Memberful
Design

Meet Sarah Ichioka — a firestarter reimagining architecture and cities through regenerative design principles. This episode of Memberful Design takes place in Amsterdam at Momkai, my design studio, where I sat with Sarah Ichioka to explore the intersections of cities, society, and ecology.

Sarah holds degrees from Yale University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Raised in California and based in Singapore, the former director of the Architecture Foundation now collaborates with organizations worldwide on social impact and environmental initiatives through her strategic consultancy Desire Lines. Explore her work (image: Pakhuis de Zwijger) →

In their book, Flourish, Sarah and architect Michael Pawlyn delve into the pressing need to reimagine our world and unlock the transformative potential of regeneration through design. Flourish presents a new foundation for designing buildings, infrastructure, and communities, so we can collectively forge a path forward. Get a copy here or listen to the Flourish podcast →

Sarah: “Fundamentally, the term ‘sustainability’ has become distorted and diluted to the point that it is very often used in service of continuing business as usual.” Sustaining isn’t enough, we need to move towards the net positive and a future that is regenerative. Listen to Sarah’s entire talk on new design paradigms for the climate on YouTube (image: Design Futures Symposium) →

Sarah Ichioka’s co-author Michael Pawlyn is an expert of biomimicry in design. In this inspiring video series by Dezeen, he explores how computational design tools allow architects to mimic the natural world in order to create buildings that positively contribute to the health of the environment (image: Dezeen) →

Michael Pawlyn has been central to many noteworthy architectural designs that center on biomimicry, including the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. This tourist attraction's tropical biome is the largest indoor rainforest in the world, with more than 4,500 different plant species (image: Jonathan Blair, Nat Geo image collection) →

Beyond architecture and flashy buildings, regenerative design enables a thriving ecosystem between humans and nature. ArchDaily explores the many ways that “right” can look like, including this proposal for a modular, vertical farm in the streets of Brooklyn by Framlab (image: Framlab) →

Shared success starts with communities. That’s why Sarah is adamant about supporting younger generations, creating opportunities for them to connect. By building communities centered around productive conversations for change, we can start to make an impact for the future. Explore FranklinTill's nine principles for regenerative design (image: FranklinTill) →

Systems thinking allows us to rethink paradigms for a brighter future. Donella Meadows’ work is especially inspiring for how we can change our mindsets on how to approach the world’s greatest challenges to have the most impact. Her work emphasizes how small changes can lead to significant shifts throughout an entire system. Listen to her influential Down To Earth speech from 1994 (image: BBC) →

Regenerative design isn’t just about having a public garden in your city, it’s about using infrastructure to heal our built environment. A great example is the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul that was reintroduced after being covered by a highway. Explore how architects across the globe are taking action (image: Francisco Anzola/Wikimedia Commons)→

Back when this was still a Dutch language podcast, we welcomed renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf as our guest. This image shows one of his most famous designs: the High Line in New York City — transformed from an old industrial railway into a beautiful 2-mile city park. Dive into the conversation (image: Dansnguyen/Wikipedia) →

Singapore is a great example of how we can build for multi-species living in our urban environments, allowing animals like water birds, otters, and insects to thrive in a crowded city. Explore Singapore’s biodiverse cityscape in its many shapes and forms (image: WOHA) →

Sarah: “Scholar and activist, Dr. Lyla June Johnston completely changed my mind about how we think about ourselves in relation to nature. Her research shows how all of our ancestors at one point survived by becoming a keystone species within their landscapes. But not as those who control and dominate it, but actually those who actively facilitate it for all of life.” Watch her TED talk on 3000 year old solutions to modern problems (image: TED) →

Al Azhar Park in Cairo was transformed from a rubbish dump into a 30-hectare park that receives over 2 million visitors each year. It is now known as the green lung of the city. Its construction took more than 20 years and Al Azhar Park was finally opened to the public in 2005 (image: Wikipedia) →

Janine Benyus is the mother of biomimicry in architecture. In this 3-minute video for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, she explains the basics of biomimicry for design. “Plants have been living on this planet and making it more livable for more than 3 billion years. That’s a lot of R&D” (image: TED)→

An interesting regenerative process in the Netherlands is the work being done with thatch. This has been a revival process that uses materials grown within a close distance. It’s about rediscovering the traditional local knowledge of the materials you have available to you and harnessing those technologies. Continue reading on designboom (image: Boris Zeisser) →

Superuse Studios turns local waste materials into new building solutions. Most designers start with the design first, before figuring out what it will be made of. Superuse Studios turns this around: "We have these components available, how will we build from that?" For this playground, they repurposed decommissioned rotor blades to create a maze-like experience (image: Superuse Studios) →

Under the Ciclovía, or ‘bicycle way’ program, Bogotá, Colombia was one of the first cities in the world to close its main roads every Sunday and public holiday for the exclusive use of bicycles. This is an example of tactical urbanism, where temporary interventions are used to change a city from the inside out (image: Lombana/Wikipedia) →

 In the US today, more pedestrians are getting killed by cars than in decades. Many of these deaths are preventable through better design and planning. In this short video ‘How the Dutch Solved Street Design’, Adam Yates sums up the basic concepts of urban design and traffic engineering that allow cars, cyclists and pedestrians to move around in harmony (image: rawpixel.com) →

Starting in 2008, Times Square was transformed through a series of temporary interventions that calmed traffic and invited people in. Since then, public space has been permanently transformed into a pedestrian-centered space, designed by Snøhetta (image: Snøhetta) →

 "If you can change the street, you can change the world." This is a quote by Janette Sadik-Khan, who was in charge of the transformation of Times Square. She bundled all of her insights into the highly rated ‘Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution’. Find a summary of her approach in Domus (image: Olugbenro Ogunsemore) →

When São Paulo introduced its Clean City Law in 2007, more than 15,000 marketing billboards were taken down. The physical decluttering of the city cleaned up its façade and revealed its hidden parts. It also shields its residents from harmful commercial messaging and constant distraction. Listen to a deep dive on 99% Invisible (image: Tony de Marco) →

Climate movements like Extinction Rebellion are inspired by the work of Harvard scientist Erica Chenoweth, who found that it takes at least 3.5 percent of the population to bring about change. This is called the 3.5 percent rule. Read more on The Economist (image: Vladimir Morozov/akxmedia) →

Community-based initiatives are a way to make an impact by planting small seeds for growth. One opportunity to do this is with Wilde Ganzen, an organization that supports multiple smaller efforts for major impact. It funds smaller projects across the world and supports individuals that want to make an impact. Even a small effort on your end can help someone fly (image: Wilde Ganzen Foundation) →