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Centre for Regenerative Design & Engineering for a Net Positive World

We offer global research leadership in regenerative design and engineering, co-evolving solutions with societal, cultural, ecological, and economic co-benefits.

Providing global research leadership


Director, Sukumar Natarajan, and Co-Director Juliana Calabria-Holley talk about our centre's mission and how the research we're doing will get us there.

An interconnected research environment

Our expertise broadly falls under three categories: water and chemical, place making, and materials and composites. However, we take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to research, seeking out collaborations across subject boundaries.


black line icon of a hand cupping a water droplet and a flask

Water and chemical: flooding, safe and sustainable water management, chemical, biochemical, and photocatalytic reactions and reactors.

black line icon of building with place pin

Place making: low-carbon, low-energy building design and resource efficiency, urban design, conservation and heritage, and architecture history and theory.

black line icon of a house with a plant in the middle

Materials and composites: low-cost, bio-inspired and ecologically responsive, and structural dynamics.

Our community

Find out about who we are.


Designing better shelters to improve the lives of refugees


Through a global study, our researchers are designing shelters that enhance the physical and mental health of those living in refugee camps.

Read the full case study

Predicting extreme weather to futureproof our built environment against climate change


Our researchers have found a way to produce downloadable localised weather data that will accurately predict how hot the UK could be in 2080.

Read the full case study

Our projects

We're working above and beyond net-zero to make a net-positive world. Find out what projects we're carrying out right now.


Study with us

There are PhD opportunities in the topics and themes we're researching.


About us

We are a diverse group of academics and researchers taking on research that is both culturally desirable and in the public interest. We embrace creative ideas around self-sustaining, humanitarian and ecology-conscious engineering and design to create net-positive benefits to people and society. We work with other disciplines because we recognise that technical solutions alone are not sufficient to generate real impact.


Contact us

If you're interested in study, using our facilities and expertise, or collaborating with us, please get in touch.