e design Online: A Photo-Essay: The Center for Regenerative Studies

The Center for Regenerative Studies:

A Photo-Essay

Originally Posted 25 November 1996
Readers' Comments added 05 November 1998

The Center for Regenerative Studies is located on the campus of the California State Polytechnic University Pomona, in the greater-Los Angeles metro area. Many of those passingly familiar with the Center probably made their first and only acquaintance through John Lyle's book Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development. In Regenerative Design, Lyle makes a case for designing beyond sustainability; for designs that are regenerative, that give more than they take from the environment. In a world where reasonably sustainable designs are rare enough, a call to regeneration is clearly quite radical. Yet this call was followed by action; action which led to the design, construction and operation of the Center for Regenerative Studies.
The Society for Building Science Educators (SBSE) held its 1996 Summer Retreat at the Center for Regenerative Studies. The retreat was made all the more meaningful and memorable by its venue. It was a pleasure to experience the Center over a period of several days; to walk around and through the Center; to experience it at daybreak, mid-day, nightfall, and evening; to shower with solar-heated water. This photo-essay is comprised of slides taken during the SBSE retreat in June 1996. These images may help convey a sense of the Center for Regenerative Studies not available through the earlier photos presented in Lyle's book -- and also provide a sense of the quality of design that can result from focused intent, tight criteria and high expectations.

	The Center for Regenerative Studies is physically located in the rolling California countryside on the western edge of the greater-Los Angeles metropolitan area. In some directions, the view is magnificent and quite pastoral.

	The Center is located adjacent to, yet somewhat apart from, the Cal Poly Pomona campus and its surrounding farm lands.

The contextual setting for the Center is best defined by this view. The hillside in the background is actually the top of a regional landfill. The sounds of garbage trucks and heavy equipment from this waste disposal facility can be now and then heard from the Center. This view really explains the defining nature of the concept behind the Center -- not preservation of what is quickly being lost, not sustaining what is best about the present, but regenerating some of the worst as a means of improving the environment.

The Center is comprised of several individual buildings of generally similar design that house residential, academic, and community functions.

	Residential living building -- home to some great blackberry bushes.

	Integration of site and buildings.

Daylit interior of community building.

	The serious application of energy-efficient (or climate responsive, or bio-regional, or passive) design principles defines the character of the buildings at the Center. As is often the case, designing to capture resources available on site leads to a rich and vibrant architecture.

	Roof of community building seen through plantings on upper patio of academic building. Natural ventilation is a dominant design strategy in Pomona's climate and is expressed in the buildings.

Natural ventilation (with a hybrid assist from ceiling fans) and daylighting result in dynamic and layered ceiling-scapes.

In addition to the passive solar design aspects of the Center's architecture, active solar-thermal and photovoltaic systems are found on individual buildings and in a hilltop "solar park". Flat-plate solar-thermal collectors provide domestic hot water. Photovoltaics are used to charge electric carts used in the aquaculture and agriculture aspects of the Center.

	A concentrating solar-thermal collector in the "solar park" awaits activation and the opportunity to contribute to the energy flows of the Center.

Even in sleep mode, the concentrating collector provides an intriguing image.

Above-ground tanks for the production of tilapia (a food fish). Sustainability (and beyond that to regeneration) suggests some measure of self-sufficiency. Thus, agriculture and aquaculture are critical components of the Center's energy and materials systems.

	In-ground ponds for the production of food fish and water-plants (hyacinth). The reclamation of waste water is a component of sustainability that is being explored at the Center.

	Water outflows from the aquaculture ponds end up in a mini-wetland area where they can seep in and recharge the ground water system. Containing runoff in this way also provides a habitat for birds and animals.

Vegetation (much of it edible) abounds next to, on and around the Center's buildings. A central meeting area.

Rooftop tomatoes. Redefining "green" architecture.

	Edible shading; not an expense, an investment.

	The Center for Regenerative Studies. Site, foresight and insight leading to an integrated approach to homoculture, agriculture and aquaculture.

Participants at the SBSE Retreat immersed in daylight and thoughts of sustainability.

Another perspective on thinking sustainably.

	Walter Grondzik, Editor
	Images in this article are copyright by Walter Grondzik, 1996 and may be used only with permission.
	For further information on the Center for Regenerative Studies, visit their Web site: The Center for Regenerative Studies Website or contact them by e-mail at: crs@csupomona.edu
	For further information on the SBSE Retreat, see the Fall 1996 issue of the SBSE Newsletter http://www.arch.vuw.ac.nz/sbse/newsletter.html (Bruce Haglund, Editor)

Readers' Comments

Gary davis.228@osu.edu	Received 20 October 1998 This is a very helpful site!! I am currently writing a term paper on CRS for a landscape architecture class here at Ohio State. I had the pleasure of attending a lecture Mr. Lyle gave here last year about CRS.

Brad crescentstar@earthlink.net	Received 20 March 1998 I have a pamphlet from the center that has a diagram showing more of how the regeneration process works. I like the explainations as detailed as possible, as long as each step is explained simply. How much things cost and their environmental advantages. How many people live there and do they live off what is grown there. Pictures of cook's cooken fish and stuff.

Doug Korthof dkct@earthlink.net	Received 15 March 1998 Great photo album! Thanks for your excellent ideas. The students at CRS are battling to preserve the fine Walnut trees to the Northwest and across Temple (you may remember them) and to find an alternative usage for the old landfill, which Administration wants to make into a Golf Course. The issue is presented at http://www.regen.org/ Any help would be welcomed! Thanks in advance.

Abe SyCip abejls@hotmail.com	Received 13 March 1998 Great photo album! I'm Abe SyCip, one of the Center's original/ "Pioneer" residents (way back in 93/94). I am doing some research here in Asia related to the work I did at the Center and really appreciated being able to see it again now through your photos. Hopefully I'll be able to share and apply some of the stuff from the Center. Thanks for making the photos available for personal reference!

Robert Shearer rshearer@bigfoot.com	Received 24 February 1998 I am an architecture student at Kent State University. Our Environmental Design and Energy class is using Lyle's book as a text. This page is an excellent companion to the book and I will pass the address on to my classmates as soon as possible. Thank you for giving me a better image of what the Center looks like!

Dorothy Rosen drosen11@earthlink.net	Received 26 October 1997 Excellent piece...interesting, informative, and thorough.

Doug Korthof dkct@earthlink.net	Received 21 October 1997 This is great! I'm linking to your website from my alternate CRS webpage (now at http://home.earthlink.net/~dkct/crs.html, and am going to print it off and post it at the Center! You have excellent pictures, with great explanations! And a great lead in paragraph.