Integrating Ecological Thinking into Design Decision-Making: A Framework for Ecological Regenerative Design

Regenerative and ecological design paradigms have been emerging to assist designers in transitioning toward net-positive impact and place-based design to help ecosystems recover, restore, and regenerate. However, putting these ideas into practice remains challenging. The integration of ecological knowledge into place-based design decision-making is still fragmented, often constrained by disciplinary boundaries and the absence of shared frameworks that allow design and ecological sciences to work from a common basis of understanding and evaluation. In this seminar, I will draw on insights from restoration ecology, historical ecology, and regenerative design to explore pathways for integrating ecological thinking and diverse worlds of data into design workflows across multiple stages of a project, from early ideation through to post-occupancy evaluation. The presentation will outline how ecological and social knowledge sources can be interpreted and translated into design benchmarks and performance indicators to inform decision-making and long-term monitoring. Using case studies and developing work from my doctoral research, I will discuss opportunities and pathways for embedding ecological thinking into place-based design decision-making processes that support ecologically informed design outcomes and more reciprocal relationships between humans and ecosystems.