As regenerative architecture gains traction across the built environment, attention is shifting away from abstract theories towards tangible examples that demonstrate how design can actively restore ecological and social systems. Unlike conventional sustainability, which focuses on minimising harm, regenerative design aims to leave places better than they were before – environmentally, culturally and socially.

Biomimicry and Indigenous knowledge sit at the heart of this shift. By learning from nature’s forms, processes and cycles, and by drawing on long-held cultural practices that embed regeneration into everyday life, designers are discovering new ways to respond to climate, biodiversity loss and community wellbeing.

Four distinct examples – from internationally recognised architectural projects to culturally embedded native land practices – illustrate how regenerative thinking can redefine design across vastly different scales, contexts and geographies.

1. Quadracci Pavilion, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA: Architecture shaped by natural movement

Quadracci Pavilion by Santiago Calatrava.jpg — *Quadracci Pavilion by Santiago Calatrava (Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Art Museum)*

The Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum stands as a powerful example of how biomimicry can influence architectural form and performance. Designed by Spanish architect and sculptor Santiago Calatrava, the iconic 43,000sqm building overlooking Lake Michigan stands out for its dramatic, wing-like ‘brise soleil’, which functions as a dynamic sun-shading device that opens and closes throughout the day. Featuring a wingspan of about 66 metres and weighing more than 80 tonnes, the giant sails incorporate 72 steel fins of varying lengths, each embedded with sensors to monitor wind speed and direction.

Often compared to a bird’s wings, the brise soleil’s design is inspired by natural movement. Beyond an impressive architectural feature that completes the building form, the kinetic structure, according to the architect, “responds to the culture of Lake Michigan: the sailboats, the weather, the sense of motion and change”.[1]

By controlling daylight and solar exposure, the structure reduces the building’s reliance on energy and artificial lighting while enhancing visitor experience through indoor comfort. By responding, adjusting and interacting with natural elements, the building becomes a living system that adapts to its environment instead of resisting it, embodying a key principle of regenerative thinking.

2. The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK: Learning from soap bubbles

Eden Project by Grimshaw2.jpg — *The Eden Project | Grimshaw | Photography: Sealand Aerial Photography, Hufton + Crow*

Few projects capture the essence of biomimicry as clearly as the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. Developed within a former china clay quarry, the project transformed a heavily degraded industrial landscape into a thriving natural habitat.

Since the quarry was still operational during the design phase, the constantly shifting landscape presented significant challenges to Grimshaw’s architects who turned to nature for guidance. The project’s iconic biome structures were inspired by soap bubbles – natural forms that efficiently create geometries against each other while adapting to irregular conditions. The biomes are lightweight and transparent geodesic domes that are interconnected, flexibly respond to the uneven terrain of the site, and house ecosystems from different geographies and climates.

Described by Grimshaw as “an example of successful placemaking”[2], the Eden Project exemplifies regenerative thinking through its broader ambition of restoring ecological function to a damaged, uninhabitable site, supporting biodiversity, and fostering greater understanding of natural systems. Beyond biomimicry, the project presents a lesson about how nature solves problems through adaptation, reframing architecture as a participant in ecological regeneration.

3. Emu eggs and the night sky: Indigenous regenerative design in practice

The Emu in the Sky.JPG — *The Emu in the Sky (photo courtesy of Dr John Goldsmith/celestialvisions.com.au) Source: https://www.wasp.edu.au/*

Indigenous cultural practices offer some of the most advanced regenerative learnings handed down over thousands of years through oral traditions. One such example is the traditional harvesting of emu eggs guided by the appearance of the Emu constellation in the night sky. This practice is deeply regenerative: By collecting eggs only during a specific period when the emu shape in the sky has a particular orientation indicating the breeding season of emus on land, Aboriginals ensure their food gathering meets community needs without impacting the health of emu populations. The system balances human use with ecological renewal, embedding sustainability not as a policy, but as a lived cultural process.

In the built environment, this translates into designing with Country. It requires listening to Traditional Owners, understanding seasonal rhythms, and creating co-design processes based on shared ownership rather than consultation. Regenerative architecture informed by Indigenous knowledge may influence planting strategies, material sourcing, water systems or ecological restoration beyond a site’s boundary. In the regenerative design context, the ‘emu in the sky’ example challenges architects to rethink their projects, not as designing buildings but as creating a process – one that aligns human activity with natural cycles and age-old knowledge systems that have sustained lands and communities for millennia to guide contemporary design thinking.

4. A green roof for endangered butterflies: Architecture as ecological infrastructure

Woodleigh Regenerative Futures Studio - Green roof.jpg — *The Woodleigh Regenerative Futures Studio | McIldowie Partners Architects | Landscape: Sam Cox Landscape | Photography: Earl Carter*

At a much smaller scale, a recent project involving a specially designed green roof illustrates how regenerative outcomes can be embedded within everyday architecture. Located in Victoria, Australia, the Regenerative Futures Studio at Woodleigh School[3] provides a dynamic learning environment with a regenerative focus. Designed by McIldowie Partners Architects in collaboration with Joost Bakker, the building combines sustainable and recycled materials with prefabricated assembly to create a near-zero waste construction process.

Beyond its solar panels and pollution-filtering materiality, the building includes a green roof that not only reduces the use of concrete but also delivers superior acoustic and thermal insulation for indoor comfort. However, what’s unique about the green roof is the carefully planned planting scheme, which supports endangered native butterflies that travel overhead as part of their migratory path but lack a sufficient habitat to breed. The native plant species provide a protected habitat not only to these butterflies but also bees and birds, effectively making the building a part of a broader ecosystem.

Instead of merely reducing environmental impact, the project actively restores biodiversity and contributes to species survival. It also creates opportunities for occupants to engage with regenerative outcomes directly, as they measure the impact of the presence of butterflies, going beyond conventional metrics of post-occupancy evaluation to getting insights about how regenerative design can be achieved through relatively modest but ecologically-driven interventions.

Conclusion

Taken together, these four examples reveal the breadth of regenerative architecture and biomimicry, spanning iconic cultural buildings, large-scale environmental restoration, Indigenous land practices and finely tuned architectural interventions. Beyond these, innovators are working on reef support infrastructure inspired by the lattice-type forms of natural reef structures to create protected ocean habitats for coral and other species, and low carbon concrete products that replace cement and steel with industrial waste by-products.

What unites them is not style or scale, but mindset. Each example demonstrates a shift away from linear thinking towards cyclical systems, responsiveness and long-term value. They show that regenerative design is as much about process as it is about outcome – about understanding why decisions are made and how they contribute to living systems over time. Crucially, these projects also challenge the perception that regenerative design is risky. By learning from nature, testing ideas at appropriate scales and embedding knowledge into practice, regenerative architecture can deliver resilience rather than uncertainty.

This article is based on insights drawn from the session titled Regenerative architecture: Beyond sustainability with biomimicry held as part of the 2025 Sustainability Summit.

References:

[1] https://mam.org/info/architecture/quadracci-pavilion/

[2] https://grimshaw.global/projects/culture-and-exhibition/the-eden-project-master-plan/

[3] https://www.mcildowiepartners.com.au/woodleigh-futures-studio

Main image: Quadracci Pavilion by Santiago Calatrava (Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Art Museum)

Architecture & Design Team

Let’s connect!