Page 51 - JCAU-6-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Storytelling in regenerative architecture

Furthermore, storytelling enables the teller to weave environment can support and enhance these traditions
together the different elements of an architectural project and values. We might characterize this type of storytelling,
into a cohesive and compelling narrative. Narrative elements which draws on multidisciplinary perspectives, as one of
from an architectural perspective might include the site, methodological pluralism.
building, materials, technologies, geo-political context, In my practice, storytelling unfolds in a similar way to
the people involved in or affected by the project, and its sketching. A detail is set down, implying a development. In
impact on the environment. By telling the story of how both cases, we take a line for a walk. Decisions are made,
these different elements are interconnected, architects can and a nascent pattern emerges. Knowledge is explored,
design what they might consider an appropriate reception tested, and expressed. We let ourselves be led by the inner
of the project. We might characterize this pedagogic type of logic of the story/sketch. Both sketching and storytelling
storytelling as one of instruction or persuasion. thus serve as complementary design tools in regenerative
In regenerative architecture, storytelling can also architecture. The aim is simultaneously to follow and
foreground the importance of nature and the natural subvert the logic of the line, thereby creating artistic,
systems that support life on Earth. By telling stories critical, and epistemological tension and dynamism.
about the ecological systems on a site, how they have Using stories and narrative principles to guide the
been disrupted by human activity, and how they might design process, architects can create buildings and spaces
be restored and enhanced through regenerative design that are more responsive to the needs of the people and
practices, architects and designers can help raise awareness communities they serve. “Participative design” is one
about the importance of protecting and restoring the practice in which storytelling clearly facilitates the exchange
natural world. We might characterize this ethical/political of expectations and experiences between stakeholders.
type of storytelling as one of (re)configuring values. In telling the story of how an urban intervention might
Regenerative architecture is frequently conceived as support the activities and aspirations of a neighborhood,
a practice of compensation, mitigation, or restoration. architects, and residents can co-create spaces that are
Students often unwittingly deploy the tropes of fall and better adapted to local needs. We might characterize this
redemption as the mythical archetypes underpinning type of storytelling as one of aspiration or even worlding.
regenerative architecture. These tropes imply a certain It is through storytelling that an architect communicates
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narrative arc: (i) Once upon a time, Nature flourished the vision, values, and goals of a site or architectural
(Paradise existed)...(ii) ... until one day, sadly, it became intervention, seeking to inspire and engage people, build
despoiled by industry (the Fall); (iii) regenerative design community, foster a sense of connection to the natural
must restore what has been exhausted and depleted (desire world, and support social and cultural differences. These
for redemption); (iv) after some struggles, ecological forms of storytelling rely on a didactic or mimetic logic,
restoration is achieved (resolution/Paradise is — partly — whereby the explanatory/illustrative arguments operate to
restored, albeit modified). 7 transmit understanding or soft persuasion.
Such a narrative might seed a script development As architects work to create more complex, sustainable,
workshop for the likes of Pixar or Disney, but it is hardly a and resilient built environments, storytelling will become
compelling narrative to inspire the sustained work of design. an increasingly important tool for acknowledging the
For this, we need to think beyond easy oppositions between complexities, contradictions, and uncertainties of projects.
nature as the site of eco-purity confronting industrial This is not the linear logic of problem-solving; it calls for a
capitalism as the agent of despoilation. We have become far more sophisticated concept of storytelling than the merely
too entangled for such consoling simplifications. “illustrative” dimensions that I have outlined above.
Storytelling can help us explore complexities and
contradictions in the communities that will inhabit a 3. Elements of storytelling
building or space, the cultural traditions and values Covering the elements of storytelling in sufficient detail
they bring with them, and the ways in which the built would require a longer paper, one encompassing a broad

6 From 2022–2023 I was course director for the range of considerations such as narration, setting, mood,
Academic Design Office and Master dissertation atmosphere, plot, exposition, structure, weather, metaphor,
studio Architecture for Living on a Damaged Planet at conflict, crisis, resolution, recognition, characterization,
the Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven. point-of-view, voice, speech, dialogue, time, genre, and
7 The (Judeo-Christian) story of the Garden of Eden
portrays a world in which humans lived in harmony more. For the purposes of the present focus on regenerative
with nature, without causing harm or destruction, architecture, I identify the following elements as deserving
before the fall. of particular attention:

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1335