Urban Forecast

In this episode, we speak to Alice Holden, Farmitect at Sitopia Farm, an Urban Farm in Barking and Dagenham.Alice has over 20 years of experience working on organic farms of various types and scales. Since 2012, she has been Head Grower at Growing Communities’ Dagenham farm and led the transformation of a disused ex-council nursery site into a productive peri-urban, organic, urban farm.Her work shows that urban farming can successfully combine environmental and community benefits, making her the perfect guest for our new episode of Urban Forecast.

In this episode we speak to Nick Bowes; Chief Executive of the Centre for London.Nick has over 20 years of experience in public affairs, policy, campaigning and politics at senior level in trade associations, government, professional societies and political parties. He was Sadiq Khan's Director of Policy at City Hall for five years and has a long track record of delivery in large organisations.In his roles, Nick’s knowledge of how to translate research into effective policy, plus his incredible passion for London make him the perfect guest for our new episode of Urban Forecast.

In our 7th episode of Season 2, we sat down with Claire Bennie, Director at Municipal and part of Sadiq Khan’s Mayor’s Design Advocate team.Claire holds numerous high profile roles in the industry including Chair of the Design Advisory Group for LB Enfield’s Meridian Water scheme and Design Review Panels at Brighton & Hove and Kingston councils.Claire’s experience as an Architect, and then a Development Director for a Housing Association gave her a unique insight into what ingredients are required to deliver quality housing that works for the people that occupy it. This knowledge informs Claire’s current work at Municipal, and her incredible experience is shown in the recently published ‘Delivering Quality Homes Handbook’This episode is a must-listen for any professional that procures housing, and any designer employed by them!

In this episode we speak to Steve Gilchrist; Project Director at Grosvenor; Author of Steve’s Newsletter and organiser of the Circular Steel Event, which focuses on the current challenges and possible solutions to steel reuse.Steve specialises in sustainability and innovation and his experience in Contracting, Civil/Structural Design and Project Management make him another great guest to talk about how the cities of the future should be designed and which role the Circular Economy will play in the planning process.

In this episode we speak to Steve Smith; Founder and Director of Urban Narrative, which he set up following extensive experience working on large-scale master planning projects across the globe. Urban Narrative specialise in the very first part of a project, which Steve believes is the most important stage; setting the brief. Steve is an expert in urban research and interactive design and his experience working on projects across Europe, Asia and Australia makes him the perfect guest to talk about how the cities of the future should be designed and what matters when working with clients on setting the direction of a project, and how successful projects should be measured. 

In this episode we speak to Mark Hallett; Development Director at Igloo Regeneration, Board of Pobl Group and Non-Executive Director of the Design Commission of Wales.Mark has an incredible track record in housing, development and architecture.His extensive experience in delivering Large Scale Urban Regeneration projects that act as catalysts for wider redevelopment means that he is the perfect guest to discuss what is required to build more Sustainable Cities in the Future.

2022 is the year where Co-living has really established itself as the new kid on the Purpose-Built Rental Sector block.With the end of Covid, and the recognition of the Sector within the New London Plan, investors are looking to Co-living to give them returns that a flat residential market is failing to do.Much of the charge is being led by Halcyon, who spun out of The Collective and have delivered 2 of the projects that were in The Collective’s pipeline at the time when it entered administration.We recently sat down with Harry Manley and Russ Beresford of Halcyon to discuss how they’re pioneering the world of co-living and what it could mean for the cities of the future.Listen to the episode to learn what Russ and Harry think about:How big the opportunity for the sector isWhat the planning context is for delivering schemesHow to build a community that worksWhat the optimum room size isHow the sector can deliver solutions to both the cost of living crisis, and the climate emergency

In this episode we speak to Gaia Vince; Guardian journalist, Scientist, Author, and Broadcaster.Gaia spent 2 years researching her first book, Adventures in the Anthropocene’ by travelling, largely in the global South, witnessing the impact humanity has had on the world.In her latest book ‘Nomad Century’, Gaia sets out how we need to start planning now for the impact of climate change on global migration, as many parts of the world become uninhabitable.“Cities are the answer… by the end of the century, almost everyone will live in cities… and this is a good thing because energy, water… all of these things are more efficient”.This is a fascinating discussion about how we need to plan for a century of upheaval, and what this means for the Built Environment today.

Dan Jestico is Director of Sustainable Design at Savills Earth. In this fascinating episode, Dan shares his key recommendations for how the built environment sector can work towards a net zero world. 

Euan Mills is the Head of Digital Planning at Connected Places Catapult where he co-leads a programme of work looking at how new technology can help us plan cities better. In this episode Euan shares his insights on how digital principals will change the way our cities are planned, built and experienced.