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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. B. Roös, Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development
Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53234-5_1
Chapter 1
The State of the Planet: From Anthropocene
Dominant to Regenerative-Adaptive Futures
Abstract From the twentieth to the twenty first century humans have passed through a unique
period; one in which the planning, design and construction of the built environment has been almost
un-imaginably bad and unacceptable. The way we have designed and built our cities has resulted in
a degeneration of the earth’s natural systems, now eventuating in unprecedented impacts of a changing climate. The dominant approach to address this planetary issue is to apply sustainable development practices, focusing primarily on reducing damage to nature and aiming for a ‘neutral’ outcome
using resources more efficiently. Ultimately, this practice is only resulting in a mitigation approach
that is just slowing down the degradation of our living earth. Missing from the design, planning and
adaptation practice discourse is a more deeply integrated approach to the design and planning of
human settlements that considers the whole, which moves away from the current view that humans
standing apart from nature, rather than participating, co-evolving and adapting with nature.
Identifying key issues of concern to be dealt with – our human’s affinity to water and unprecedented
coastal development; the challenge of a changing climate with increased natural disasters; the degradation of ecosystems; and the half-hearted attempt by a global anthropogenic and utilitarianism
society to achieve sustainability; this chapter introduces a pattern language approach to deal with
these complexities. The narrative sets out the fundamentals for a more holistic, all encompassing,
integral method, presenting a regenerative- adaptive pattern language for sustainable development,
that re-establishes our wholeness with nature, and considers the vulnerabilities of a changing landscape. Setting in place the typical structure of a pattern language, the chapter concludes with the
fundamental pattern The Whole, [1].
Keywords The whole · Regenerative-adaptive · Earth system · Patterns · Biophysical environment ·
Patten language · Integral · Informed by nature · Sustainability · Climate change
Upward links:
We begin with the part of this [new] pattern language that cannot be simply put into words, but is rather inherently understood by all sentient beings as the non-verbal language of natural attraction, the fundamental truth,
the existence of the web of life. This is a universal form of oneness: all things are connected and all things are
part of The Whole [1].
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. B. Roös, Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development
Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53234-5_1
Chapter 1
The State of the Planet: From Anthropocene
Dominant to Regenerative-Adaptive Futures
Abstract From the twentieth to the twenty first century humans have passed through a unique
period; one in which the planning, design and construction of the built environment has been almost
un-imaginably bad and unacceptable. The way we have designed and built our cities has resulted in
a degeneration of the earth’s natural systems, now eventuating in unprecedented impacts of a changing climate. The dominant approach to address this planetary issue is to apply sustainable development practices, focusing primarily on reducing damage to nature and aiming for a ‘neutral’ outcome
using resources more efficiently. Ultimately, this practice is only resulting in a mitigation approach
that is just slowing down the degradation of our living earth. Missing from the design, planning and
adaptation practice discourse is a more deeply integrated approach to the design and planning of
human settlements that considers the whole, which moves away from the current view that humans
standing apart from nature, rather than participating, co-evolving and adapting with nature.
Identifying key issues of concern to be dealt with – our human’s affinity to water and unprecedented
coastal development; the challenge of a changing climate with increased natural disasters; the degradation of ecosystems; and the half-hearted attempt by a global anthropogenic and utilitarianism
society to achieve sustainability; this chapter introduces a pattern language approach to deal with
these complexities. The narrative sets out the fundamentals for a more holistic, all encompassing,
integral method, presenting a regenerative- adaptive pattern language for sustainable development,
that re-establishes our wholeness with nature, and considers the vulnerabilities of a changing landscape. Setting in place the typical structure of a pattern language, the chapter concludes with the
fundamental pattern The Whole, [1].
Keywords The whole · Regenerative-adaptive · Earth system · Patterns · Biophysical environment ·
Patten language · Integral · Informed by nature · Sustainability · Climate change
Upward links:
We begin with the part of this [new] pattern language that cannot be simply put into words, but is rather inherently understood by all sentient beings as the non-verbal language of natural attraction, the fundamental truth,
the existence of the web of life. This is a universal form of oneness: all things are connected and all things are
part of The Whole [1].