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Cities have traditionally been designed as engineered systems focused on efficiency, movement, and growth. But what if our infrastructure functioned more like a living ecosystem?

Drawing from Indigenous ways of knowing, advances in biomimicry, and current work with the Biomimicry Co-Lab, architect and planner Jeff Roberts, AIA explores an emerging framework for regenerative urban design. Through the conceptual design of the Center for Tribal Nations within Portland's OMSI District, the presentation illustrates how ecological intelligence, cultural identity, and community stewardship can reshape infrastructure from isolated systems into living networks that support both people and place.

Rather than asking how cities can become more sustainable, this session asks a more fundamental question: How can our cities become living participants in the ecosystems they inhabit?