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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Net-zero impacts in sustainable architecture

between materialized form and its flexibility and with the land. This utopian green ideology is also a call
adaptability in programs for present and future users to arms for protecting certain territories and national
and the environment. Ultimately, in a Western context, resources against invasions (Segers & Weisskircher, 2022).
regenerative architecture strives to enrich architectural Such environmental views are often inconsistent with
discourse and practice by initiating a qualitative and the realities of modern ecological problems, where the
creative interdisciplinary design process. distrust of science and experts also results in opposition
to government intervention and regulation should they
6. Regenerative architecture is not a contradict the idealized vision of the natural world (Delft,
panacea 2017).

The term “regenerative” should never be used uncritically. Climate change denial by extremist groups may also
While it provides a useful lens for examining the limits of be motivated by political or economic interests, such as
sustainable practice and moving beyond them to identify those of the fossil fuel industry, which fund climate change
processes or practices that promote healing, renewal, denial campaigns from all aspects of the political spectrum
or restoration of the environment to a better or more to resist the social and economic changes implicit in green
original condition through a process of improvement energy developments (Lockwood, 2018). In this manner, the
or revitalization of nature, it is inseparable from a etymological root of “regenerative” that stems from genus
more idealistic or visionary dimension. Etymologically, (“race, kind”) is particularly attractive to extremist political
“regenerative” is derived from the word regeneratus, the groups in the advancement of nativist ideological concepts,
past participle of the Latin is regenerare, i.e., re- means both as propaganda and in parliaments. Infamously, mid-
“again,” and generare is to “bring forth, beget, produce,” twentieth-century German National Socialism (Nazis)
which is also related to genus – meaning “race, kind.” took their nationalist ideology to an extreme, using the
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Overall, it implies to “bring something forth again.” In that term “degenerate” to describe certain groups of people,
sense, the term “regenerative” implies a future society or such as Jews, Romas, homosexuals, and people with
state of the world where systems and processes are designed disabilities, who were forcibly isolated, persecuted, and
and operated in ways that possess fundamentally utopian murdered in concentration camps to “cleanse” the German
elements that indicate a trajectory that is significantly better population of their perceived racial impurities. In a
contemporary context, far-right subcultures such as eco-
than the present.
fascism are also imbued with white superiority and ideas
In practice, while such utopian projects are inspirational, of racial purity, regarding migration and multiculturalism
they are not implementable since not all members of as a source of “parasites” that contaminate the purity of
society will agree on every aspect of the development, so the established natural order and are used to justify acts of
their realization is impossible to achieve. Utopian visions extreme violence (Campion, 2021; Dyett & Thomas, 2019).
are, however, useful when considered judiciously in
striving toward a common ideal by providing a coherent 7. Post-humanity and regenerative
vision of possibility. For agreements to be reached that architecture
prioritize global environmental concerns over national The most extreme view of regenerative architecture,
interests requires a conceptual cooperative framework viewed through the lenses of new materialism and post-
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that transcends national borders and acts as a system for humanism, has the potential to conflate the natural and
developing environmental policies and agreements that constructed worlds, challenging established notions of the
ultimately result in significant overall improvements in natural order of living things. Inhabiting a liminal zone
how people live. However, environmentalism also has a between life and non-life, organism and ecology, mind and
complex, well-recognized relationship with nationalism, body, technology and nature, art and science, the liveliest
where utopian ideals become obligations that vary expressions of regenerative architecture acquire the status
according to political, social, and cultural contexts
(Posocco & Watson, 2022; Segers & Weisskircher, 2022). 10 Regeneration’s counterpoint “degenerate” implies something
is below a normal or desirable level and often refers to
Extremist ideologies often use environmental rhetoric physical or moral qualities.
to promote a nostalgic vision of the past and develop a 11 New Materialism is a philosophical and cultural movement
romanticized relationship with nature that looks to an that emerged in the early 21st century, challenging traditional
idealized or “pure” state of natural affairs (Forchtner, 2020; understandings of materiality and the relationship between
Hughes et al., 2022). This may be expressed through the matter, objects, and humans. It recognizes that matter
possesses agency and emphasizes the mutually shaping and
preservation of natural landscapes, upholding traditional interdependent relationships between humans and non-
rural lifestyles, and celebrating a perceived connection human entities.

Volume 6 Issue 1 (2024) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1882