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?
Bill Browning, Terrapin Bright Green: Crafting biophilic solutions
As a species, we seek closeness to nature. Designing for well-being, therefore, aims to bring nature to the heart of the built environment. But what do these ‘biophilic’ spaces feel like? And how do we set the stage to reap their benefits?
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?
Gregers Reimann, IEN Consultants: Building higher performance
What is a high-performing building? Do the two yardsticks of performance — efficiency and well-being — complement each other? If there are trade-offs, how do we prioritise?
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?
Wolfgang Kessling, Transsolar: Low tech and low energy for high comfort
Cooling and heating consume a lot of power in buildings. But what if the answer to the question of comfort was only partly about mechanical solutions? What if we could create comfort indoors with little or even no energy?
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?
