ReGen Resortsby Except
Plant-filled studio where Except works
About Except

About

A regenerative future, designed as a living system.

Since 1999

Except is an integrated sustainability studio. We have spent twenty-five years turning systemic thinking into real, flourishing places.

Founded in 1999, we have applied our integrated approach to more than 500 projects worldwide: neighborhoods, resorts, products, strategies, and the systems that connect them. ReGen Resorts is how that work meets the world of leisure and tourism.

Our mission is simple to state and demanding to deliver: create the foundations for a sustainable society. We do it by designing places that give back more than they take.

Co-design session around a table of sketches
Every project begins as a co-creation.

We exist to create the foundations for a sustainable society, one place, one system, one decision at a time.

Sustainability is not a feature we add at the end. It is the structure we design from the start, woven through energy, water, food, materials, ecosystems, economy, culture, and human happiness.

Aerial render of a regenerative masterplan
Integrated sustainability

Where SiD came from

Early on, we found that single-issue fixes rarely held. Save energy here, and water suffers there. So we built our own method, Symbiosis in Development (SiD), to design across all of it at once.

SiD treats a place as a living system with eight connected facets: happiness, health, culture, economy, species, ecosystems, materials, and energy. Design them to reinforce one another, and a project becomes resilient, profitable, and genuinely regenerative.

What we stand for

A few principles that run through every project, from a single building to a 600-hectare masterplan.

01

Systemic, not single-issue

We design energy, water, food, ecosystems, and economy together.

02

Regenerative by intent

Leave the land, the water, and the community richer than we found them.

03

Evidence over fashion

Sustainability science, modeled and measured, beyond LEED and BREEAM.

04

Built with people

Communities, landowners, and municipalities co-create from day one.

Some of our clients & partners
HeinekenIKEAWWFSchipholYale University ARUPTU DelftEnecoAholdPelli Clarke PelliClimate-KIC

"Except has excellent knowledge, resources, and work ethic. They provided realistic options for significant sustainability improvements with innovative solutions. It couldn't have been better."

Greg Powell · CEO, Shire of Merredin, Western Australia

"Except's people work extremely hard and invest unbelievable amounts of energy into solving your problem, making it their own and getting to the bottom of it."

Bart Verhagen · Development Manager, Estrade Housing
Quiet overwater retreat at dusk

Let's build something that gives back.

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