What on EARTH is Regenerative Home Design?
Sustainable design is now considered obsolete by many in the industry. Trying to prevent further damage to the environment through sustainable design is like applying a band-aid to a bullet wound. A more forward-thinking approach is necessary. Regenerative home design holds the key to our future by reversing ecological damage, repairing what has been lost, and contributing to a positive impact on the environment and our health.
In this first post of the Regenerative Home Design series, I discuss what regenerative design is, why it’s crucial that humanity shifts its relationship to the built environment, and I offer examples of regenerative design in practice.
A Little Too Little, A Little Too Late
The global energy crisis of the 70’s was the housing industry’s first rude awakening to our dependency on the finite resources of the planet. The United States responded by mandating all new homes to meet a new code of energy efficiency.
Though the original energy efficiency campaign was well-intentioned, there was still tremendous misunderstanding of how a home functions as a whole system. The outcome led to unhealthy homes with chemicals trapped inside a tightly sealed building envelope. This was the advent of Sick Building Syndrome, and our first glimpse into the way our health is impacted by our homes.
Learn more about how your home might be making you sick in our Sick Home Series HERE.
Meanwhile, in Germany, Green architecture was born, focusing on alternative energy sources, such as solar power, and the use of natural materials, such as wood, stone, and rammed earth, that limit adverse effects on the environment.
Sustainable design emerged in the 90’s and took Green Design one step further by including societal, economic, and technological variables with the intention of mitigating further damage to the planet.
The problem with these well-intentioned design techniques is that they only act as a band-aid to the damage already done. Sustainability practices aim to achieve less bad ways to design and build buildings, but the problem is that they stop at sustaining. It’s no longer enough to simply sustain the natural environment. We must seek to regenerate what has been lost!
Read full blog...https://www.pippinhomedesigns.com/you-inspired-living/regenerative_design
