Learning from living systems – regenerative principles in practice

In this article, Oliver Broadbent and James Norman explore the concept of regenerative design and its goal of ensuring that humans and living systems can survive, thrive and co-evolve. The authors explain how structural engineers can learn from the living world to inform the mindsets that should guide their designs. The article considers three characteristics of thriving living systems, and uses these to propose five ways in which structural engineers can start to change the way they design to shift the built environment system towards this new regenerative goal.