Green Urbanist - Placemaking in the Climate Crisis

My guest and tour guide today in Divya Hariramani Herrero. She is a sustainability consultant and Associate Director at Longevity Partners, a London National Park City Ranger and runs an instagram page called Fruity Walks, where she is chronicling the amazing and surprising fruit tree of London and beyond. She is fascinated by all aspects of sustainability from low energy engineering to growing fr...

In today’s episode we’re talking about the contentious issue of tall buildings. Some people love them, some people hate them. My guests today have come up with a concept for high rise that could be much more sustainable and adaptable than conventional skyscrapers.  My guests today are Tomas Stokke and Shonn Mills. Tomas is a co-founder of Haptic Architects based in London and Oslo. He overseas Hap...

To celebrate the 50th episode and second birthday of the Green Urbanist Podcast, I sit down with Giulia Mori to discuss the question: What has to happen in this critical decade to ensure successful climate action? We talk about: The need for legislation to push the building industry towards sustainability Circular economy and 'Circular Score', a concept Giulia developed with some collabo...

Reporting live from Footprint+ 2022, a new sustainability conference in Brighton, UK.  Featuring interviews with: Joe Jack Williams, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Barny Evans, Turley Amin Taha, Groupwork  Steve Webb, Webb Yates Engineers Tim Pyne, Footprint+ (Footprint Plus)   U+I Q-Bot Raw Charging We discuss a range of topics including the net zero energy transition, building with stone and timb...

Gustavo and Younha are both Technical Directors at Atelier Ten, an environmental design consultancy. Combining expertise in architecture and engineering they shape buildings and masterplans to be sustainable and healthy.  In this episode we discuss: What is environmental design and how it differs for buildings and masterplans Circular design in masterplanning Carbon emissions and sinks in landscap...

Biophilia is about how we as humans have an innate love and connection to other living things. It is no surprise then that spending time in natural environments such as forests, mountains and parks, is extremely beneficial to our mental and physical health. But how can we recreate our natural biophilic habitat in urban areas? Can we make cities good homes for other living things too? Sources (arti...

This episode is a conversation with Samantha Suppiah, Christina Mirasol Sayson, Anna Denardin and Nolita Mvunelo of Possible Futures .    We talk about colonialism and sustainability, the realities of life in the Global South and the need for communities to be able to define their own vision for a regenerative future. Note: This episode is pretty heavy and may be challenging for listeners in the G...

In this episode, we talk about Farah's new book Net Zero City, the role of urban design in achieving a net zero city, and a clear process for cities to decarbonise in 10 years. Farah Naz, is an award winning Climate Change strategist with over 20 years’ experience in the construction sector gained in the USA, UK, Southeast Asia and most recently the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She is a Charte...

Steve O'Reilly works in a policy & communications role at Ireland's national centre for the Circular Economy, The Rediscovery Centre. Steve spent over 7 years in the Netherlands, Europe's circular economy hotspot, working on many projects related to circularity and becoming inspired by the circular innovation he saw there. Upon returning to Ireland during the pandemic, Steve too...

It turns out what's good for us is also good for the planet. How can we design housing for human beings that aligns with our evolution? In this episode I talk about how Co-Housing and Eco-Village concepts could be a proxy for hunter gatherer tribes by creating small, cooperative communities within urban settings. This way of living has huge benefits for our wellbeing and can also be an effect...

This episode is part 1 of a series about  human evolution, our prehistory and Hunter Gatherer ways of life. Why should urbanists be interested in this? In this episode I make the argument that: We evolved over 2 million years as foragers and it is the only environmentally and socially sustainable way of life we know of. Living this way, embedded within ecosystems, is what what we are optimised for...

Michael Pawlyn established Exploration Architecture in 2007 and has built a reputation as a thought leader in regenerative design and the circular economy. He has lectured internationally and, in 2011, became one of only a small handful of architects to have a talk posted on TED.com which has since had over 1.8 million views. He is the author of Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergen...

Today we’re talking about the intersection of of mobility, sustainability, social justice and disability rights. I am joined by Anna, Micah and Abby from Disability Rights Washington who are part of the Disability Mobility Initiative for Washington State in the US. They are doing amazing work in sharing the stories of how people with disabilities move around and campaigning for systemic change in...

Simon is CEO of the business improvement districts Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town , as well as being CEO of Camden Collective , & the Camden Highline .  He is also Co-Chair of the Cross River Partnership and Chair of Camden Giving .  Simon sits on the London Enterprise Action Partnership (LEAP) and is its Champion for Small Business.  During the pandemic Simon was seconded to Mayor’s Co...

Dr Morgan Philips is UK Co-Director of The Glacier Trust, a UK charity that enables remote mountain communities in Nepal to adapt to Climate Change, and Head of Insight at Global Action Plan. He has a PhD in Environmental Education and is the author of Great Adaptations, a new book about climate adaptation. In this episode we are talking, unsurprisingly, about climate adaptation. What is it, why w...

"So, here's a big problem we need to talk about. Net Zero Carbon means different things in different situations. We all get to define what we "mean" by net zero (i.e. what we include in our calculations) to suit our project." In this episode I delve into the problems associated with the term 'Net Zero Carbon', particularly from an urban design and placemaking per...

Soils matter! Chris Churchman explains how protecting green areas and improving soil quality is crucial for fighting climate change.  Chris is a landscape architect and strategist, and the founding Director of Churchman Thornhill Finch landscape architects. As well as having decades of experience designing stunning projects like the gardens of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Chris is in...

Rachel Hoolahan is an architect and sustainability co-ordinator at Orms Architects, a leading London practice with extensive experience working with existing buildings. For the past few years, the practice has engaged in a series of deep research assignments and is utilising this data and knowledge to push the boundaries of sustainable development – both in refurbishment and new build projects. Re...

George is an urban designer at Create Streets, working to create greener, happier and healthier communities. He believes that designers have a key role to play in safeguarding the long-term well-being of communities and our environment through design that recognizes the value of nature, local context and sustainable connectivity. He has a background in human geography and holds a Masters’ in urban...

This episode explains the concept of Doughnut Economics and explores how Amsterdam is using it in its post-Covid recovery. References: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/25/amsterdam-brussels-bet-on-doughnut-economics-amid-covid-crisis.html https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/policy/sustainability/circular-economy/ https://matchboxstudio.medium.com/designing-the-doughnut-a-story-of-five-cities-8bad04ded5e3 http...

Watch a video of this episode on Conrad's YouTube channel: Conrad is a mobility and climate activist with an international academic and professional background in urban and transport planning, engineering and design across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. His experiences span the transport spectrum – he has worked on traditional infrastructure projects, such as Bus Rap...

Scott is an activist, architectural designer, educator and writer. Disgruntled with the lack of focus on sustainability and climate change within architectural education, Scott began the Anthropocene Architecture School, which fuses architectural education, climate literacies and sustainable design - utilising activist media strategies and educational workshops to catalyse and support responses to...

 Ran Boydell has studied and practised architecture in the UK and his native Australia for over three decades, with particular emphasis on sustainability, heritage, and rural architecture. Today, Ran is passionate about delivering on zero-carbon targets, implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and working across disciplines and industry sectors to help drive a rapid and radical transiti...

Dr Hossein Sadri is concerned with making the planet a better place to live and works as an activist, designer, writer, and teacher to create this change. He is the co-founder of De-Urban Design Studio; the design laboratory that reimagines human settlements as ethical, ecological, and equitable living habitats. He also teaches architecture at Coventry University. We talk about: The concept of De-...

Balazs is founder of Green Urbanics, marketplace and blog for innovative, nature-based, urban sustainability solutions. He has a long career in business development and innovation, but with a background in ecology. His mission is to support regenerative businesses and bring the best solutions to city governments so they can quickly deploy them and take action on climate change. Innovative Solution...