The conventional building design and construction have detrimental impact onto the environment. With the current pace of development of the contemporary society, these issues cannot be fully addressed with the concept of sustainable design and construction, which is based on causing less harm to the environment. Thus, the regenerative concept is gaining relevance, as it is changing the construction paradigm toward the delivery of a human-centric environment, which, when coupled with the circular economy, aims to enable the natural environment to evolve. In order to have a more frequent delivery of regenerative buildings, it is necessary to broaden the knowledge on regenerative design, which is the objective of this paper. The aim is to investigate the design process, strategies, and technologies that are applied during the design and construction of a refurbished residential building, which is intended to be the first regenerative building in Spain, and is currently in the process of certification as per the Living Building Challenge (LBC) standard. Therefore, a literature review was performed, followed by a site visit of the case-study building. The research is organized according to the seven categories (petals) of the Living Building Challenge standard, and all 20 imperatives of the LBC are discussed. Additionally, the aspects of costs and project management are investigated. The findings point out the main design features and challenges toward the realization of regenerative refurbishment, in order to fully adhere to the demands of the LBC, and discusses their potential for a broader application in rural as well as urban settings. The analysis of the case-study design and construction can serve as a valuable insight to deliver future regenerative buildings and accelerate their implementation in the construction industry. This article is based upon the work of COST Action RESTORE CA16114, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

This short review outlines the implementation of nature-based solutions in the urban built environment which can contribute to a circular economy as well as the multiple benefits related to the ecosystem services they can provide. The novel Circular City framework on the mainstreaming of nature-based solutions for the enhancement of urban resource management, which was developed within the COST Action CA17133, is presented. Urban circularity challenges addressed by nature-based solutions are assessed in the built environment following three different levels of implementation—i.e., green building materials, systems for the greening of buildings envelope, and green building sites as vegetated open spaces and water-sensitively designed. Considering the possibilities of implementing nature-based solutions in the built environment, we also highlight the circularity processes that can take place through the integration of nature-based solutions at some or all of the proposed scales towards the achievement of at least one of the seven urban circularity challenges. A collection of representative actual case studies exemplifying the development and implementation of nature-based solutions towards circular cities is also included.

This paper discusses the approach and implementation strategy of the Green Homes/Green Mortgages (GH/GM) programme being developed by the H2020 funded project SMARTER Finance for Families. We analyse the potential of this project for making step-change in the mainstream market of housing construction for it to adopt consistent environmental friendly practices at a large scale and involving all the value chain and stakeholders involved. One key feature of the project being analysed is the task to align the Green Certification requirements of the programme to the institutional initiative of the European Commission’s Directorate for Environment of an environmental performance reporting framework: The Level(s) framework.