McGregor Coxall

APPROACH

Through the joy of design we strive to enrich local culture and secure a regenerative fit between development and our environment.

McGregor Coxall have developed a philosophy based on ecological urbanism that traverses the boundaries between economy, culture, ecology and design. We believe that quality in the built and natural environments is only achievable through a rigorous process of analysis, investigation and continuous refinement. This approach questions both our own preconceptions and those of the brief in order to find fresh methodologies and design outcomes.

ETHICS

Our company prizes highly the social, civic, cultural and environmental responsibility inherent in landscape architecture and urban design. Not content to accept ‘business as usual scenarios' we actively adopt emerging technologies and systems to deliver designs that meet world's best practice environmental objectives. Our work goes beyond minimization of environmental damage to deliver regenerative projects that improve the ecological quality of a site.

BIOCITY STUDIO

We are fast approaching a time when most of the planning blueprints governing growth and management of the world's cities will become redundant. The twin challenges of climate change and oil depletion require an urgent paradigm shift in city planning philosophy and design modus operandi. The challenge for our generation is to break free from post modernism and the conventional fossil fuel design precedents of past constructs. As custodians of the global natural and social landscape, design professions have a responsibility to help enact ethical city regeneration processes.

The BioCity Studio is an in-house research group working on an urban informetrics tool that can be used to interpret the performance of a city across twelve macro systems. Premised on the idea that cities are living, metabolic entities whose futures are dependent on embracing holistic bio-cultural programs, the group is partnering with like minded organisations to present solutions to improve the quality of cities. The Biocity model is powered by a public informetrics wiki at biocitystudio.com that is conducting the 'Urban Genome Project'.