Learning the Language of Life: A Regenerative Retreat

October 12 to 15, Champion, PA

At first blush, many of you will see the content of the program and wonder how this relates to green buildings or to the work that you do in the world. It’s not architecture or engineering or construction. This just looks like a fun retreat in the woods. You might be thinking: must be nice that these guys can afford to go play in the woods for a weekend. We do spend time in the woods looking for patterns. We expose you/us to new ways of understanding ourselves as part of a larger living system. We engage in thanksgiving, physical exercises, deep philosophical discussions and sharing stories. We engage with several living system frameworks to clarify our thinking. Oh man, my boss will never pay for this! So how does this weekend in the woods relate to what you do?

Why do you work on green building projects? Mitigate climate change? Improve human health? Create a more sustainable world? Why do you want to do those things? Why bother? For most of us, it boils down to a love of life, which includes our fellow humans, of course, but perhaps it’s more than that? . . . and that just begs another question: what is the nature of this life we are trying to sustain? Unfortunately, humans have been trying to respond to these questions largely through a mechanistic, reductionist and transcendent mindset. 7group has been actively engaged in exploring what lies beyond technical green building strategies and projects within an integrative process. If every building on Earth was LEED or LBC certified, would that heal the destruction we are causing, or would we just slow down the inevitable? This exploration calls us to shift our aim and direction completely – away from simply doing less damage and toward regenerative design principles that serve living systems. This is the next evolution in green building design. It requires shifting into a different perspective, a different way of knowing and a different mind. It is hard work. Your training probably did not prepare you for this way of understanding.

Over the past ten years, we have been engaging this work with Joel Glanzberg and others to help ourselves and others develop a regenerative mind. Regenerative design and development requires an understanding of how whole living systems really work, including the role of humans in regenerating life. This gathering will deepen your understanding of living systems and yourself, so that you can explore new ways to think about the work you do.

Join the evolution!

More information and registration is here. If you are into the Facebook thing, you can join the conversation here.

The workshop was recently approved for 24 GBCI CE hours, was already approved for AIA LU/HSW, and we have applied for ASLA LACES, so there must be some sort of connection.

‍