Guardian of the built and unbuilt__Brinda Somaya__SNK
Navigating conservation and social equity, Brinda Somaya reveals how these considerations blend into a position on sustainability in India. She offers a blueprint for design that is low-impact, contextual, and compassionate.
Unleash the power of process__Kjetil Trædal Thorsen__Snøhetta
Good design often reveals what we do not know we need. But such a feat depends not only on what we tweak and improve, says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, but how we re-imagine the process. The question is: where to start?
How form-making will unlock the power of architecture__Bjarke Ingels
Bjarke Ingels is a global brand. Whatever one feels about starchitects in general, he is a force to be reckoned with. What does he think is the future of buildings and cities? What role will design play in solving the climate crisis?
Roadmaps and signposts: Experts put sustainability to work this new season
Sustainability is a journey. Ecogradia is back with a new series of ten episodes to find out from world-leading players how to forge ahead, keep faith, beat the odds and put ideas to work, right from the drawing board.
The heat is on: Pressing ahead with a third season of ten new episodes
The climate crisis is here. Extreme weather is perturbing all lives rapidly across the world. How should buildings and cities respond? Should action be rooted in science or vernacular know-how? Or maybe both?
Looking back at season 2 from the cutting floor
Season 2 of Ecogradia has come to an end. Before we move on, let’s take a peek at some of the talking points that didn’t make the cut in the last ten episodes. Here is what was left ‘unsaid’.
Herbert Dreiseitl, DREISEITLconsulting: Thinking fluid
Water is a pressing design challenge of the climate crisis. Too much or too little and we struggle to survive. What is the sweet spot where we, our cities and the ecosystems that we rely on, can thrive?
Daliana Suryawinata and Florian Heinzelmann, SHAU: Being tropical
Tropical architecture: is it a perspective on place or a question of performance? How can architects from nations along the equator, like Indonesia, draw on local know-how rather than imported technology?
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, LANDPROCESS: Designing cities for water
Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is sinking fast, like many other cities around the world. How can urbanists turn this congested megacity, threatened by flood and saltwater intrusion, into a resilient amphibious metropolis?
Chrisna du Plessis and Bill Reed: Regenerating life by design
Should our buildings and cities minimise harm or do ‘good’ by design? In a world already at risk, less harm is no longer enough. We must repair, regenerate and create new life. So where do we start?
Ashok B. Lall, Ashok B Lall Architects: Bridging the social and environmental
Can design bridge the social and the environmental? How would a building do both, effectively? Is it possible to marry beauty and wellness with intelligence and efficiency?
Ten new episodes to keep the ball rolling, starting end-January
What matters more to a sustainable future? Better buildings or better urban systems?
What do we do, where do we start, when the answer also hinges on our relationship with natural systems?
Rahul Mehrotra, Harvard University Graduate School of Design: The kinetic city
Cities are evolving, living systems. Why then do we design them as fixed and permanent? Is it time for a new theory of urbanism, better suited to the developing world, where urban space is often used in transient ways?
Yu Kongjian, Turenscape: Landscape as ‘art of survival’
We all want to live closer to nature. But can urban landscapes be designed to mimic natural systems and processes? And if replicated, what would a nature-based design approach mean to future cities?
Manit and Sonali Rastogi, Morphogenesis: ‘An architecture of almost somewhere’
Can a building address local and global imperatives? Can it be informed by the vernacular and yet be energy efficient? Can it be locally attuned and low carbon? What would this look like, say, in a place like India?
Prashant Kapoor, IFC/World Bank: Making sense of sustainable finance
We are seeing today a newfound interest in sustainable finance. Words like Green bonds and Green mortgages are increasingly common. But what do they actually mean?
Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell, WOHA: (Re)Imagining the city
How can we fix the problem of cities today? Is density at the expense of liveability? Are human-made and natural systems — key to our survival — at odds with each other? Can design offer a solution?
Introducing Ecogradia: The sustainable architecture and urbanism podcast
Are buildings and cities doing enough? Are they rising to the challenge of an uncertain future? And are we doing what needs to be done fast enough?
