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 domestic retrofit space from the political to the practical, establishing ties with the New Economics Foundation and Insulate Britain. In this wide-ranging...
Jun 10, 2022•40 min•Ep. 29
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 Birmingham’s Balsall Heath neighbourhood, adding Passivhaus levels of insulation and triple-glazing to the existing house. The extension features unfired l...
May 26, 2022•49 min•Ep. 28
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 flags up a significant performance gap, so kudos to AHMM for sharing this study with us. In the case of Burntwood School, heating loads were nine times ...
May 11, 2022•42 min•Ep. 27
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 stay with a project during a one-to-three-year ‘landing’ period after completion, to ensure proper commissioning, monitor both energy and indoor envi...
Apr 27, 2022•46 min•Ep. 26
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 winning Town House in Kingston, Grafton’s Marshall Building at the LSE, Foster + Partners' Bloomberg building and the new Google headquarters currently on s...
Apr 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 25
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 communities devastated by seasonal flooding. ‘How relevant are we as a profession if we just cater our services to one per cent of the people?’, she asks. Taba...
Mar 21, 2022•44 min•Ep. 24
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 design and masterplanning projects which feature abundant green spaces. He also explains why he is no longer interested in Passivhaus. For show notes to...
Mar 01, 2022•42 min•Ep. 23
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 to French structural engineer and ACAN member Frédéric Bourgeon about France’s new embodied carbon regulations. For show notes to this episode, go to w...
Feb 09, 2022•43 min•Ep. 22
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 in ‘poured earth’ which she sees as an alternative to concrete. For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts...
Jan 26, 2022•36 min•Ep. 21
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 member Kat Scott reveals AD’s long-awaited Practice Guide, packed with tips for every practice – large or small – no matter where you are on your sust...
Dec 16, 2021•46 min•Ep. 20
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 approach to material passports for retrofit, an initiative that won her this year’s AJ100 Sustainability Champion award. For show notes to this episode, ...
Dec 01, 2021•41 min•Ep. 19
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.co.uk/podcasts
Nov 17, 2021•33 min•Ep. 18
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 the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) is hosting during COP26. Hattie Hartman highlights the key built environment reports launched for the in...
Nov 02, 2021•28 min•Ep. 17
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 resiliency. For show notes to this episode and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here ....
Oct 21, 2021•35 min•Ep. 16
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 for governments to harness the built environment’s role in tackling climate change. Allford shares his ambitions for a House of Architecture at 66 Portl...
Oct 05, 2021•41 min•Ep. 15
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 approach to spatial planning that focuses on villages clustered within a 7-mile radius to lure people out of their cars and onto bicycles and footpath...
Aug 18, 2021•37 min•Ep. 14
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 development – which goes before Horsham District Council this week – epitomises the current controversy between the upcoming Environment Bill and the governme...
Jul 27, 2021•46 min•Ep. 13
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 Lendlease and Peabody, the site’s owner. To hear about the winning scheme, we speak to Phil Askew, director of landscape and placemaking at Peabody, and Se...
Jul 08, 2021•39 min•Ep. 12
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 unless she’s involved from the outset and why today, diversity of planting is essential for biosecurity. A frequent external examiner, Gibbons bemoa...
Jun 23, 2021•44 min•Ep. 11
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 history and why he’s concluded that ‘small is good’, deciding to retrofit his current Liverpool terrace rather than upgrade to a larger home. For show no...
Jun 10, 2021•41 min•Ep. 10
9. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this first of several episodes on landscape and biodiversity, we speak to Guy Shrubsole, policy and campaigns co-ordinator at Rewilding Britain and author of Who Owns England? Shrubsole explains why land ownership patterns in England are at the root of the housing crisis, the extent to which agricultural practices are responsible for the ecological crisis and how rewilding can help restore biodiversity. And in a brief news roundup, co-hosts Hattie ...
May 26, 2021•46 min•Ep. 9
8. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Steve Webb of Webb Yates Engineers explains how to persuade clients to use more timber and stone, and Wilf Meynell shares Studio Bark’s approach to Victorian house extensions. Webb describes what it will take to transform an industry fixated on concrete and steel, and outlines simple steps to decarbonise Victorian house extensions, while Meynell explains the budget challenges of low-carbon retrofit and why architecture is essentially political. For sh...
Apr 15, 2021•47 min•Ep. 8
7. AJ Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Harry Paticas explains why he left architectural practice to focus on retrofitting schools, and how he educates schoolchildren on the climate emergency. After more than a decade at Arboreal Architecture, the practice he co-founded in 2007, Paticas left in January 2021 to work full-time on RAFT, Retrofit Action for Tomorrow, a Lewisham-based community enterprise he founded that promotes low-carbon retrofit in primary schools. RAFT combines profess...
Mar 31, 2021•45 min•Ep. 7
Bonus episode. AJ Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Author and critic Owen Hatherley describes approaches to the retrofit of Modernist buildings, lessons learned from post-Soviet housing and why he thinks White Design’s straw bale Lilac Cohousing in Leeds could be a replicable new build approach. The AJ's Will Hurst explains the tactics and ambitions of the RetroFirst campaign, from engaging with MPs to raising public awareness, as well as the policy levers necessary to prioritise retr...
Mar 11, 2021•47 min•Ep. 7
6. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. In the final episode in this series, German architect Anna Heringer talks to the AJ about mainstream building with earth, her 'Corona baby' – a birth space in the Vorarlberg region of Austria, and her pipeline of projects in Germany, Spain and Ghana.
Jan 27, 2021•43 min•Ep. 6
5. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. This episode centres on the retrofit of Stock Orchard Street, Wigglesworth's home and office completed in 2001. The Stock Orchard Street retrofit, completed in 2020, tackled maintenance and repair, a deep environmental upgrade and rethinking the house for ageing gracefully.
Jan 13, 2021•39 min•Ep. 5
4. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Diana Dina, head of sustainability and regenerative design at Haworth Tompkins, shares her insights on how to be a changemaker in a large architecture practice. The episode also features a discussion with Lauren Shevills of ACAN on Foster + Partners and ZHA's controversial departure from Architects Declare.
Dec 16, 2020•41 min•Ep. 4
3. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Architect, author, educator and sustainability expert Sofie Pelsmakers shares insights on sustainable design from the Nordic region, and discusses the urgent need for top-down architecture curriculum reform.
Dec 02, 2020•44 min•Ep. 3
2. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Mikhail Riches' Annalie Riches discusses the Stirling Prize-winning Goldsmith Street scheme, and the critical importance of learning from completed projects. Sponsored by the Green Building Store.
Nov 18, 2020•40 min•Ep. 2
1. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Buro Happold's director of sustainability explains why she felt she had to leave architecture and retrain as an engineer.
Oct 22, 2020•41 min•Ep. 1
