AJ Climate Champions

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

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.

RIBA Climate Special with Simon Allford and Gary Clark

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 Portland Place and insights on how his almost 500-strong practice, AHMM, delivers sustainable design.

Hattie Hartman also speaks with Gary Clark about the current workstreams of the RIBA's Sustainable Futures Group.

For show notes, go to https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

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

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 footpaths, and Featherstone reveals early proposals for Blenheim Estate which include Passivhaus housing and reinstated cycleways to facilitate school runs.

For show notes to this episode and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

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

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 government’s intended planning reforms.

For show notes to this episode and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

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

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 Selina Mason, director of masterplanning at Lendlease. 

The Home of 2030 competition called for innovative home designs that are ‘green, age-friendly and healthy’. We speak to Sarah Jones-Morris, director of Bristol-based Landsmith Associates and the landscape architect behind Igloo Regeneration’s winning proposal, about how green and blue infrastructure permeate the scheme. 

For show notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

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

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 bemoans the fact that there are so few landscape architects, while in architecture schools, architects too often design landscapes with minimal landscape tuition.

In a news roundup, co-hosts Hattie Hartman and George Morgan unpick the furore surrounding the Serpentine Pavilion’s carbon negative claims and the alarming findings of the latest Committee on Climate Change report.

For show notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

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

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 notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Guy Shrubsole on rewilding Britain and greening our cities

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 Hartman and George Morgan discuss the launch of ACAN’s Natural Materials workstream, architecture practice Orms’ new open source Material Passports tool and the RIBA’s Mandatory Competences consultation.

For show notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Steve Webb & Wilf Meynell: ‘We’re brainwashed into steel and concrete mode’

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 show notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Harry Paticas on empowering communities through the low-carbon retrofit of primary schools

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 professional retrofit expertise with a hands-on educational programme. Equipping children with thermal cameras and teaching them rudimentary building physics with hot baked potatoes, Paticas is expanding the reach of his retrofit know-how.

And in a quick news roundup, co-hosts Hattie Hartman and George Morgan share views on ACAN’s student activism campaign, greenwashing and Passivhaus myth-busting.

For show notes to this episode and to listen to all AJ podcasts, visit architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts