Principal's Corner This year marks the 100th anniversary of my family stewarding land in New Hampshire. That place was deeply meaningful to my maternal grandparents, both immigrants. It became a respite from New York City, a community of artists and like-minded friends, and eventually a family heirloom. It was my first example of what it meant to care for and respect a place over time. I loved running through the woods, exploring the nearby stream, and spending time with my grandparents and their friends, nearly all of whom came there for refuge—to be in the country and away from the congestion of the Eastern Seaboard. The land became part of our family story and eventually a final resting place. My grandparents are buried there now, along with other family members, including my father. My dad, a historian and adopted Dakota Sioux, taught us that we were only the current stewards of that place. It belonged to others before us, and one day it would be cared for by others after us. It deserved respect, attention, and care. My connection to nature became inseparable from my connection to the community. We recently celebrated those first 100 years with a gathering of family and friends, telling stories and sharing the experiences of generations of people tethered to one another through that place. One of the most prevalent themes was how that spot connected people to nature. Seeing The Bigger PictureStewardship can sound simple when we think of it as taking care of land, managing the yard or buildings on it. But the more closely we look at a place, the more we uncover its connections to the people, systems, and natural world around it. A piece of land is part of a watershed. A building is part of a neighborhood. A neighborhood is part of a city. People, histories, cultures, soil, plants, animals, and infrastructure interact within larger systems. We may draw boundaries around them for practical reasons, but the relationships extend beyond those lines. This changes what stewardship asks of us. If we focus only on the thing directly in front of us, we can miss what it depends on and what depends on it. We can create an efficient building while overlooking the systems that supply its materials. Improve a property while weakening its relationship to the surrounding neighborhood. Create a beautiful space without asking whether it strengthens the social and ecological systems that make the place healthy. Regenerative design asks us to widen the lens. We are not simply caring for something outside ourselves. We are participating in systems that already exist. The question becomes not only, “What do we want this place to provide?” but “What relationship are we creating with this place, the people around it, and those who will come after us?” That is the shift from stewardship as maintenance to stewardship as a relationship. The Thread That Binds For September, that thread that binds is reciprocity. Reciprocity is a recurring theme because it encourages us to notice what moves in both directions. What do we receive, and what do we return? What does a place give to a community, and what does the community give back? How can a project create value that extends beyond the person who paid for it or the day construction is complete? Nature offers powerful reminders of this relationship. Living systems are not collections of isolated parts. They depend on exchange, cycles and interdependence. Reciprocity does not mean every exchange is equal or immediate. It means recognizing that we are participants rather than extractors. This matters in the built environment because every project enters an existing web of relationships. The question is whether we strengthen those relationships, weaken them, or create conditions for something healthier and greater to emerge. Community itself can be understood as an ecosystem. Social connection, mutual care, shared leadership, restorative practices, and dignity function as infrastructure just as meaningfully as buildings and streets. Nothing exists alone. What This Looks Like in Practice at TikunFor us, stewardship and reciprocity begin before the first line is drawn. We start by trying to understand the larger system a project belongs to. Who is connected to this place? What histories are already present? What ecological systems are operating here? What relationships could be strengthened? What constraints or opportunities might not be visible if we look only at the property itself? That can mean ecosystem mapping, early planning, community engagement, regenerative frameworks, or simply slowing down enough to listen before deciding. Our role is often to help clients clarify not just what they want to build, but why it matters, what it is connected to, and how it might contribute to the health of the larger system. It also means treating a place as a partner rather than a blank slate. We look for what a site is already doing well, what it can support, and what the project can contribute in return. We look for opportunities where one decision can support multiple outcomes: ecological function, community connection, health, resilience, beauty, and long-term value. This is part of what makes regenerative work different from simply reducing harm. The goal is not only to make a project less damaging. It is to ask how the project can become part of a healthier relationship between people, place, and the systems around them.  Case Study: Pangea World TheaterPangea World Theater’s Center for Peace and Justice offers a powerful example of what it means to think beyond a building. Tikun has supported Pangea since early planning and feasibility began in 2020, then serving as conceptual designers through three different incarnations of the project and now continuing as regenerative design consultant and Living Future Accredited facilitator. The vision is not simply a theater. Pangea imagines an urban organism in which the building and its culture co-create a purposeful future and work alongside other “organisms” to strengthen a healthy, self-determining community. That larger vision has shaped how the project has developed.  Pangea team  Diagrammatic Example Phase 1, fundraising underway now, will begin with renovation of an existing building to create a 50-seat rehearsal and performance space along with production and temporary offices. Phase 2 expands into the adjacent open lot with a 200-plus-seat flexible black box theater, community space, shared courtyard, and spaces supporting BIPOC art and wellness. The project seeks to model environmental, economic, and social equity while strengthening its connections to Minneapolis’s Longfellow neighborhood. Tikun’s work has included helping Pangea navigate regenerative goals, Living Building Challenge aspirations, planning, feasibility, and the practical decisions required to move that vision forward. What makes Pangea especially relevant to this month’s theme is that the project is not understood as an isolated object. Interdependence is part of Pangea’s DNA. The building is an extension of the organization. The organization is connected to artists and the community. The site is connected to the larger neighborhood. The design is connected to environmental and social responsibility. And the long-term vision depends on partnerships extending far beyond the project itself. The building becomes an expression of the larger ecosystem. Learn more about the project and our efforts here. Help support the project’s Capital Campaign at the Pangea website here. An InvitationStewardship asks us to care for what has been entrusted to us. Interdependence reminds us that we are never caring for something in isolation. Reciprocity asks us to consider what energy and resources move in both directions. Nothing exists alone. This month, we invite you to look at a place you care about and widen the lens.
What does this place depend on to thrive? Who and what is connected to it? What does the place give to the people around it and what are we giving back? The places we shape become part of larger stories, systems, and lives that extend beyond our own. Regenerative design gives us an opportunity to participate in those relationships with greater care and intention.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
RSS Feed