hummingbird Learning Lab has been working with Architecture Today to work up a brief for a learning space that reflects its neuroscience-grounded approach to education and community engagement, and to run a competition to select a design team from the Regenerative Architecture Index. Having selected two practices, its founder – neuroscientist, educator and client Beau Lotto – now faces the very real challenge of facilitating and funding collaborative work.
Piers Taylor heads up Invisible Studio, one of the practices selected by Hummingbird Learning Lab. He has extensive experience of helping charities and community groups to get visionary projects off the ground and is in the process of writing a book about collaboration.
Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects is currently involved in five projects at this critical early stage, including the International Biosphere School, a project Marks Barfield won in another competition organised by Wildheart Animal Sanctuary in collaboration with the Regenerative Architecture Index and Architecture Today.
Beau Lotto, Piers Taylor and Julia Barfield will be discussing the challenges and opportunities involved in getting collaborative projects off the ground, and ensuing that they are funded, set up and managed in a way that unlocks the radical potential collaborative, regenerative design.
The workshop, which takes place between 8.30 and 11.30 am on Tuesday 27th October at the Building Centre in central London, will explore key challenges including:
- How architects can help clients get projects off the ground without undermining the value of their work
- How to establish and nurture working relationships that foster creativity and collaboration without duplicating effort and costs
- How to challenge the siloed working and adversarial culture enshrined on traditional models of appointment, procurement and insurance
- How to arrive at a schedule of deliverables and, crucially, fee payments, that represents a just reward for all parties, while acknowledging the realities of fund-raising, financing and phased delivery
- How to incentivise all parties to work together to minimise costs and carbon, and deliver the best possible results
Members of the audience are invited to share their own challenges, problems and experiences, as the panel explores ideas about how to organise and manage the project in a way that does justice to the client’s regenerative ambitions.
Launched by Architecture Today, Regenerative Design 2026 is a month-long programme of exhibitions and events that takes place at the Building Centre throughout October 2026.
