Regenerative Design

We go a bit deeper with our Elizabeth and Ben in regards to what regenerative design means for them and the post disaster recovery approach to regenerative design within communities and how architecture can play a part.

Elizabeth McNaughton will tell you, “Her career has quite literally been a series of disasters.”

She has worked in disasters around the globe and made it her mission to learn all she can about resilience and recovery so that she can bring that knowledge to help ‘build forward better’ after disaster and disruption.

Elizabeth has worked for large aid agencies, led disaster recovery efforts, worked within government and has studied disaster leadership.

She led multi-million-dollar recovery programmes for New Zealand Red Cross and was the Executive Director at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet leading work to create a learning legacy from the Canterbury earthquakes.

Ben Preston is an established design consultant specialising in regenerative processes. With years of experience as an engineer working in the sustainable development of communities and the built environment, he utilises design research to explore the patterns that bring vitality to communities and ecosystems, and regenerative design to establish ways of revitalising those patterns.