Architects Declare’s Next Gen Ambassadors present: Regenerative Design – What Now?

Free

Glass Room
The Building Centre, London

What does it look like when a generation of architects witness their profession fundamentally change over the course of their training – and, more importantly, what happens when we stop waiting for the industry to catch up and start changing it ourselves?

On Thursday 29th October, Architects Declare’s Next Gen Ambassadors will bring Regenerative Design 2026 to a close with Regenerative Design 2026: What Now?, a conversation bringing together voices from the emerging generation of architects and designers who are championing alternative sustainable practice.

Chaired by Eimear Kernan and Architecture Today’s Nelly Greig, the event will explore how collective action, new forms of practice and student-led initiatives can challenge established approaches to architecture and help shape a different future for the discipline.

The panel reflects the breadth of activity already taking place beyond the conventional structures of architectural practice. Tipping Point East, whose approach demonstrates the potential of collective action to address the environmental and social challenges facing the built environment, will ask what can happen when architects work collaboratively across disciplines, communities and scales, rather than relying on individual practice to deliver change.

The organisers of this year’s European Architecture Students’ Assembly, will bring a students perspective to the discussion. EASA provides a particularly relevant example of architecture’s next generation organising itself around shared questions and concerns, creating spaces for experimentation, exchange and collective learning outside traditional educational structures. Their contribution will consider how young architects at the star of their careers can become active agents in shaping the future of the profession rather than simply its future employees.

Rory Thomas has been invited to present his work on Umarell; an architectural publication that highlights radical projects in architecture and adjacent disciplines, offering another perspective on how alternative mediums can reinforce regenerative principles which can be translated into action.

Together, the speakers will demonstrate that there is no single route towards a more regenerative architecture – but that meaningful change depends on questioning the assumptions, structures and practices that have brought the profession to its current position.

The discussion takes as its starting point a simple but urgent proposition: “The status quo is unsustainable.” For the Next Gen Ambassadors, the question is therefore not whether architecture needs to change, but how the next generation can help make that change happen.

The event will conclude with the launch of Future Ancestors, a new resource from Architects Declare’s Next Gen Ambassadors. Bringing together examples of best practice and practical information, the resource aims to help students apply regenerative design principles to university projects and, ultimately, to professional practice.

In partnership with: