The Developer podcast

What is a community land trust and why start one? We speak to Tom Chance, chief executive of the Community Land Trust Network about this legal entity which gives communities ownership and power over land and property development. We dig into how CLTs get started, what types of homes and places CLTs are delivering from high street regeneration to affordable housing, and the three biggest challenges...

"It's about showing up, not just as a professional, but as a person; to bring your whole self." Founders Rachel Fisher and Liane Hartley talk about Urbanistas, a network for amplifying women's ideas to improve cities as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. From its early beginnings in London to its global expansion with several chapters around the world, from Manchester to New York, Sydney and Rott...

Listening to residents is informing change at Mount Anvil, including the pressing need to address the cost-of-living crisis by reducing energy use. But their approach to community engagement is also changing as a result: Marcus Bate, Partnerships and Communities Director, talks about how the Covid lockdowns made them realise the value of face-to-face conversations: “Forcing us to rely on digital h...

A fresh canon of queer architectural precedents drawn from a rich and undocumented cultural history, artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and architectural historian Joshua Mardell discuss their book Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Spaces and why it's so important that the Royal Institute of British Architects has published this book, giving up-and-coming queer designers a celebratory histor...

How do you transform an out-of-town business park into a place where people want to work? Ilaria de Beato, CEO, Frasers Property UK talks about shaking up the business park with sports and leisure facilities, better transport connections and a fresh commitment to sustainability, health and wellbeing for employees and tenants Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Local Space is a unique social housing provider that buys and refurbishes properties for homeless families in four London boroughs. Some have been evicted, others are living in their car or sofa-surfing in overcrowded housing. Their average length of tenancy is six years. Josie Parsons, CEO of Local Space, speaks about the cost of living crisis, their pilot project to refurbish homes to an EPC A a...

Socius describes itself as an “impactful developer” that balances profit alongside purpose to deliver sustainable mixed-use places. We catch up with directors Barry Jessup and Olaide Oboh to learn about their new development in Milton Keynes, their commitment to sustainable development, the B Corp journey and why design and architecture matters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

How do we break out of our silos and adopt more holistic ways of working? How do we renew our cities and places while respecting the environment and planetary boundaries? How can we take an equitable approach to planning and urban renewal in our cities in the context of a climate emergency? What does participatory planning look like, and why does it matter? Featuring Leonora Grcheva, Cities and Re...

If we don't do something about our high streets, town centres and people working from home, we will lose a way of life and the social fabric of our places, says Roger Wade, CEO, Boxpark in this interview. Wade makes a passionate plea for government to level the playing field between online retail and shopfronts in terms of business rates, arguing that physical retail can compete on content. "The c...

Approximately 1 in every 14 people over the age of 65 will suffer dementia in the UK, but as citizens they are often excluded from consultation on the design of our places and cities. Dr Samantha Biglieri’s research seeks to change that. Her work, which lies at the intersection of public health and urban planning, asks what we can learn from engaging with people suffering from dementia. What are w...

Turning historic buildings to new use, Tim Heatley, co-founder of developer Capital&Central, and Mark Braund, architect director at BDP talk about Stockport’s Weir Mill and how they're creating a community out of an historic mill complex and bringing mixed-use urban apartment-living to the suburbs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the cost of displacement through gentrification? What are the alternatives in the context of the private rental boom? How do we genuinely level up while renewing urban places, and ensure existing communities feel the benefit? Recorded live at the Festival of Place, we hear from Prof. Loretta Lees, an urban geographer and scholar-activist who wrote the book on gentrification and Alisha More...

Can the design of a place make people happier or healthier? Can architecture itself make a positive social impact, and can that value be quantified on a spreadsheet? We brought together a range of professionals for live podcast recording to discuss the impact, metrics and importance of social value. This podcast is supported by Hawkins\Brown, and features Matt Woolgar, Hadley Property Group; Hazel...

If you really want to tackle representation in your organisation, don't invite the marginalised to volunteer on a working group that will inevitably go nowhere. That's just one of the tips Dr Leslie Kern, author of Feminist City, shares in this talk from Festival of Place: Gender Equal Cities in a podcast episode sponsored by IE School of Architecture and Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

Developers discuss post-Covid public space and town centre design in the context of the climate emergency. Has the pandemic derailed or accelerated progress in making our cities more climate resilient? How do we design public spaces that support social connection and democracy while tackling critical urban issues such as flooding, drought, pollution and overheating? This live podcast recording is...

Those who perpetuate hate crimes attack people for being different, so can we design public spaces that make marginalised groups safer by making them less visible? Professor Pippa Catterall discusses the problem of violent attacks for the LGBTQ+ community and explains why a large echoey open public square can be a deeply uncomfortable space where individuals are easily targeted. What makes us stan...

As a maverick serial entrepreneur behind tech and innovation clusters including Canary Wharf's Level39 and the Olympic Park's Plexal, Claire Cockerton knows what kind of office environment helps start-ups thrive and grow. But in the post-Covid environment, she believes our approach to office space is changing - and to attract and support female founders, the attitude on site in tech clusters must...

With 80% of youth spaces occupied by boys, how can we create parks, play equipment and public spaces where young women and girls feel safe and that they belong? We talk to Make Space for Girls, a campaigning charity set up by author and TV producer Susannah Walker and lawyer Imogen Clark, who argue that providing public space for girls is more than an ideal, it's a legal requirement under the Equa...

"We need to understand why places are poor, why people have fewer life choices, why their health is poorer... all major factors in place-based inequality," says Andrew Westwood, Vice Dean for Social Responsibility at the University of Manchester and commissioner on the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission. In this podcast, we discuss how England is the most unequal country in the...

Imagine adding a few trees to your street, a public space, a few benches, maybe a bike rack. You may find it easy to envision your urban transformation, or at least know who to call to make that sketch. But how can the average citizen participate in the design process? That’s the question Ascha Lychett Pedersen is answering with her big app idea, Wild Streets. A macroeconomist and UN sustainabilit...

Going circular in construction is not just about saving the planet, it also saves on the bottom line, given the growing cost of waste disposal and the hidden costs of over-ordering in construction. In this podcast, May Al-Karooni, the inspirational founder and CEO of Globechain, talks about how she spotted the need for a reuse marketplace and sold the idea of circularity to the construction and bu...

Small post-industrial cities have walkable downtowns, affordable housing and the opportunity to become post-Covid places we want to be. But how can they avoid gentrification while attracting investment? Reif Larsen, founder of the Future of Small Cities Institute talks cars, resources and political influence. This podcast is supported by IE University School of Architecture and Design Hosted on Ac...

"Built spaces are important signifiers to outsiders, and people in power like to think that what they don't see, doesn't exist," says Dr Omeasoo Wahpasiw in this podcast from her popular talk at the Festival of Place. Wahpasiw is Assistant Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, in the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education, and has written about Indigenous feminism and about ho...

Find out more about the new part-time Global Master in Real Estate Development at IE University. "If you are passionate about real estate, if you're a city-maker, this part-time programme is for you. Just log in from wherever you are around the globe on Saturday afternoon." Martha Thorne, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design tells The Developer all about it in this sponsored podcast. Check...

When they started Capital & Centric, they wanted to create award-winning architecture, says co-founder Adam Higgins. Ten years on, it’s about more than that. It's about doing something for the people who don't live in the buildings. Higgins talks working with "ugly" buildings, the barriers to lush landscape architecture, and about the Dutch and Scandi influences behind their Kampus development in...