Hybrid: live audience + moderator onsite at Beanfield Centre with virtual panelists

Sponsored by Brampton Brick

As we collectively search for meaningful solutions to the urgent climate crisis, looking inward at how the built environment is conceived and constructed holds important answers. With some estimates suggesting buildings are responsible for nearly 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, the architecture profession has a duty to the public to find better ways to build. While “sustainability” and “net-zero” have been foregrounded as the gold standard, some thought leaders are reaching further and calling for an orientation instead toward “regeneration” and “net-positive,” where human-made environments have a beneficial impact for people and planet. This approach sees all humans—and their actions—as integral to the complex living and non-living natural systems that support them.

To this end, the OAA’s Conference Plenary panel discussion will focus on the topic of regenerative architecture and design. This topic enters into a dialogue with the 2021 Plenary discussion, The Value of Zero: Investing in Carbon-Free Design, but extends the conversation further, challenging attendees to shift their own thinking beyond the limits of net-zero alone.

Learning Objectives:

1. Be familiar with the core principles of regenerative architecture and design.
   
2. Be familiar with how these principles can be applied by those in the architecture profession.
   
3. Understand the benefits and challenges of a regenerative design approach.
   
4. Develop increased sustainability literacy
   

Click here to register for in-person or virtual options.

Speakers:

Craig Applegath

Architect, urban designer, and zero-carbon building pioneer, Craig is a founding partner of DIALOG, a multidisciplinary architecture, engineering, interior design, planning, and urban design services firm. Trained first as a biologist and then as an architect and urban designer, he is passionate about finding planning and design solutions that make sense in a world challenged by climate change and environmental deterioration.

Craig has focused on leading complex, sustainable planning, and design projects since he graduated from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University with a Master of Architecture in Urban Design. He is internationally recognized for his design and advocacy of zero-carbon regenerative buildings and cities, as well as mass timber design. An OAA Past-President, he is a founding board member of Sustainable Buildings Canada, a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), and an honourary member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA).

Beyond his professional practice responsibilities, Craig speaks about his research and design explorations at conferences and workshops around the world. He's presented at a number of conferences, including the UN Habitat III Conference in Prague, the World Future Council Conferences in Munich and Beijing, and the International Living Futures Institute Conference in Portland. Craig also hosts the Twenty First Century Imperative, a podcast that explores the question of how we will continue to live on our planet without destroying our biosphere.

Nina-Marie Lister

Nina-Marie is Professor and Graduate Director at the School of Urban & Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson), where she founded and directs the Ecological Design Lab, and is Visiting Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She holds the 2021 Margolese National Design for Living Prize and is Senior Fellow at Massey College in Toronto, having served on the OAA’s 2022 Design Excellence Jury. Lister is co-editor of Projective Ecologies and The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability, and has authored more than 100 scholarly research and professional practice publications. Her work has been featured in international design competitions and in critical, creative exhibitions, including the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale as a collaborator on Canada’s entry, EXTRACTION. She serves the community in practice through various board appointments, including as a member of the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel and advisor to the Biophilic Cities Network. Through applied research, teaching and creative practice, Lister’s work advances landscape connectivity and green infrastructure, connecting people to nature in cities.

Michael Pawlyn

Michael Pawlyn has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high-performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy. The company has developed a ground-breaking office project, an ultra-low energy data centre, a zero waste textiles factory, and progressive solutions for green cities.

Prior to setting up Exploration, Michael worked with Grimshaw for 10 years and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project. He is regularly booked as a keynote speaker on innovation and his TED talk, “Using Nature’s Genius in Architecture,” has had more than 2 million viewings.

Michael jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project—the latest version of which was opened by the King of Jordan in 2017. In 2019 he co-initiated Architects Declare a Climate & Biodiversity Emergency, which has spread internationally, with more than 7,000 companies signing up to addressing the planetary crisis.

Since 2018, he has been increasingly providing advice to national governments and large companies on transformative change. His book Biomimicry in Architecture has been RIBA Publications’ best-selling title. His latest book, titled Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Sarah Ichioka, was published by Triarchy Press in December 2021.

Shawn Micallef (Moderator)

Shawn Micallef is the author of Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness, Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, and The Trouble With Brunch: Work, Class and the Pursuit of Leisure. He’s a weekly columnist at the Toronto Star, and a senior editor and co-owner of the independent, Jane Jacobs Prize–winning magazine Spacing. Shawn teaches at the University of Toronto and was a 2011–2012 Canadian Journalism Fellow at Massey College. In 2002, while a resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, he co-founded [murmur], the location-based mobile phone documentary project that spread to over 25 cities globally.