Regenerative Design in the Anthropocene: Comparing Ecological Performance, Spatial Experience, and Nature Integration in Four Global Buildings

Abstract

Regenerative design is frequently invoked in architectural discourse without sufficient distinction from green, sustainable, ecological, restorative, and biophilic design. This study clarifies these conceptual boundaries and examines how regenerative principles are expressed across four completed buildings: The Edge, Bosco Verticale, the Bullitt Center, and PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering. A qualitative, document-based comparative multiple-case design was adopted. Evidence was triangulated across peer-reviewed scholarship, official architectural and engineering documentation, certification and technical records, and representative visual material. A four-dimensional analytical framework—comprising environmental performance, material and spatial expression, human well-being and experiential quality, and relationship to nature—was developed from the literature and refined through expert-informed review. The findings indicate that the cases do not represent a single regenerative model. Instead, they combine two overlapping modes: visible ecological integration, expressed through vegetation, natural materials, planted thresholds, and perceptible environmental continuity, and operational ecological integration, expressed through passive performance, adaptive systems, material health, and resource responsibility. Their distribution is mediated by building typology, climate, programme, and design intent. The study contributes a transparent comparative framework for examining regenerative claims while distinguishing documented design strategies from verified environmental performance and occupant outcomes. Its conclusions remain interpretive and require future post-occupancy and longitudinal environmental assessment.