Newport Lakes Stories and Contributive Practice

Designing for Hope was, at its core, never just about architecture, sustainability, or even regenerative development.

It was about possibility. It was about the belief that hope is not just an abstract concept but an active force that shapes how we build, design, and imagine the future.

Looking back, I find myself reflecting on the journey that led to this book and the conversations, collaborations, and discoveries that made it what it is today.

The beginning of a collaboration

I first met Chrisna at a conference in Brisbane. She had used the analogy of the frog in warm water that slowly boils and then it jumps out, as a metaphor for how we are in the world… it is slowly getting worse, and we aren’t seeing it. 

She was just beginning her PhD, sitting with her supervisor, presenting a PowerPoint filled with ideas about Indigenous knowledge and sustainability. I had just finished my PhD, and I could see her wrestling with the question so many of us had asked: How do we take these ideas and make them real?

A few years later, we crossed paths again in Tokyo at another conference. This time, our conversation expanded. We sat through presentations about sustainability, but something felt off. The discussions treated sustainability as a final goal, as if achieving ‘green’ was enough. It was all about numbers, and modelling, and detailed research of very specific things… but nothing looking at the big picture. But we saw it differently. We believed sustainability was just the beginning and that we needed to go beyond minimising harm and instead build something thriving, something regenerative.

It was during these conversations that we dreamed up the 100 Monkeys Club—a wildly ambitious (and slightly ridiculous) idea that if we could get enough people thinking differently, maybe, just maybe, we could shift the way the world saw sustainability.

“The hundredth monkey effect is an esoteric idea claiming that a new behavior or idea is spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical number of members of one group exhibit the new behavior or acknowledge the new idea. The behavior was said to propagate even to groups that are physically separated and have no apparent means of communicating with each other.”

 Amundson, Ron. 1985. “The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon.” Skeptical Inquirer 9(4):348–56. Also available via University of Hawaii (Archived on May 25, 2011).

Our book takes shape

Years passed, and in 2011, at a conference in Helsinki, I told Chrisna about an idea for a book. I wanted to tell the story of regenerative development: how it emerged, the people leading the charge, the projects that made it tangible. I wanted a book filled with real-world examples and imagery, something that wasn’t just theoretical but grounded in place and practice.

Chrisna, in true Chrisna fashion, immediately rattled off a list of people I should speak with. At the time, she was involved in a special journal issue on regenerative design, working with Richard Lorch, who was then at Building Research & Information. She had just attended a workshop in Vancouver with some of the field’s leading thinkers and had the connections we needed.

And, of course, in true Chrisna fashion, she also invited herself along for the ride.

Our research journey

The next year was spent planning. We mapped out a five-week trip across the U.S., meeting with architects, designers, and visionaries in Boston, New York City, Kansas, Fort Collins, Santa Fe, and Boulder. We weren’t just collecting research; we were building relationships, capturing stories, and getting lost in what the future could be.

Throughout it all, we were fueled by an idea that had stuck with us since that conference in Tokyo: This is just the beginning.

The book we wrote was filled with conversations, projects, and visions of a regenerative future. When Designing for Hope was published, we were proud. It was everything we had dreamed of, except for one thing.

The price.

We had created something tangible, something beautiful, something we wanted in the hands of as many people as possible. But academic publishing is not built for accessibility. When we saw the price tag, we realised that the very people who needed this book the most wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Releasing the book for free

Now, 10 years later, we have the rights back. And we’re doing what we should have done all along: we’re making it free.

In many ways, this book is still just as relevant today as it was when we first wrote it. The world is still wrestling with sustainability, with how to move beyond reducing harm toward truly regenerative thinking. We still need hope, now more than ever.

That’s why we’re launching this podcast and video series: to revisit the ideas in the book, reflect on what has changed, and discuss where we go from here. We want to share the stories behind the book, highlight the people and projects shaping the future, and create a space for ongoing conversation.

Looking ahead

Our next episode will focus on the values that underpin regenerative development—what they looked like 10 years ago and how they’ve evolved. We’ll explore questions like:

• What does it mean to design for a flourishing, regenerative future?
• How have the principles of regenerative development shifted over the past decade?
• Is the term regenerative still meaningful, or has it been diluted?

As we embark on this new chapter, I’m reminded of something we realised all those years ago: Hope is not passive. It is something we design for, something we build, something we choose.

Here’s to the next 10 years.

Watch the first episode in our Designing for Hope Youtube series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcn7N3caOgc&t=1s