The Sunflower Collective proposes an architecture that entangles with the natural world to create a sanctuary for healing, growth, and connection. Rooted in therapeutic horticulture, sustainable material research, and social participation, the project responds to mental health challenges by embedding restorative landscapes, communal growing systems, and productive ecological cycles into the urban fabric.
Set within a post-industrial site, the design uses sunflower cultivation as both a soil remediation strategy and a resource for a self-developed insulation material — Sun-crete — forming the foundation of a regenerative construction system. Through sensory gardens, skill-building workshops, and shared food production, the project fosters well-being, economic resilience, and social cohesion.
Rooted in a regenerative and ecological design outlook, this project envisions an architecture that collaborates with the non-human. It challenges the boundary between human use and ecological care, strengthening community bonds, creating habitats, and embedding material circularity. Through Sun-crete construction, passive environmental strategies, and biodiversity enhancement, buildings are designed to emerge from — and, in time, return to — the landscape.
Here, architecture becomes an active participant in the healing of the site and the living systems it inhabits.
