Issue 27: Resilience and Regeneration II

A New Paradigm for Resilience: Regenerative Cities Regenerative Cities

With temperatures on the rise, more cities are trying to keep cool whilst adhering to net zero targets. Cities are also needing to house more people, amid greater resource constraints. Urban solutions need to address these intertwined issues, mitigating environmentally harmful activities as we build resilience against short-term shocks and long-term stressors.

The concept of regenerative cities proposes that urban development should lead to restorative relationships with nature, because it is from nature that the city draws resources. In this issue, I share CLC’s working framework for regenerative cities, applying it across case studies from Singapore, London, and Bangkok.

The 27th issue, Resilience and Regeneration II, is a sequel to the 25th issue, where we started exploring how cities are building climate resilience in the face of multiple urban challenges. We continue that discussion by distilling regenerative cities into three key dimensions.

Systems thinking—Relationships across scale and disciplines

Shirley Rodrigues, former Deputy Mayor of London, shares the need for city governments to work with national and global governments to accelerate innovative policies for climate action. Ravi Menon, Singapore’s Ambassador for Climate Action, underscores the need for regional coordination to build systemic resilience in the face of transboundary risks.

At the city-level, systems thinking acknowledges the interconnected nature of cities. Nirmal Kishnani and Wong Mun Summ, co-programme directors of MSc Integrated Sustainable Design at the National University of Singapore (NUS), posit that planning begins with analysing the exchanges and flows across urban systems. 

Temporality—Harness circular flows through long-term planning

Time as a dimension suggests the need for a whole-of-lifecycle approach to harness circular flows. To enable this, Mayor Takeharu Yamanaka shares how the City of Yokohama embeds circularity principles into governance, effecting change from individual households to partnerships between cities.

Similarly, Rahul Mehrotra, the founder principal of RMA Architects, encourages us to think about transitional design, underpinned by the concept of a kinetic city.

People and the Environment—Interdependencies and mutual importance of social and ecological systems

Freetown, as Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr elucidates, is a testament to the positive impact of community partnerships and nature-based solutions. In Spain, Juan Azcárate and Antonio Morcillo from the Madrid City Council make a compelling case for how the thriving ecological systems of the Madrid Río enable local communities to flourish.

Likewise, Kotchakorn Voraakhom, founder of Landprocess, outlines how the prioritisation of human connectivity and biodiversity at Bangkok’s Thailand Government Complex brought about inviting spaces for enhancing human-nature relationships.

I hope this issue of Urban Solutions will inspire truly resilient and regenerative cities, reconciling the tension between liveability and climate change.

Hugh Lim
Executive Director
Centre for Liveable Cities