Regenerative Development with Mel Meagher
Regenerative design in the real estate and development industry is typically referred to as the sustainable design elements based on the principals of circularity and technologies such as renewable energy generation and water capture. These types of design systems usually focus on just the product, rather than the integral process of Regenerative real estate.
I originally met Mel Meagher, the principal behind Unfold Development, in 2022 at the inaugural Regenerative Real Estate Gathering and right from the bat I could tell that there was a deep passion fueling their drive. Mel comes from a conventional real estate background and found themself feeling like there should be another way to approach design and development.
So often developers are forced to perpetuate a process that is driven by financing and form. The places and spaces that are created are typically referred to by their function–like multifamily, retail, commercial, industrial. And while many projects have goals to create things like community, connection, and beauty, it’s not fully understood how to do this. As a result we conflate things like density with community.
What I learned about Mel during this episode of The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast is that these things aren’t just outcomes as a result of good architecture–they are integral to what Mel describes as the unfolding process.
In this episode Mel helps to remind us that placemaking is art. It’s does not have to follow what they call the binary, and it is a process that requires intentionally inviting and enrolling the community.
