Regenerative Metropolis Symposium 2026: Regenerative Economics Sessions

This opening session establishes the ecological and economic context for the day by asking a foundational question: What must change for our buildings, communities, and cities to operate within planetary limits while supporting long-term human and ecological well-being? Dr. Josh Farley, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont, will first define the scale of the planetary climate crisis and examine the ecological limits to continued economic and material growth. Building from this assessment, John Fullerton of Capital Institute will examine the limitations of neoclassical economics and introduce Regenerative Economics—a paradigm that views the economy as an interconnected living system operating within, and dependent upon, the biosphere. David Bollier of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics will then explore the commons as a framework for collectively governing and stewarding shared resources, places, and systems. Together, these keynotes will frame the symposium’s subsequent discussions of regenerative business models, circular material flows, Passive House, deconstruction, prefabrication, community economies, and bioregional development. The session will conclude with a moderated Q&A connecting these foundational ideas to the responsibilities and opportunities of built-environment professionals.

Scaling regenerative design requires rethinking the economic, regulatory, and operational blueprints of the built environment. This session examines three transformative business models through an expanding lens: moving from circular materials to scalable project delivery, and ultimately to macro-level performance economics. The session opens at the material scale with Garrett Benisch (Chief Development Officer, Bioforcetech) presenting the life cycle of OurCarbon, a carbon-negative biochar derived from diverted biosolids. Supported by a NYSERDA grant, this innovation turns costly municipal waste into a carbon-storing concrete aggregate. We will explore policy and market drivers in New York State, demonstrating how circular materials can disrupt extractive, high-carbon industries. Shifting to project-level execution, the focus turns to NYC’s 217,000 rowhouses: a massive decarbonization opportunity hindered by conventional design-bid-build inefficiencies and owner risk. Drawing on extensive lessons learned through practice, Themis Haralabides of reBuild Workshop and John Mitchell of Bldgtyp present a tailored, integrated design-build framework. By streamlining standardized protocols and establishing single-point accountability, this integrated design-build model provides the cost predictability needed to scale deep retrofits citywide. Finally, the session zooms out to system-level economics with a life cycle cost analysis of three residential towers in Greater Vancouver by Tommaso Bitossi And Thomas Bamber of Transsolar KlimaEngineering. Framed through doughnut economics, this presentation critically evaluates whether strict Passive House enclosure mandates deliver optimal climate, financial, and social returns in milder zones. By assessing high-performance façades against embodied carbon, grid conditions, and long-term financial paybacks, the session explores how standards can adapt contextually to maximize system-wide impact.

This panel explores how prefabrication and deconstruction fit into Passive House certification. The panel begins with a case study of single family-homes, sharing why they abandoned prefabrication strategies, but leaned into local partnerships, biobased materials, and architect equity participation to make middle-income single-family Passive House possible. Next, we review the opportunities and risks associated with panelized, off-site fabricated wall systems for multifamily buildings pursuing Passive House. Lastly, we will share the experience of applying the Circular Design and Construction Guidelines (CDCG) published by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) in 2024 - including a candid discussion about challenges and how the definition of success shifts over time. We will conclude with a moderated discussion round between the panelists, exploring both shared lessons and differing experiences in different building types and markets.

This session juxtaposes larger-scale NYC regenerative development against smaller scale regenerative development within a large rural matrix of systems in western Massachusetts. At Alafia in Brooklyn, New York, buildings, open spaces, training, and employment programs are all part of a masterplan, coordinated by Dattner Architects, to provide a healthy and environmentally sustainable community. The 25 acre, 2400 unit, development builds upon best practices in resiliency and sustainability to create a model project for responsible density in New York’s coastal communities. Sustainable elements include site-wide reduced energy consumption through Passive House Design for all residential buildings, which will not only reduce energy use, but improve indoor air quality, provide a better, healthier environment for residents, and deliver buildings that stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Geothermal, solar, and stormwater management components are integrated throughout the campus. The presentation is intended to highlight the design of the Alafia Maintenance Hub, the containerized trash & recycling facility that collects multiple waste streams from the Alafia development to be housed in a central location for DSNY pickup. The presentation will share how biowaste and organics are handled across the campus, demonstrate how large-scale planning can incorporate waste management strategies in a meaningful way, and how integration of Passive House can allow for deeper conversations around holistic sustainability and resiliency strategies. The second project, guided by Passive to Positive, is the development of a nascent regenerative, community economic network, shepherded by collaborative efforts of cultural, community, ecological, regenerative economic, and indigenous tribal leaders together with Passive House/bio-based building designers in western Massachusetts. The collaborators aspire to enact regenerative community economics, by weaving together their individual contributions and shared projects into a regenerative practitioner network, a rural reciprocity hub, regional regenerative enterprises, and models of collective ownership and peer-governance. This project attempts to lay the groundwork for a bio-regionally based regenerative economic network and practice. Goal: bio-regional community development with appropriately scaled community housing, cultural richness, and reciprocal obligation, ultimately inspiring for and replicable by neighboring rural communities within the bio-region.

Regenerative design is a growing approach within architecture and the built environment. Precisely defining what the term means and unpacking its component parts is essential to implementing the strategy successfully. Corey Squire and John Fullerton have each played a defining role in shaping this conversation in their fields: Corey Squire within architectural practice, and John Fullerton within the sphere of economics. Corey Squire is currently helping develop the AIA's forthcoming definition of regenerative design, making his perspective central to how the profession will formally understand and apply the term going forward. Fullerton, a respected economist and the author of the book Regenerative Economics: Revolutionary Thinking for a World in Crisis, brings his eight-element definition of regeneration, developed as a systems and ecosystem construct rooted in how living systems achieve balance, resilience, and long-term health. This session will draw out the points of alignment between these and other definitions, including definitions native to architecture and native to economics, and explore ways to evaluate them, broadening and deepening the field's shared understanding of regenerative design. Key elements from these diverse definitions will be synthesized to help attendees apply these principles directly to the built environment.