AJ Climate Champions

Nov 13 2024 55 ep. 40 mins 43

AJ Climate Champions Podcast artwork

Brought to you by the Architects’ Journal. AJ sustainability editor Hattie Hartman and architect George Morgan talk to changemakers and innovators who are transforming architecture as we know it by designing in ways that respect planetary boundaries. In association with ACAN, the Architects Climate Action Network.

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Chipperfield’s MC Piccinelli on how retrofit can enhance creativity

Nov 13 2024 43 mins

Episode 53. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions is back, with a new series focusing on retrofit. Our guest today is Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, associate director and project lead on the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Global Hub (FLGH). In the episode she explains how each building element requires one-to-one conversations to de

Why earth is the ultimate circular material

May 23 2024 42 mins

Episode 52. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. To achieve replication at scale, Nicolas Coeckelberghs of Brussels-based BC Materials favours compressed earth blocks over rammed earth. ‘Our goal is to bring earthen construction from a niche to a growing market,’ says Coeckelberghs. He likens this challenge to playing chess on multiple fronts, creati

Vinu Daniel on transforming mud and waste into architecture

May 08 2024 40 mins

Episode 51. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Daniel views mud and waste as opportunities, not obstacles. He advocates an approach of ‘maximum optimism’, explaining that mud and waste enhance his designs. ‘I follow the materials; they do not follow me,’ he says. Sourcing materials primarily from within five miles of a site, Daniel describes ho

Carmody Groarke’s Sian Ricketts on making bricks from waste

Apr 24 2024 26 mins

Episode 50. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Carmody Groarke sustainability lead Sian Ricketts explains how architecture can adapt to the reality of finite resources and an abundance of waste. Ricketts says that architects should develop their intuition and new rules of thumb to design for a changing climate. Architecture needs to adapt to incorporat

AKTII’s David Watson on how to reduce the environmental impacts of brick

Apr 10 2024 42 mins

Ep 49. Structural engineer David Watson describes the enduring appeal of brick and its underexploited superpower: reuse Brick has many advantages: durability, aesthetics, use as both envelope and structure, and the possibility of local (even artisanal) production. This last point differentiates it from steel and concrete, due to the Ordinary Portland Cement needed for concrete prod

‘Over-specification of concrete is an industry addiction’

Mar 27 2024 38 mins

Episode 48. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Structural engineer Eva MacNamara of Expedition Engineering explains how we can radically reduce our use of concrete and how to better understand the biodiversity impacts of material choices. In this episode, we dive into the tricky topic of concrete and unpick the widespread mantra that ‘concrete is bad�

Henning Larsen’s Martha Lewis on how to screen materials for both chemicals and carbon

Mar 13 2024 38 mins

For the first in a new six-part series on materials, Hattie is joined by co-host Joe Jack Williams to interview Martha Lewis, head of materials at Danish practice Henning Larsen. Lewis argues that a baseline of health and environmental impacts should inform material specification, and explains why a holistic approach is essential to navigate the nuances of material selection. She d

‘I’m no longer the wood weirdo,’ says Andrew Waugh

Dec 14 2023 47 mins

Episode 46. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Andrew Waugh explains how building with timber can address industry transformation at scale. ‘I want to transform the whole industry,’ says Waugh, founding director of Waugh Thistleton which was recently named Practice of the Year at the AJ Architecture Awards. In this episode Waugh explains why tall buildi

The Public Practice associates driving retrofit and net zero in the public sector

Nov 29 2023 37 mins

Episode 45. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Two Public Practice associates explain how working in the public sector has increased their agency as designers. Public Practice is a social enterprise that places built environment professions in the public sector, primarily in place-making roles and increasingly in key roles that drive retrofit and net zero.

Je Ahn on setting up Studio Weave and working with found materials

Nov 07 2023 42 mins

Episode 44. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Studio Weave founding director Je Ahn explains the challenges of sourcing timber from London’s streets and parks. He describes how he translated the ambition of using local timber from London’s trees into reality at Lea Bridge Library Pavilion despite the fact that no sales channel existed for sourcing loca