AJ Climate Champions

Episode 40. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we explore the global phenomenon of shrinking villages in the countryside, hearing about a remarkable series of interventions in southeastern China by DnA_Design, a small Beijing practice.

Xu advocates a role change for architects in both rural and urban contexts. Architects should no longer accept a commission as given, but take the initiative and evaluate a project’s regional context to make a proposal that is unique and rooted in its place.

In less than a decade, Xu and her team have built more than 20 projects that vary widely in programme and materiality: a tofu factory, a museum, performance spaces and a sugar factory. These projects have attracted new residents back to formerly dilapidated villages by creating jobs and a sense of purpose in these forgotten places.

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY Win a copy of Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book (Penguin 2022). We have two copies to give away. To enter the prize draw, email [email protected] with your name, address, affiliation and a testimonial about the podcast before 15 January 2023. We will choose the winners in the new year.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Slade, head of historic building climate change adaptation at Historic England, explains why insulation is the area of highest risk.

As a conservation-accredited building surveyor with deep interests in both the natural and built environment, Slade explains the role of Historic England as a statutory consultee in planning, in provision of technical guidance and training, and in research to confront upcoming climate challenges. In this episode, she argues that sustainability and conservation are ‘well-matched’ to deliver change on the ground.

Slade also details the range of guidance and webinars available from Historic England, as well as the current research agenda which includes ‘hazard mapping’ of regional risks. This involves granular mapping of overheating, flooding, slope collapse, shrink-swell capacity and storm exposure under different emissions scenarios and their implications for the built environment.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman.In our second episode exploring how sustainability impacts heritage buildings, we speak to Procter-Rihl Architects’ Chris Procter, lead author of ACAN’s Climate Emergency Conservation Area Toolkit – England. Chris explains how conservation areas can streamline the consent process by developing a pattern book approach to building elements.

Chris’ detailed audit of Islington’s Cross Street Conservation Area found that two-thirds of existing single-glazed windows could be suitable for double or triple-glazing, 44% of solid external walls could be wrapped in external wall insulation and over 30% of roofs could be fitted with solar panels.

Chris also delves into the sensitive topic of window replacement, arguing that if existing windows do not conform to the original window pattern of a building, they should qualify for upgrading. He advocates development of a pattern book of details, complete with approved manufacturers, to simplify the consent process for building owners, relieve planners’ workloads, and speed up retrofit. Chris argues that this should be done locally based on specific building types.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episode 37. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. 5th Studio co-founder Oliver Smith shares his radical approach to upgrading listed buildings. He talksabout the practice’s radical retrofit of New Court at Trinity College, Cambridge. Completed in 2016, New Court remains a trailblazing project because it pioneered an ambitious sustainability agenda in a Grade I-listed building using a nuanced approach that balanced heritage concerns with upgrading thermal and energy performance and internal comfort.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episode 36. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, Pelsmakers argues that teaching values must be at the heart of architectural education. She believes students are bombarded with too much technical information on sustainability and that a strong grounding in architectural ethics is essential in order to apply technical knowledge for the best possible built environment and social equity outcomes. This approach requires not only new curriculum content, but a shift from master-apprentice to more democratic and inclusive peer-to-peer learning.

Sharing insights from having taught recently in seven different schools of architecture, structural engineer and educator Cíaran Malik notes that curriculum reform has not kept pace with students’ demands for change and that retrofit remains a minority topic. Malik argues that once students develop an intuitive understanding, grounded in evidence, they can begin to experiment with results that are both ‘beautiful and exciting.’

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episode 35. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Environmental engineer Patrick Bellew of Atelier Ten shares insight from having worked on high-profile architectural projects, including the new Google HQ at King's Cross designed by Heatherwick Studio. He explains that post-pandemic ventilation rates in commercial offices have tripled with radiant solutions replacing blown air systems, and how this can be done while still controlling energy use.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

In association with Velux

Episode 34. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Glasgow climate activist Scott McAulay and ACAN’s Rosie Murphy advocate for a curriculum which empowers students as changemakers.

McAulay, founder of the virtual Anthropocene Architecture School, argues that the answer to every brief should not be a new building. Architects must rethink their role as stewards of the built environment rather than designers, and students should be taught to scrutinise a brief in its larger context. Perhaps a vacant or underutilised building nearby can be transformed to meet a client’s needs.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

In association with Velux

Episode 33. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Velux director of sustainable buildings Lone Feifer explains why ‘relative’ sustainability, improvement on previous standards, is no longer good enough. ‘One planet means one carbon budget with a fixed amount available for buildings,’ she says. It’s not about improving relative to previously accepted standards.

Lone also describes how Denmark’s new building regulations, effective in January 2023, will regulate whole life carbon by requiring life cycle assessment for projects and setting benchmarks for different building types. For homes, Feifer advocates the Active House Alliance’s adaptive comfort approach rather than the absolute comfort ranges prescribed by Passivhaus.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

In association with Velux

Episode 32. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman.In this episode, we speak to Louisa Bowles - winner of this year’s AJ100 Sustainability Champion award - about Hawkins\Brown’s two-pronged approach to sustainability: reducing carbon emissions and enhancing society. Louisa explains that in order to avoid the ‘smoke and mirrors’ of carbon offsets, calling a project 'net zero' should increasingly rely on annual operational energy reporting, public data disclosure and third-party verification.

For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts

Episide 31. The Manchester-based Jo Sharples and Jack Richards of Editional Studio share top tips from Decarbonise Your House Now!, a timely domestic retrofit guide they have put together for clients and architects.

Each recommended retrofit measure is assessed in terms of ‘trigger points’ (if you’re doing X, consider Y) and ‘related opportunities’ (if you’re doing x, consider the optimal low carbon approach). Launched in late 2021, Decarbonise Your House Now! forms the basis of an ongoing exhibition in Editional Studio’s studio shopfront in Manchester’s Chorlton neighbourhood.