Season 5

  • Season 5
  • Episode 8
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Energy, Practice

How to design a net zero energy building: proven strategies that work

From energy budgets to climate-specific strategies, designing a net zero energy building is a puzzle with countless moving pieces. This episode reveals how to turn overwhelming complexity into possibility.
  • Season 5
  • Episode 6
  • Architecture, Governance, Urbanism

Will Indonesia’s new $33 billion capital be the end of Jakarta?

What makes people choose a new city as home? Ridwan Kamil returns to share how Nusantara aims to evolve from master plan to living city, all while balancing bold aspirations with the practical steps needed to build a thriving capital.
  • Season 5
  • Episode 4
  • Architecture, Interior Design

5 interiors designed to boost mind, body, and work

How can we design interiors that not only minimise environmental harm, but also actively promote human well-being? Some architects and designers are sparking fresh ideas about how our built spaces can perform better.
  • Season 5
  • Episode 3
  • Architecture, Construction, Urbanism

High ambitions: Are tall buildings sustainable?

Are skyscrapers environmental foes or allies? It’s a thorny debate, but tall buildings are likely here to stay. Can these giants evolve from being part of the problem to pillars of a sustainable future?
  • Season 5
  • Episode 2
  • Culture, Energy, Regenerative development

How solarpunk envisions a world we will want to live in __ Jay Springett

The solarpunk movement in fiction, art, fashion, and activism imagines a sustainable civilisation and considers how we get there. After gaining traction for a decade, how does it align with the latest thinking in regenerative design?
  • Season 5
  • Episode 1
  • Architecture, Practice, Real Estate, Regenerative development, Urbanism

How three leaders under 40 built successful careers in sustainability

None have reached age 40 yet, but each is in a position of influence in the sustainability space. Looking back, did it all go to plan? How is passion kept alive, against the odds? When saving the planet, is work-life balance a luxury?

Limited webinar series

  • Webinar 10
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Construction

Material smart: Designing low-carbon buildings

Timber is having its moment in the global sustainability discourse. Will it replace concrete and steel, or be used in combination to usher in a new era of low-carbon construction?
  • Webinar 8
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Landscape, Regenerative development, Urbanism

Urban biodiversity: Crafting biocentric public spaces

In many cities today, there is a striking disconnect between people and nature. Can biocentric urban landscapes help integrate social functions with natural systems?
  • Webinar 5
  • Adaptive reuse, Architecture

Architectural acupuncture I: Small projects, big impact

In resource-constrained places, small can be powerful. How can a building, acting strategically as an acupunctural node, transform its neighbourhood socially, economically, and ecologically?
  • Webinar 4
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Energy

Green campus blueprints: Crafting net-zero architecture

The path to net-zero energy is filled with promise. Campus buildings offer a unique opportunity: they can be testbeds for new ideas and may also double as teaching tools.
  • Webinar 3
  • Architecture

Industrial architecture: For efficiency and well-being

Factories have always been designed for profitability. However, as the Covid pandemic highlighted, a focus on worker well-being is equally important. Can industrial building typologies rise to the challenge?
  • Webinar 2
  • Adaptive reuse, Architecture, Conservation

Heritage and tradition: Innovating for a sustainable future

Traditional architecture is a melting pot of history, culture and knowledge-systems spanning centuries. Its continued decline globally begs the question: what can the past offer to the present and the future?
  • Webinar 1
  • Architecture

Integrated multisystem approach: A key to sustainable design

Each building is a nexus of multiple systems ‘talking’ to each other. This integrated approach is often key to optimising performance. But how does integration work? How do you rally stakeholders and negotiate trade-offs?

Season 4

  • Season 4
  • Episode 11
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Construction, Engineering, Urbanism

Repair, rejuvenation, and regeneration __ Season 4 insights

Can architecture heal our planet? In this bonus episode, we delve into the power of regenerative design. From restoring existing structures to rethinking material ownership, find out how sustainability and healing go hand in hand.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 10
  • Architecture, Carbon emissions, Energy, Urbanism

BIG has a plan for the planet: Can it be done? __ Bjarke Ingels

All the noise around sustainability can be dizzying. In this episode, Bjarke Ingels returns to discuss BIG’s Plan for the Planet. Can a global framework based on real-world strategies help us achieve better individual solutions?
  • Season 4
  • Episode 7
  • Carbon emissions, Energy, Interior Design, Manufacturing

Raising the floor on innovative carbon solutions __ Liz Minné __ Interface

Imagine a world where your carpet reduces atmospheric carbon. In this episode, discover how Interface is making this a reality. Liz Minné discusses a range of innovative strategies that redefine our expectations of flooring.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 6
  • Architecture, Conservation, Urbanism

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.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 5
  • Architecture, Landscape, Practice

Challenging the greenery facade __ Leonard Ng __ Henning Larsen

Explore the reality of greenery in architecture — pragmatic sustainability or mere aesthetics? Leonard Ng navigates the fine line, urging honesty in distinguishing between environmental impact and visual appeal.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 4
  • Architecture, Engineering

Simplifying the carbon conundrum __ Stuart Smith __ Arup

Tackling the carbon dilemma requires a fresh perspective. Stuart Smith reveals how considering a building’s entire life cycle impact can simplify carbon reduction decisions, guiding us towards more sustainable choices.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 3
  • Architecture

Connecting people to place __ Barclay & Crousse

Many countries in the developing South seek pathways to a sustainable future. Peru-based architecture firm Barclay & Crousse offers a prism on what this looks like, when it is anchored to the specifics of people, climate and place.
  • Season 4
  • Episode 2
  • Architecture, Urbanism

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?
  • Season 4
  • Episode 1
  • Architecture, Urbanism

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?

Season 3

  • Season 3
  • Episode 11
  • Architecture, Energy, Manufacturing, Practice

The bottom line: Global views and takeaways from season 3

Season 3 is a wrap. What were the small and large, local and global challenges singled out throughout this series? What can we control at the drawing board and what remains beyond our grip? This is what we learned.
  • Season 3
  • Episode 10
  • Architecture

Holcim Awards 2023: Round-up in Venice with the jury chairs

This year’s competition is now over. Out of 2,380 registrants from 114 countries, 20 entries stood above the rest. So what were the big takeaways? Who showed the most ambition? The five jury chairs are here to tell.
  • Season 3
  • Episode 7
  • Architecture

Nina Maritz, Nina Maritz Architects: The frugality champion

Can necessity unlock greater innovation? How to create an architecture of delight and renown when the climate is harsh, resources are scarce and budgets tight? Can less ever become something more?
  • Season 3
  • Episode 6
  • Architecture

Ambrish Arora, Studio Lotus: The reflective practitioner

Could a universal process account for all things sustainable — energy, materiality, comfort, etc. — in all typologies, from resorts to low-cost buildings? Would this work in a land as vast and complex as India?
  • Season 3
  • Episode 5
  • Architecture

Tatiana Bilbao, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO: The architect of care

Buildings offer shelter. Good architecture does more: it is a form of care for the mind and spirit. So how do we ensure sustainable equitable care for everyone, all social and emotional needs included?
  • Season 3
  • Episode 3
  • Manufacturing

Nigel Stansfield, Interface: The flooring innovators

As we aim to ‘do good’, we often wrestle with what to buy. Which materials are less harmful to the planet? But can a product also be net positive? Could manufacturing help reverse global warming?
  • Season 3
  • Episode 1
  • Energy

Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute: The energy guru

To halt global warming, we must eliminate greenhouse gas emissions at scale and with speed. With renewables today, we can ignite a new kind of fire, one that is emissions-free and lower cost.

Season 2

  • Season 2
  • Episode 11
  • Architecture, Landscape, Urbanism

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’.
  • Season 2
  • Episode 9
  • Architecture

Alyssa-Amor Gibbons, Studio Amor: Standing up to hurricanes

Extreme weather is often a matter of life and death. How do we design for the growing frequency and ferocity of storms? Do we resist at all costs or should we build structures that give in a little to save the whole?
  • Season 2
  • Episode 8
  • Landscape, Urbanism

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?
  • Season 2
  • Episode 7
  • Architecture, Finance

Prasoon Kumar, BillionBricks: Innovating homes for the homeless

More than a billion people are without shelter today. They could be 3 billion by 2050. Is the growing demand a giant opportunity? What if houses for those in need could produce both renewable energy and long-term profits?
  • Season 2
  • Episode 5
  • Landscape, Urbanism

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?
  • Season 2
  • Episode 4
  • Architecture, Interior, Landscape

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?
  • Season 2
  • Episode 3
  • Architecture, Urbanism

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?

Season 1

  • Season 1
  • Episode 5
  • Landscape, Urbanism

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?
  • Season 1
  • Episode 1
  • Architecture, Urbanism

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?

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