Xavier Smales is an Architect and Andy Tugby is Head of Sustainable Construction at Human Nature, a developer based in the south of England. They join me to discuss their approach to designing sustainable neighbourhoods and how they're putting this into action with a development called The Phoenix. We discuss urban design principles for sustainable lifestyles, low carbon architecture, circular economy and more. Click here to see the companion blog post on Substack for visuals of the project!Find out more about Human Nature and The Phoenix here:https://www.humannature-places.com/phoenix- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Joe Morris is Founding Director of Morris+Company architects, based in London and Copenhagen. In this episode, he gives me a tour of their newly refurbished London office while we discuss their philosophy and approach to architecture, sustainability, circularity and connection between food and urbanism. I have collated images of all the projects we talk about in this episode in a companion blog post on my Substack. Check it out while you listen!https://morrisand.company/- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Civic Square is a Public Square, a Neighbourhood Economics Lab and a Creative + Participatory Ecosystem. They have been doing amazing work around systems change at the neighbourhood level in Ladywood, Birmingham, where they are based. Their main projects to date include creating a Neighbourhood Doughnut based on Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics concept and exploring the invisible infrastructure needed to transition their neighbourhood towards a sustainable future.In this episode, we also have a long chat about how they are funded and the difficult reality of engaging in meaningful systems change work that doesn’t come with a blueprint. Civic Square website: https://civicsquare.cc/Ladywood Neighbourhood Doughnut: https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/213Listen to episode #33: Doughnut Economics Explained and What it Means for Cities- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Read the companion blog post to his episode on Substack. Israa Mahmoud is Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Her research interests include nature-based solutions, co-design and urban governance. Her recent publications include The book Placemaking for Green Urban Regeneration, published by Springer. She is the research team leader together with Prof. Eugenio Morello on CLEVER Cities Project as an expert of Co-creation guidance for cities to implement Nature-based solutions in socially inclusive urban regeneration processes.We talk about:Nature-based solutionsThe need to take a place-based approach to NbSCo-designing by immersion with communitiesThe sweet spot between top down and grassroots approaches to urban changeCLEVER Cities project and case studies in Milan Learn more about Israa and her publications here. Learn more about the CLEVER Cities project here. - - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Read the companion blog post to this episode on Substack. Dr Helen Pineo MRTPI is an urban planner and Associate Professor in Healthy and Sustainable Cities in the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London. Her research focuses on how property development, regeneration and urban policy can support health and sustainability. She contributes to the evidence base about why and how to do healthy urbanism by using transdisciplinary approaches and amplifying the needs of underrepresented communities and the planet. Her book, Healthy Urbanism: Designing and Planning Equitable, Sustainable and Inclusive Places, re-defines the meaning and form of healthy urban environments. If you want to buy the book, you can get a 40% discount through end of March 2023. Paste the coupon code HIGHLIGHTS22 at checkout. Buy the book here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-9647-3 Find out more about Helen and her work here: https://healthyurbanism.net/- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

In this episode I fact check the article  "There are a lot of dangerous myths" about sustainability says Norman Foster, which appeared on dezeen.com on 17th January 2023.  The architect made some controversial statements about sustainability and defended Foster & Partner's decision to keep designing airports and leave Architects Declare. This episode is in no way an attack on the fine people who work at Foster & Partners or the work they do to design sustainable buildings. It is just a fact check of some of the controversial statements made by Foster himself, to help people understand the climate science.Relevant episode for further listening: #21: Jake Attwood-Harris (Hawkins\Brown) - Whole Life Carbon, Zero Carbon Architecture and Retrofitting for SustainabilityRelevant links and further readinghttps://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/foster-partners-zaha-hadid-architects-quit-architects-declare/#:~:text=Foster %2B Partners and Zaha Hadid,climate action can be policed.https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uks-jet-zero-plan-would-allow-demand-for-flying-to-soar-70/https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviationhttps://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/nuclear-waste-pilesscientists-seek-best/98/i12https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/11/26/the-staggering-timescales-of-nuclear-waste-disposal/?sh=5ba3bc729cf5https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/fuel-seawater-whats-catch-180953623/#:~:text=Now%2C scientists at the U.S.,plane as proof of concept.https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/question192.htm- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

See links and images on the companion blog post.Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books including ‘The Transition Handbook‘ and most recently, ‘From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want’. He is an Ashoka Fellow, has spoken at TED Global and at several TEDx events, and appeared in the French film phenomenon ‘Demain‘. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth, and is a Director of Totnes Community Development Society and of New Lion Brewery. He also hosts the podcast ‘From What If to What Next‘. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the Mayor of the city. His website is robhopkins.net.- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Climate change is causing local weather patterns and ecosystems to shift and transform. In order to thrive in this new climate era, we will need to transform our cities and urban ecosystems. This is called 'Transformational Adaptation'. My co-host today is Giulia Mori and in this episode we discuss:What is Transformational Adaptation and why we need itHow ecosystems are transforming due to climate change2 case studies of transformation and what we can learn from them Some thoughts on how we could reimagine urban parks for the futureKey Reference: Colloff, M.J., Wise, R.M., Palomo, I., Lavorel, S. and Pascual, U. (2020) ‘Nature’s contribution to adaptation: insights from examples of the transformation of social-ecological systems’, Ecosystems and People, 16(1), pp. 137–150. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2020.1754919.Barcelona Case Study:Zografos, C., Klause, K.A., Connolly, J.J.T. and Anguelovski, I. (2020) ‘The everyday politics of urban transformational adaptation: Struggles for authority and the Barcelona superblock project’, Cities, 99, p. 102613. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102613 Select bibliography of other relevant papers:Brown, R.D., Vanos, J., Kenny, N. and Lenzholzer, S. (2015) ‘Designing urban parks that ameliorate the effects of climate change’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 138, pp. 118–131. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.006.Burley, H., Beaumont, L.J., Ossola, A., Baumgartner, J.B., Gallagher, R., Laffan, S., Esperon-Rodriguez, M., Manea, A. and Leishman, M.R. (2019) ‘Substantial declines in urban tree habitat predicted under climate change’, Science of The Total Environment, 685, pp. 451–462. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.287.Esperon-Rodriguez, M., Ordoñez, C., van Doorn, N.S., Hirons, A. and Messier, C. (2022) ‘Using climate analogues and vulnerability metrics to inform urban tree species selection in a changing climate: The case for Canadian cities’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 228, p. 104578. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104578.Gill, S.E., Handley, J.F., Ennos, A.R. and Pauleit, S. (2007) ‘Adapting Cities for Climate Change: The Role of the Green Infrastructure’, Built Environment, 33(1), pp. 115–133. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.33.1.115.- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Companion blog post on Substack I speak to Will Poole (Partner) Jack Pritchard (Associate Urban Designer) and Sophia Ceneda (Architect and Sustainability Lead) at Glenn Howells Architects. Glenn Howells Architects are based in London and Birmingham. They’ve designed award winning housing, tall buildings and masterplans across the UK. Our conversation focuses on how over the last few years they have shifted their approach towards sustainable design, and developed their own studio culture and processes internally for delivering sustainable projects. If you are interested in how to embed sustainability within a design practice, you’ll definitely get some insights from this conversation. We also talk about the challenges of designing sustainable tall buildings and their thoughts on designing for climate adaptation.https://www.glennhowells.co.uk/- - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin

Companion blog post on Substack Laura is Head of Sustainability at Purcell, a practice of architects, heritage consultants and masterplanners working on historic structures. In this episode, we discuss Purcell's work to improve the sustainability of iconic cathedrals and advice for improving the sustainability of historic buildings of all types by taking the right approach. Links Ted Talk: How to find joy in climate action Purcell website Laura's Linkedin - - -Get 10% off Course: Sustainability Essentials for Built Environment ProfessionalsSubscribe to the Green Urbanist Newsletter Contact Ross Website Linkedin