Regenerative Architecture Index “Frontrunner”
24 September 2024
We Made That was selected as one of the 11 ‘frontrunners’ in the inaugural Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI) by Architecture Today and Architects Declare UK. RAI sets out to benchmark practices’ progress in the move towards regenerative working and projects. Sixty-eight organisations – mostly architectural practices but also engineers, charities and clients – participated in the Index, submitting responses to detailed questions in three broad categories: being a good ancestor, co-evolving with nature, and creating a just space for people. The index recognises the need for a built environment that isn’t merely reducing its negative impacts, but has positive impacts for today and the long term.
The Regenerative Architecture Index is concerned with providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. It sets out how design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches.
The Index sought to avoid the trappings of a competitive awards programme and uncover threads of regenerative practice emerging across our industry. All entries were reviewed by ambassadors and leaders of regenerative thinking in the relevant field – with perspectives from a diverse set of people from architecture and non-architecture backgrounds, who challenge preconceptions, suggest ways the Index might evolve and urge the profession to be bolder and more radical in its ambitions.
From establishing a new partnership to support our environmental innovation funded by the Mayor of London as part of the Green New Deal, to a year-long exploration of participatory methods used in urban design practice funded by a research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK and establishing RE—SET—GO, we've been recognised for being at the leading edge of this inaugural group.
Read more in the ‘Compendium of Best Practice’ in the September-October issue of Architecture Today here.
Image: Proposals to turn former station platforms into Rochdale Platform Park, with community facilities and new public space.
