From an existing building complex to a regenerative system: Design strategies to transform an existing architectural project towards ecological regeneration

Abstract

This thesis aims to be part of the solution of the environmental challenges of the construction industry nowadays by moving beyond impact reduction toward architecture as an active contributor to ecological health. It starts with an existing project, Housing and Beyond, an academic exercise that works with the transformation of a school in Tynnered, Gothenburg, into a residential complex focus on community development. The present thesis explores how this project can be transformed to support and become an active contributor to its closer ecosystem through regenerative practices. Regeneration in architecture is defined as an holistic design approach that aims to create projects that works as systems capable not just to sustain themselves, but restoring and revitalizing their specif site. That is, to use the elements and conditions of a project as resources that can enhance and improve the environment, not only offering what is necessary to fulfill human needs but providing a balance between human activities and ecological processes. For that, architects needs multidisciplinary knowledge to be applied since the conception of the project, understanding how the sites´s characteristics can contribute to propose solutions that supports the environment. Therefore, this thesis project presents an exploratory exercise, with a design - based research methodology, where regenerative principles will guide the on-site interventions to transforms Housing and Beyond into a regenerative project. The ecological aspects of regenerative theoretical frameworks are the central focus of this research. In other words, address basic elements of the built environment such as energy, water, and carbon emissions, enriched with biological and ecosystemic approaches. The proposal develop an early stage design, where the strategies respond to specific site conditions and the needs of the existing building complex. The systemic hypothesis will be generated through the analysis and interpretation of datasets, relevant literature review, and expert consultation. However, to generate a final proposal, the system is designed, modeled, and evaluated using computational tools such as Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, QGIS, and Excel. This approach enables early-stage interaction, allowing changes and adaption during the design process. In summary, this research project explores how an existing architectural proposal can be transformed into a regenerative one using multidisciplinary knowledge and existing resources from the site, through specific design strategies aligned to regenerative principles. It proposes to rethink the role of architects and designers as integrators of theories and practices from different fields, managing complexity and translating them into design decisions. In the same way, it explores how existing computational design tools support these processes, their limits and their influence into early-design stages of design.