Abstract
As the Anthropocene increasingly undermines natural systems, there is an urgent need for design to move beyond harm reduction toward active ecological restoration. Regenerative Design (RD) has emerged as a promising paradigm to complement sustainable design; however, fragmented knowledge and inconsistent terminology hinder designers’ systematic understanding. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, this study first reviews the philosophical stances and key approaches of RD, then examines its implementation in a coral reef restoration project on Weizhou Island. Reflection on the project revealed three major challenges: limited capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration, insufficient tools for stakeholder engagement, and inadequate dynamic assessment models. To address these challenges, the study proposes corresponding strategies: enhancing designers’ foundational cross-disciplinary knowledge to improve collaboration; developing guided tools on digital platforms to support stakeholder understanding; and employing artificial intelligence to analyze data from dynamic assessment models, providing scientifically grounded evaluations of RD practice.
Keywords
Artificial Coral Reef, Coral Reef Restoration, Regenerative Design, Regenerative Practice
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.716
Citation
Li, C., Rognoli, V., and Xu, F. (2026) Where Regenerative Design Theory Meets Ground: A Case Study of XREEF on Weizhou Island, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.716
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Where Regenerative Design Theory Meets Ground: A Case Study of XREEF on Weizhou Island
As the Anthropocene increasingly undermines natural systems, there is an urgent need for design to move beyond harm reduction toward active ecological restoration. Regenerative Design (RD) has emerged as a promising paradigm to complement sustainable design; however, fragmented knowledge and inconsistent terminology hinder designers’ systematic understanding. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, this study first reviews the philosophical stances and key approaches of RD, then examines its implementation in a coral reef restoration project on Weizhou Island. Reflection on the project revealed three major challenges: limited capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration, insufficient tools for stakeholder engagement, and inadequate dynamic assessment models. To address these challenges, the study proposes corresponding strategies: enhancing designers’ foundational cross-disciplinary knowledge to improve collaboration; developing guided tools on digital platforms to support stakeholder understanding; and employing artificial intelligence to analyze data from dynamic assessment models, providing scientifically grounded evaluations of RD practice.