From Principles to Practice DIGITAL

Resilient and adaptive Baukultur The Davos Baukultur Alliance is committed to cultivating high-quality, liveable places through sustainable, regen- erative and resilient design and development practices. The Alliance’s approach centres culture, well-being, community agency and ecological balance in living envi- ronments. Resilience and climate adaptation, a core focus of the Alliance, can reduce vulnerabilities from climate hazards by enhancing local capacity to withstand and accommodate change. This principle can also strengthen the biosphere, restoring ecosystem health and altering relationships between people and nature through endur - ing, context-driven design and community-led strategies. Resilient, climate-adaptive and high-quality Bauku - ltur, as promoted by the Alliance, embraces principles that strongly align with the eight criteria outlined in the Davos Baukultur Quality System. These interconnected dimensions drive the Alliance’s holistic approach to inte- grating resilience into high-quality Baukultur and urban development. They can empower communities, sustain cultural legacies and enable innovation to withstand – and thrive in the face of – climate challenges. To advance these principles in practice, this paper explores two key impact areas: regenerative develop- ment for a thriving planet and culture-based climate action. Regenerative design and development focus on restoring and enhancing ecosystem health, embedding nature-positive strategies into the living environment and cultivating adaptive urban systems that replen- ish resources over time. Culture-based climate action emphasizes the role of local knowledge, heritage and social identities in shaping climate adaptation strategies, ensuring that resilience measures are contextually rele- vant and deeply rooted in the communities they serve. The following sections explore these two criti- cal topics, examining their role in advancing resilient and adaptive Baukultur. They also offer cross-sector approaches for practitioners and decision-makers. These outline actionable strategies for integrating regenerative approaches into urban development and harnessing cultural frameworks to drive effective cli- mate adaptation and long-term resilience.The Earth’s biosphere is a complex network of living and non-living things that sustain all life and regulate the plan- et’s many systems and cycles. The biosphere’s functional resilience has been pushed beyond the boundaries that the planet can safely sustain, threatening the delicate bal- ance that supports life as humanity knows it. Notably, 44% of global GDP in urban areas is at risk due to nature loss.2 What’s more, the built environment significantly contrib- utes to environmental degradation, generating over 40% of global CO₂ emissions,3 and projections indicate that global natural resource consumption will increase by 60% by 2060 compared to 2020 levels due to urbanization and population growth.4 Implementing regenerative practices offers a pathway to address these challenges. The Davos Baukultur Alliance considers regenerative design to be a transformative approach to development TABLE 1 Three dimensions of regenerative interventions: a framework for future-oriented design and development DIMENSION GOAL EXPLANATION 1 DYNAMICDesign systems that can recognize, address and accommodate change, responding to uncertain conditions to protect and restore ecosystem health.Draw from nature’s systems as they shift in response to disturbances and changes. Know how to manage them, and embed this flexibility in built infrastructure, managing services and developing new programmes and collective processes. Identify different levers for embedding adaptability and consider trade-offs early, ensuring actions are systemic in scale and cross-sectoral. 2 MULTI-SCALARTransform interrelationships across social and natural ecosystems, from buildings and neighbourhoods to cities and regions. At any scale, an intervention looks to give back more than it takes from its context (e.g. generate energy, clean air, harvest and purify water, store carbon, restore its ecosystem, deliver healthy spaces and/or strengthen social systems). It makes use of re-used and recycled materials to reduce or stop resource extraction and is designed to enable its users to lead regenerative lifestyles, thus carrying its objectives through to operational stages. 3 PLACE-BASEDDrive relationships that enhance natural and social ecosystem health locally. It is crucial that development enables all life to thrive by restoring and replenishing local ecosystems, resources and social networks. It is equally essential to integrate local values, needs and opportunities into design and policy decisions, prioritizing inclusive and equitable outcomes. Another key aim is to strengthen connections between communities and their environments by embedding culturally relevant practices, sustainable livelihoods and community co-benefits into planning and development.Regenerative design and urban development that reconciles the need to strengthen the biosphere with the need to accommodate the resilience of human pop- ulations and settlements. The premise of a regenerative development model is to design solutions that generate net-positive impacts in perpetuity, restore ecosystems, replenish resources and strengthen community resil- ience.5 This approach involves seizing every opportunity to embed nature-led design, systemic thinking and social equity in the built environment,6 ensuring ecologi- cal and social regeneration. The regenerative design and development model is underpinned by three key dimen- sions that cumulatively create a holistic framework for aligning development with climate and social resilience. By applying this model, it’s possible to cultivate thriving, future-proof cities that regenerate natural, social and technical systems. 54 Unsplash