Best Tara Watson Podcasts (2025)

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Material Cultures' Summer Islam: ‘We start with a map of nearby materials and products’ 53:27

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3M ago53:27

53:27

Episode 58. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Material Cultures co-founder Summer Islam explains how a regional ‘materials matrix’ informs the design process. ‘We imagine the future, rather than working within the present,' says Islam, describing the approach of design and research consultancy Material Cultures. ‘We specul…

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‘Retrofit is seen as really alienating. We’re trying to blow that apart’ 46:41

4M ago46:41

46:41

Episode 57. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Melissa Mean from community land trust WeCanMake explains how a community-led approach in Bristol is tackling the housing crisis. ‘What if the power and resources to make good homes were in the hands of our communities? What if you literally put the tools in people's hands to d…

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Tara Gbolade: ‘It’s unsustainable for small practices not to upskill’ 42:37

4M ago42:37

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Episode 56. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Gbolade Design Studio’s Tara Gbolade shares insights from her new book, Changing the Game: How to be a sustainable and regenerative small practice. Gbolade champions the nimbleness of small practices that enables them to rapidly pivot toward a more regenerative future. Drawing …

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‘Even a small practice can push the boundaries of reuse’ – Brisco Loran 43:37

6M ago43:37

43:37

Episode 55. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions’ latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today is Thom Brisco of Brisco Loran, who talks to us about Costa's Barbers, a live-work shopfront which triumphed in the Project under £500,000 category at the AJ Architecture Awards last week. Brisco describes…

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IF_DO’s Sarah Castle: ‘People become the project’ 42:41

6M ago42:41

42:41

Episode 54. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today is IF_DO founder Sarah Castle, who explains that community engagement is not just asking people what they want, but what they can do. ‘It’s about giving people the power to change their environments and mak…

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Chipperfield’s MC Piccinelli on how retrofit can enhance creativity 43:49

7M ago43:49

43:49

Episode 53. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions is back, with a new series focusing on retrofit. Our guest today is Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, associate director and project lead on the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Global Hub (FLGH). In the episode she explains how each building element requires…

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Why earth is the ultimate circular material 42:30

1y ago42:30

42:30

Episode 52. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. To achieve replication at scale, Nicolas Coeckelberghs of Brussels-based BC Materials favours compressed earth blocks over rammed earth. ‘Our goal is to bring earthen construction from a niche to a growing market,’ says Coeckelberghs. He likens this challenge to playing che…

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Vinu Daniel on transforming mud and waste into architecture 40:22

1y ago40:22

40:22

Episode 51. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Daniel views mud and waste as opportunities, not obstacles. He advocates an approach of ‘maximum optimism’, explaining that mud and waste enhance his designs. ‘I follow the materials; they do not follow me,’ he says. Sourcing materials primarily from within five miles of a …

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Carmody Groarke’s Sian Ricketts on making bricks from waste 26:32

1y ago26:32

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Episode 50. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Carmody Groarke sustainability lead Sian Ricketts explains how architecture can adapt to the reality of finite resources and an abundance of waste. Ricketts says that architects should develop their intuition and new rules of thumb to design for a changing climate. Architec…

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AKTII’s David Watson on how to reduce the environmental impacts of brick 42:45

1y ago42:45

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Ep 49. Structural engineer David Watson describes the enduring appeal of brick and its underexploited superpower: reuse Brick has many advantages: durability, aesthetics, use as both envelope and structure, and the possibility of local (even artisanal) production. This last point differentiates it from steel and concrete, due to the Ordinary Portla…

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‘Over-specification of concrete is an industry addiction’ 38:47

1y ago38:47

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Episode 48. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Structural engineer Eva MacNamara of Expedition Engineering explains how we can radically reduce our use of concrete and how to better understand the biodiversity impacts of material choices. In this episode, we dive into the tricky topic of concrete and unpick the widespre…

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Henning Larsen’s Martha Lewis on how to screen materials for both chemicals and carbon 38:20

1y ago38:20

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For the first in a new six-part series on materials, Hattie is joined by co-host Joe Jack Williams to interview Martha Lewis, head of materials at Danish practice Henning Larsen. Lewis argues that a baseline of health and environmental impacts should inform material specification, and explains why a holistic approach is essential to navigate the nu…

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‘I’m no longer the wood weirdo,’ says Andrew Waugh 47:21

1+ y ago47:21

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Episode 46. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Andrew Waugh explains how building with timber can address industry transformation at scale. ‘I want to transform the whole industry,’ says Waugh, founding director of Waugh Thistleton which was recently named Practice of the Year at the AJ Architecture Awards. In this episode …

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The Public Practice associates driving retrofit and net zero in the public sector 37:26

1+ y ago37:26

37:26

Episode 45. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Two Public Practice associates explain how working in the public sector has increased their agency as designers. Public Practice is a social enterprise that places built environment professions in the public sector, primarily in place-making roles and increasingly in key roles …

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Je Ahn on setting up Studio Weave and working with found materials 42:25

1+ y ago42:25

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Episode 44. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Studio Weave founding director Je Ahn explains the challenges of sourcing timber from London’s streets and parks. He describes how he translated the ambition of using local timber from London’s trees into reality at Lea Bridge Library Pavilion despite the fact that no sales cha…

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Material passports and Architects Declare four years on 32:00

1+ y ago32:00

32:00

Ep 43. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. London Eye architect Julia Barfield explains how the climate emergency changed the way her practice, Marks Barfield, operates, as well as what’s ahead for the Architects Declare movement. Julia shares insights from recent projects on how to achieve circularity in retrofit, the chall…

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Architects must re-educate themselves on timber sourcing 42:35

1+ y ago42:35

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Episode 42. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Montreal-based architect and systems thinker Scott Francisco explains why architects must educate themselves to understand the nuances of timber sourcing. Francisco believes that greater use of timber in construction in coming decades will be essential to meet our climate targe…

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Architype’s Ann-Marie Fallon: ‘Net Zero has almost lost its meaning’ 40:13

1+ y ago40:13

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Episode 41. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. In this episode, AJ100 Sustainability Champion and Architype associate director Ann-Marie Fallon discusses her belief that delivering net zero is not just technical – understanding how people use buildings and their role in the community is crucial. We also hear about Architype…

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‘We apologise for designing buildings that exploit the planet’ 21:16

2y ago21:16

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Bonus episode. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. During an Obel Award panel at the UIA conference in Copenhagen, Heringer seized the opportunity to ask the global audience for ‘forgiveness’ on behalf of architects of the global north. ‘I'm sorry for creating this … ideal of an architecture that was supposed to bring us a comfortable, safe a…

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Chinese architect Xu Tiantian on revitalising rural villages 42:04

2+ y ago42:04

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Episode 40. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we explore the global phenomenon of shrinking villages in the countryside, hearing about a remarkable series of interventions in southeastern China by DnA_Design, a small Beijing practice. Xu advocates a role change for architects in both rural and urban contexts. Architects sho…

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Historic England’s Morwenna Slade on why a ‘fabric first’ approach must be used with caution in heritage buildings 41:58

2+ y ago41:58

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Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Slade, head of historic building climate change adaptation at Historic England, explains why insulation is the area of highest risk. As a conservation-accredited building surveyor with deep interests in both the natural and built environment, Slade explains the role of Historic England as a stat…

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Adapting conservation area guidance for climate emergency 41:36

2+ y ago41:36

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Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman.In our second episode exploring how sustainability impacts heritage buildings, we speak to Procter-Rihl Architects’ Chris Procter, lead author of ACAN’s Climate Emergency Conservation Area Toolkit – England. Chris explains how conservation areas can streamline the consent process by developing a …

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Balancing heritage and climate urgency in listed buildings 39:18

2+ y ago39:18

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Episode 37. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. 5th Studio co-founder Oliver Smith shares his radical approach to upgrading listed buildings. He talks about the practice’s radical retrofit of New Court at Trinity College, Cambridge. Completed in 2016, New Court remains a trailblazing project because it pioneered an ambitious sustainability ag…

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Educators Sofie Pelsmakers and Cíaran Malik on teaching climate literate design 37:42

2+ y ago37:42

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Episode 36. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, Pelsmakers argues that teaching values must be at the heart of architectural education. She believes students are bombarded with too much technical information on sustainability and that a strong grounding in architectural ethics is essential in order to apply technical knowledg…

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The trade-off between ventilation and airtightness in the post-pandemic world 41:54

2+ y ago41:54

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Episode 35. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Environmental engineer Patrick Bellew of Atelier Ten shares insight from having worked on high-profile architectural projects, including the new Google HQ at King's Cross designed by Heatherwick Studio. He explains that post-pandemic ventilation rates in commercial offices have tripled with radi…

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Why architectural education needs radical reform 42:25

2+ y ago42:25

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Episode 34. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Glasgow climate activist Scott McAulay and ACAN’s Rosie Murphy advocate for a curriculum which empowers students as changemakers. McAulay, founder of the virtual Anthropocene Architecture School, argues that the answer to every brief should not be a new building. Architects must rethink their ro…

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Danish architect Lone Feifer on ‘absolute’ sustainability 39:42

2+ y ago39:42

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Episode 33. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Velux director of sustainable buildings Lone Feifer explains why ‘relative’ sustainability, improvement on previous standards, is no longer good enough. ‘One planet means one carbon budget with a fixed amount available for buildings,’ she says. It’s not about improving relative to previously acc…

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Hawkins\Brown’s Louisa Bowles on what net zero actually means 46:47

3y ago46:47

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Episode 32. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we speak to Louisa Bowles - winner of this year’s AJ100 Sustainability Champion award - about Hawkins\Brown’s two-pronged approach to sustainability: reducing carbon emissions and enhancing society. Louisa explains that in order to avoid the ‘smoke and mirrors’ of carbon offsets…

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Editional Studio on persuading domestic clients to build less and retrofit more 45:46

3y ago45:46

45:46

Episide 31. The Manchester-based Jo Sharples and Jack Richards of Editional Studio share top tips from Decarbonise Your House Now!, a timely domestic retrofit guide they have put together for clients and architects. Each recommended retrofit measure is assessed in terms of ‘trigger points’ (if you’re doing X, consider Y) and ‘related opportunities’…

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Bob Prewett explains why Passivhaus is often too much for heritage buildings 34:23

3y ago34:23

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Episide 30. Retrofit expert Bob Prewett describes how a client’s brief for an ‘extreme retrofit’ in 2008 gave him ‘something bigger than architecture to think about’. Divided between London and Wells, the ten-strong Prewett Bizley Architects has a portfolio of completed retrofit projects that achieve upwards of 70% energy savings and regularly moni…

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ACAN founding member Sara Edmonds on ramping up domestic retrofit 40:00

3y ago40:00

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Episode 29. We speak to architect and ACAN (Architects Climate Action Network) steering group coordinator Sara Edmonds who is jumpstarting widespread conversations around domestic retrofit. Reaching beyond the bounds of architecture, Studio seARCH co-founder and Passivhaus designer Sara Edmonds is engaged in inclusive conversations across the domes…

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John Christophers on his zero carbon home, which generates a 40% energy surplus 48:39

3y ago48:39

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Episode 28. Architect John Christophers shares lessons from a decade of monitoring his own home which generates 40 per cent more energy than it uses. We continue our focus on building performance and explore what one can glean from monitoring a small project. In 2013, John retrofitted and extended a two-up two-down Victorian terraced house in Birmi…

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Lessons from AHMM’s Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School building performance study 42:24

3y ago42:24

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Episode 27. We continue our focus on building performance; AHMM sustainability lead Craig Robertson shares important lessons from a building performance study of 2015 Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School in southwest London. It is still much too rare for architects – and clients – to transparently share post-occupancy data, especially when it fl…

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Judit Kimpian on why building performance studies are crucial for net zero 46:05

3y ago46:05

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Episode 26. A year after publication, Judit Kimpian and Hattie Hartman revisit key messages from the book they co-authored with Sofie Pelsmakers. Judit explains why building performance studies de-risk the construction process and help ensure that what was designed actually gets built and operates as intended. She explains why it is so important to…

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AKT II’s Hanif Kara on CLT virtue signalling, concrete innovations and Bloomberg’s embodied carbon 54:01

3y ago54:01

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Episode 25. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we hear from structural engineer Hanif Kara who is working with leading architects on projects across the globe for ambitious clients with resources to deliver sustainable outcomes, including Google, Apple and British Land. Recent projects include Grafton’s Stirling-Prize winnin…

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Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum on why the climate crisis is not a north-south problem 43:33

3y ago43:33

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Episode 24. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, Soane Medal (2021) winner Tabassum describes her approach as distilling the essence of vernacular buildings into contemporary architecture Working on the front line of climate change in the Ganges delta, Tabassum is developing flat pack bamboo homes to bolster marginal communiti…

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Philippe Madec on combining sustainable development with Frampton’s critical regionalism 42:00

3+ y ago42:00

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Episode 23. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we continue our focus on France, speaking to one of the country’s leading practitioners of ecological architecture. Over four decades, Philippe Madec has combined practice, teaching and writing. He has built extensively across France: housing, public buildings, and many urban de…

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How France is pioneering contemporary architecture built from straw, hemp and thatch 42:54

3+ y ago42:54

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Episode 22. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. New year, new horizons: Climate Champions is going abroad in search of fresh approaches to ecological architecture. This week we continue talking to French architect and natural materials expert Dominique Gauzin-Müller, who explains why hybrid use of materials is the way forward. We also speak t…

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Why France is increasingly building with bio-renewable materials – with Dominique Gauzin-Müller 36:13

3+ y ago36:13

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Episode 21. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. New year, new horizons: Climate Champions is going abroad in search of fresh approaches to ecological architecture. This week we talk to French architect and natural materials expert Dominique Gauzin-Müller about France’s growing ‘frugal’ architecture movement. She also shares with us research i…

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Justin McGuirk on the Design Museum’s Waste Age exhibition and Kat Scott on the Architects Declare Practice Guide 46:10

3+ y ago46:10

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Episode 20. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. As 2021 crawls to a close, Hattie Hartman converses with Design Museum chief curator Justin McGuirk about the exhibition Waste Age: What Can Design Do, on show until 22 February. And if you’re still wondering how your practice can tackle the climate emergency, Architects Declare steering group m…

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Rachel Hoolahan on material passports for retrofit 41:15

3+ y ago41:15

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Episode 19. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. This week we continue our focus on reuse with a step-by-step approach to tagging the components of an existing building so that they can be dismantled and reused, just like Lego blocks. Hoolahan explains how she collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to develop an open source, design-led app…

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Duncan Baker-Brown on mining the Anthropocene 32:57

3+ y ago32:57

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Episode 18. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Architect and academic Duncan Baker-Brown shares the latest developments in material reuse, including his proposal for a pavilion at Glyndebourne Opera, sourced from materials on the Glyndebourne estate and the surrounding Sussex weald. For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal…

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COP26: Glasgow‘s plans for carbon neutrality by 2030 + ACAN‘s COP26 fringe activism 28:15

3+ y ago28:15

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Episode 17. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we speak to Glasgow City Council architect Paola Pasino about her work with Danish architect Jan Gehl to create the framework for much that is happening in Glasgow today. Our second guest is ACAN’s Evelyn Choy, who talks to us about the exhibitions, events and social media storm…

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COP26 pop-up activism and Glasgow’s new climate resilient public realm 35:04

3+ y ago35:04

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Ep 16. Continuing its focus on the international climate conference, AJ Climate Champions speaks to Becca Thomas of New Practice about activating a site just outside the COP26 secure zone as a destination for protesters, and Stephen O’Malley of Civic Engineers about redesigning the public realm of Glasgow city centre for active travel and resilienc…

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RIBA Climate Special with Simon Allford and Gary Clark 41:19

3+ y ago41:19

41:19

The new RIBA president discusses his advocacy role at COP26, and the chair of the institute’s Sustainable Futures Group explains revisions to the 2030 Climate Challenge targets. As COP26 in Glasgow approaches in early November, AJ Climate Champions puts the spotlight on the RIBA’s recently released Built for the Environment report, a global call fo…

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The 21st-century village: Sarah Featherstone and Jennifer Ross on VeloCity 37:10

4y ago37:10

37:10

Ep 14. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Architect Sarah Featherstone and planner Jennifer Ross, both members of the all-female VeloCity team, describe their 21st-century strategy for the English countryside: less cars, more bikes and new housing in village clusters linked to rail stations. Ross explains why we desperately need a joined-up …

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Rewilding expert Isabella Tree on why a 3,500-home development must be stopped 45:45

4y ago45:45

45:45

Ep 13. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In our continuing series on landscape and the biodiversity crisis, we speak to rewilding pioneer Isabella Tree of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, hailed as ‘one of the most exciting wildlife conservation projects in the UK.’ The conservationist and author explains why the proposed Buck Farm developm…

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Thamesmead Waterfront and Home of 2030, two competitions wins where ‘landscape is the glue’ 39:06

4y ago39:06

39:06

12. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Continuing its focus on landscape, Climate Champions turns its attention to two recent high-profile competitions where green and blue infrastructure promise to drive the design. First up is Thamesmead Waterfront, a 100-hectare riverfront site in Greenwich to be developed in a joint venture between Lendl…

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Landscape architect Jo Gibbons on why trees matter, urban forestry and greening our cities 43:59

4y ago43:59

43:59

11. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this second episode on landscape, we speak to Jo Gibbons of landscape practice J&L Gibbons whose wide-ranging work encompasses both the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden in Hackney and Walpole Park in Ealing, the setting of John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor. Gibbons explains why she won’t go near a project un…

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Barnabas Calder revisits architectural history through the lens of energy and climate 41:19

4y ago41:19

41:19

10. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Barnabas Calder charts the course of architectural history from hunter gatherers’ earliest mud and bone huts through coal-powered industrial Liverpool all the way to today’s search for regenerative design in Cork House (2019). Calder explains how he got hooked on a climatic approach to architectural his…