User Centered Design is an approach to architecture that places the needs and preferences of the end users at the center of the design process. This involves conducting research to learn about demographic, makeup, behaviors, and the preferences of people who use the space. The goal is to create buildings and spaces that are functional, accessible, safe, and appealing to the people who use them. Inclusive public spaces are critical for creating communities that are welcoming, safe and equitable for all individuals. These spaces may play a critical role in promoting social cohesion, reducing discrimination, and building stronger relationships among diverse groups of people. By considering the needs of people with different physical abilities, we can design spaces that are more accessible, and by considering the needs of families with children, architects can design spaces that are safe and appealing for children to play in. User Centered Design can lead to higher levels of user satisfaction and a sense of ownership and responsibility for the spaces that they actually use and care about.

Natural materials are found in nature and can be used for structure elements, roofs, insulation, external and internal cladding or furniture. Renewable materials are those that can be easily replenished, such as timber, fax, cork, hemp, cob, stroke, grasses, salt, bamboo and seaweed. Non renewable materials should be natural and abundant, such as stone, earth, clay, sand or organic slightly processed materials. Biogenic materials sequester carbon and absorb more CO2 than they produce in extraction and manufacturing. Recently, there has been an approach to natural materials that focuses on innovation in cultivating, breeding, raising farming or growing future resources, such as wood foam, bio polymers, and fungal mycelium. These materials are cost effective, biodegradable, and have high insulation properties, flame resistance, and a favorable indoor climate

Designing for climates is the process of designing spaces that are well adapted to the local climate and weather conditions, with the goal of minimizing the building's energy consumption, maximizing indoor comfort, and reducing the negative impacts on the environment. Climate plays an important role in shaping human settlement, as it affects a ways people interact with the environment and the types of buildings and infrastructure that are required to support their needs. Contextual design and place-based design includes the spirit of place, also referred to as a genius loci, which focuses on the unique identity of place and its local natural systems, landscaping and environment. An example of this is the Danish vernacular wing houses and half timber houses, which were designed to withstand the harsh weather conditions in Denmark and were orientated with S facades or SW facades to maximize solar gain and minimize exposure to prevailing winds. Climate is affected by latitude, distribution of land and sea wind systems as well as the altitude of the location, and microclimates refer to the specific conditions and the immediate vicinity of a site such as wind patterns, temperature fluctuations and exposure to sunlight.

Distinct from sustainable design, regenerative architecture reverses ecological damage and seeks a net-positive environmental impact. Transitioning from sustainability to regeneration, architects question how to not only use limited resources but also restore them. This approach fosters resilience to natural challenges, providing a progressive solution to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

The regenerative design process employs systemic thinking and involves integrating the natural world as both the inspiration and generator for architectural designs. It encompasses two essential aspects: minimizing environmental impacts through conscious material choices, reduced energy consumption, and intelligent design; and treating the environment as an equal partner in the architectural process. By understanding natural and living systems deeply, regenerative architecture embraces millions of years of evolution and engineering, creating structures that harmoniously coexist with their surroundings.

By embracing regenerative architecture, the construction industry can shift from minimizing harm to actively benefiting the environment, aligning design with nature's principles and promoting a more sustainable, prosperous future.

Your project should never contribute to tipping points and ecological or climate breakdown. Instead, use your design to identify how you can positively impact the planet and restore some of the previous damage done. This means redirecting current human-centric design approaches towards an inclusive, biodiverse, restorative future using the principles of radical inclusivity, biophilia and topophilia. We should strive towards an approachable architecture that can be used by different living-beings in different (adaptable) ways. Following these principles steers us towards more ethical professional practices that support planetary health, instead of damaging it.

Designing for the climate emergency is not only about focusing on direct impacts (i.e., reducing energy use and CO2 emissions), but responding to its symptoms, (in)direct causes and often unequal consequences. As architects we also hold a significant responsibility towards the public in our work: we are designing the spatial frameworks in which people live their lives and participate in society. As an architect you have a moral obligation to make better decisions, even if you are not rewarded for doing so. This requires a commitment to continuous research, conscious decision-making, curiosity, and creativity to innovate and to challenge the often damaging and unfair status quo. It also requires an in-depth understanding of questions of fairness and justice related to one’s own work.

As architects we have the moral responsibility to work beyond the brief and be critical about clients’ wishes or aspirations which might perpetuate (social, spatial or climate) injustices. To take into consideration international justice & intergenerational ethics you should commit to social, spatial and climate justice. To do this, design for resilience, adaptability and inclusivity. To take in consideration human and non-human relationships, each project should commit to restorative and regenerative design, centred around the principles of radical inclusivity, biophilia and topophilia.

The United Nations established 17 interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to underpin sustainable development with the idea to protect the planet, end poverty and ensure people can enjoy peace and prosperity. All 17 goals are relevant to your architecture project, and in your project you must ensure that you understand their interconnections and relevance to your project and how you can use the goals to understand your responsibility as an architect. At the same time also be aware that the UN SDGS are still based on operating within the current socio-economic growth principles. Instead, the goal of the economy (or human activity in general) should not be to grow but to thrive within planetary boundaries. Your project should explore how we can thrive within our planetary boundaries.

Designing for vague ‘future generations’ mainly focuses on the use of resources and the environmental impact of our actions and does not clarify who we design for today, in the present, nor who will be impacted in the future. In your project, you need to unfold why you design and who for. This includes: the local user, the public, the non-human and nature but also a global responsibility towards people, non-humans and nature further away, and ultimately our planet. We introduce the concept of ‘care’ which recognises and embraces our (inter)dependence, connection and responsibility towards others at its heart, including the non-human. This profoundly challenges the (modernist) ideal of an independent, visionary architect who only designs for themselves. But without this care, empathy and solidarity towards the user we cannot have truly sustainable architecture.

You must always prioritise passive cooling strategies before considering active cooling. Key passive cooling strategies that you should include in your project at the building scale:

• Ensure all sources of overheating are tackled first and risks minimised.

• Green and blue infrastructure at different scales.

• Social infrastructure and provision of ‘cool zones’.

• Reducing internal heat gains and understanding occupant behaviour.

• Building design that reduces the need for cooling through greenery, efficient fabric, reflective surfaces, solar shading, purge ventilation, self-shaded built form and courtyards, thermal mass and careful window design.

Ensure climate justice as part of any passive and active cooling approach: everyone has the right to access cool spaces in summer.

The Gando Primary School was built to expand the sparse network of schools in the province of Boulgou, in the east of Burkina Faso, and addressed two characteristic problems of many educational buildings in the area: poor lighting and ventilation. In order to achieve sustainability, the project was based on the principles of designing for climatic comfort with low-cost construction, making the most of local materials and the potential of the local community, and adapting technology from the industrialized world in a simple way. Underlying the project was a strong didactic component: it was designed as an exemplar that would raise awareness in the local community of the merits of traditional materials, updated with simple techniques that would need few new skills. The school building includes three volumes, each containing a classroom measuring 7 x 9 metres, connected by a single roof make up the basic structure of the building, and each one of them accommodates one classroom for fifty students.

Building overheating is an increased risk in a changing climate, and is influenced by outdoor environmental conditions, the design of the building, internal production of heat and occupant behaviour. Overheating affects the health and well-being of people, especially older and vulnerable people and can lead to increased injustices and can cause increased mortality. Key strategies to prevent overheating that you should include in your project is to first and foremost ensure all sources of overheating are tackled first and risks minimised. Then provide green, blue and social infrastructure at macro, meso, and micro-scale (building-scale). The design of the building should also include: light coloured surfaces, careful building form, orientation and design of windows, efficient fabric with summer solar shading and appropriate (night) ventilation strategies.

Passive heating is crucial and desirable in many cold climates and in mild climates in winter time to ensure that thermal comfort is provided with minimal energy use, energy costs and CO2 emissions. This can be provided by capturing the sun’s warmth by good passive solar design (i.e. optimising orientation and window locations) and ensuring that the heat is stored in a well-insulated envelope with good use of thermal mass and passive summer-time cooling strategies to avoid building overheating. Passive heating strategies need to be ‘locked in’ at early stages because it is irreversible over the building’s lifespan.