Going circular in construction is not just about saving the planet, it also saves on the bottom line, given the growing cost of waste disposal and the hidden costs of over-ordering in construction. In this podcast, May Al-Karooni, the inspirational founder and CEO of Globechain, talks about how she spotted the need for a reuse marketplace and sold the idea of circularity to the construction and built environment industry. Globechain diverts construction waste from retail and commercial refurbishments and gives them to charities as raw materials.

"We're throwing away 1,000 Boeing 747s every day in construction waste"

As a maverick serial entrepreneur behind tech and innovation clusters including Canary Wharf's Level39 and the Olympic Park's Plexal, Claire Cockerton knows what kind of office environment helps start-ups thrive and grow. But in the post-Covid environment, she believes our approach to office space is changing - and to attract and support female founders, the attitude on site in tech clusters must change too.

"Offices will be much more pay-as-you-go" – Claire Cockerton

Those who perpetuate hate crimes attack people for being different, so can we design public spaces that make marginalised groups safer by making them less visible? Professor Pippa Catterall discusses the problem of violent attacks for the LGBTQ+ community and explains why a large echoey open public square can be a deeply uncomfortable space where individuals are easily targeted. What makes us stand out in public space, who does the looking, and what design features could make our cities more tolerant of difference?

Designing for hate crime: The trouble with wide open public spaces

Approximately 1 in every 14 people over the age of 65 will suffer dementia in the UK, but as citizens they are often excluded from consultation on the design of our places and cities. 

Dr Samantha Biglieri’s research seeks to change that. Her work, which lies at the intersection of public health and urban planning, asks what we can learn from engaging with people suffering from dementia. 

What are we missing when people with dementia are locked out of community engagement? What can the experience of dementia teach us about the liveability of our urban and suburban places?

Ageing in place: Dementia-friendly engagement and design

Socius describes itself as an “impactful developer” that balances profit alongside purpose to deliver sustainable mixed-use places. We catch up with directors Barry Jessup and Olaide Oboh to learn about their new development in Milton Keynes, their commitment to sustainable development, the B Corp journey and why design and architecture matters

Socius: “Why is anybody doing greenfield development?”

Local Space is a unique social housing provider that buys and refurbishes properties for homeless families in four London boroughs. Some have been evicted, others are living in their car or sofa-surfing in overcrowded housing. 
Their average length of tenancy is six years. Josie Parsons, CEO of Local Space, speaks about the cost of living crisis, their pilot project to refurbish homes to an EPC A and busts some myths about people on benefits and made homeless

Josie Parsons, CEO, Local Space: “Improving thermal efficiency is the best thing we can do”

Listening to residents is informing change at Mount Anvil, including the pressing need to address the cost-of-living crisis by reducing energy use.  But their approach to community engagement is also changing as a result: Marcus Bate, Partnerships and Communities Director, talks about how the Covid lockdowns made them realise the value of face-to-face conversations: “Forcing us to rely on digital has shown us some of the flaws in our digital strategy.”

Happy or not? Mount Anvil’s unique approach to community engagement

A fresh canon of queer architectural precedents drawn from a rich and undocumented cultural history, artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and architectural historian Joshua Mardell discuss their book Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Spaces and why it's so important that the Royal Institute of British Architects has published this book, giving up-and-coming queer designers a celebratory history and institutional legitimacy

The architectural history of Queer Spaces: "Flowers blossoming in the desert of Modernity"

"It's about showing up, not just as a professional, but as a person; to bring your whole self." Founders Rachel Fisher and Liane Hartley talk about Urbanistas, a network for amplifying women's ideas to improve cities as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. From its early beginnings in London to its global expansion with several chapters around the world, from Manchester to New York, Sydney and Rotterdam, Fisher and Hartley share their unique perspective on what makes their expo model so replicable and successful as a fun and effective training ground for women leaders.

Urbanistas at 10: “It's a playground to explore authentic leadership as a woman”

What is a community land trust and why start one? We speak to Tom Chance, chief executive of the Community Land Trust Network about this legal entity which gives communities ownership and power over land and property development. We dig into how CLTs get started, what types of homes and places CLTs are delivering from high street regeneration to affordable housing, and the three biggest challenges faced by most community land trusts: acquiring land, finance and expertise.

Tom Chance on Community Land Trusts: “It’s about giving communities democratic muscle”

When it comes to the creative industries, people are looking for workspaces that you want to come to and do things together, says Richard Pearce, founder and director of office developer TCN. “It’s going to be hybrid working from now on. People need to have a reason to get out of their comfortable homes.” For TCN – which describes itself as a “creative workplace” provider – the offer is an interesting office space and a community of creative SME businesses. But how do you bring different businesses together and foster collaboration?

The alchemy of office community: “We want radiators, not drains”

Psychologist B. F. Skinner famously compared old age to a foreign country: “You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.” But are UK towns and cities ready to welcome those on the journey? 

Figures from the 2021 census revealed that there are 2.5m people aged 50 or older living in London, while the OECD estimates that older adults comprise 15% of the population of metropolitan areas of the UK.

Could a new almshouse in Blackfriars be a future model for independent, affordable living for older Londoners? Chris Wilson, CEO of Southwark Charities and Justin Nicholls, founding director of Fathom Architects share their vision

If you love what we do, please subscribe to The Developer Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and sign up to The Developer Weekly email to find out when new episodes go live. Visit our website at www.thedeveloper.live to find out more. You can support our podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thedeveloperuk

Ageing in place: A new almshouse for London

There are times when placemaking is about urban acupuncture; a series of strategic interventions that signpost and make accessible what is already there – microplans in lieu of masterplans. In this podcast, landscape architect Valerie Beirne, founder of Where Pathways Meet, discusses her 14 years at Better Bankside and the potential impact of incremental projects where a singular vision is delivered by local partnerships big and small.

Urban quilting: Valerie Beirne on stitching a place in time

What are we doing wrong when it comes to urban tree planting? With an estimated 30 to 70% of city trees expected to die within a year of planting, landscape architect Elaine Cresswell, founder of ReShaped, dishes the dirt on the reasons city trees die, from funding to specification, soil to maintenance. With targets for net zero, flood resilience, air pollution and Biodiversity Net Gain, we need our landscapes to work harder than ever. Other topics covered include why architects shouldn't put cherry blossoms or birch trees in their renderings and planning applications. Please subscribe if you like our podcasts.

The death and life of city trees with Elaine Cresswell, ReShaped

Paul Monaghan, architect and co-founder of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, talks about his role on the advisory board for The Office for Place, a government body helping to shape design codes and neighbourhood plans in England. Announced in July 2021, having emerged out of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission, the purpose of the Office for Place is “to make it easier for all neighbourhood communities, wherever they might be, to require what they find beautiful and refuse what they find ugly.” Monaghan explains why he's pleased the government is passionate about design quality, even if he's not entirely comfortable with its new favourite buzzword: ‘beauty’

Paul Monaghan and the Office for Place: Beauty is not shorthand for 'traditional'

Horatio’s Garden Chelsea, designed by Harris and Bugg with McMullan Studio, has been awarded the coveted Best in Show title at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. In this podcast, we sit down with Charlotte Harris and Andrew McMullan to discuss the process of designing a fully accessible garden for this UK-based charity that nurtures patients after spinal injury in NHS spinal centres.

Co-designing Horatio's Garden: "The planting is informed by different ways of seeing"

The Key Cities report, Culture and Place in Britain, identified access to culture as a driver of wellbeing in areas of socioeconomic deprivation. But how can we seek stable and sustainable funding for grassroots culture in our places? Alan Waters, Culture Lead for Key Cities and previous leader of Norwich City Council and Sarie Mairs Slee, who previously led the Salford Culture and Place Partnership, discuss how the Cultural Compact, which partners institutions with artists and grassroots initiatives, can help unlock investment

Cultural compact: How to fund grassroots arts and boost wellbeing in deprived places

Back in 2018, one of The Developer’s first podcasts was an interview with Linda Thiel, director of White Arkitekter’s London studio. The Scandinavian practice had been hired for the second phase of the regeneration of the Gascoigne estate in east London, replacing 1960s high rise blocks while adopting what the practice calls a “Scandinavian approach” with an emphasis on public space. More than four years on, Thiel got in touch to say that there had been a change in the practice’s thinking and, for the final stages of the project, they were now proposing that rather than demolish the original buildings, they should consider retrofitting them. Such an approach could also break a cycle of demolish and rebuild that began in the 1950s when the Edwardian terraced housing that originally sat on the site was razed, having been condemned as slums, only to be repeated as, in turn, those towers fell out of favour, creating a level of intergenerational trauma as communities were once again uprooted. Speaking in a new podcast, Thiel tells the story of White Arkitekter and Civic Engineers’ investigation into the feasibility of retrofit and raises fresh questions of equity and inclusion

Breaking the cycle of demolish, rebuild

Playground design reflects the workforce we hope to create, the behaviour we hope to correct and the adult we aim to engineer. Anthropologist Nitasha Kapoor talks us through the history of playground design, and explains what kind of equipment we're using now. With the dawn of automation and AI, when it comes to child's play, resilience and creativity are on the agenda.

Playground or panopticon? Designing adulthood

At Stanhope's first residential development in White City, the hand-picked selection of restaurants were open before residents had even moved into their luxury flats in Television Centre. Why is it important to get the mix right, and how does retail create community? How will it change when the affordable residences are built nearby - are these shops for them, too?

On the day of the Bake Off final, we take a walk around Television Centre in White City, London with Stanhope Managing Director Alistair Shaw, who explains the developer's peacemaking approach.

Curating retail at the new Television Centre

Roger Madelin, Head of Canada Water for British Land and maverick of place takes us on a whirlwind tour of his new major project in this double episode. We travel up a tower and across the site, followed by Madelin's stream-of-consciousness rap in a noisy cafe where he talks risk, planning policy, the art of stuff, the future of Southwark, Section 106, the axing of SureStart and why we should walk like Italians do

"Wait, could we do a mixed-use thing at Canada Water?"

Paul Monaghan is founding partner of one of the most successful architecture practices in the UK, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. Now, he's got a new role, as design champion for his hometown of Liverpool, with a mandate to get design quality on the agenda. We talk about urban redevelopment in the UK: the good, the bad and the uniquely Scouse.

Paul Monaghan: "It's about improving the everyday architecture of Liverpool"

After a call-out on Twitter, professionals from across the UK joined a conversation about child-friendly cities in the UK that developed into a meet-up at a curry house near the train station in Leeds, organised by Emma Bearman of Playful Anywhere CIC and recorded by The Developer. Here, practitioners shared their ambitions and the challenges they are facing in pursuing a child-friendly agenda. This conversation serves as a powerful sign of this growing movement across the UK to create more playful, liveable cities.

Attendees included Adrian Voce, President of the European Network for Child Friendly Cities, Andre Reid of Kiondo in Birmingham, Sadiya Salim, Local Authority Officer at Child-Friendly Leeds for Leeds City Council; Grant Menzies from The City of Play, David Craig from Assembly Bradford, Gayle Appleyard, architect from Gagarin Studio, Dr Mohamed Radfar, Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, Elaine Cresswell, director of Reshaped landscape architects, Kristina Hall who focuses on providing space for organic learning and sustainable learning outcomes, Rebecca Thomas, Regeneration Officer at Leeds City Council and organiser Emma Bearman of Playful Anywhere CIC

Roundtable: What are the barriers to child-friendly cities?

Bonus episode: In this talk at the Roca London Gallery, Danish architect Jan Gehl discusses his extensive work creating cities for people worldwide, using psychology and architecture to support a human-centred approach to urban planning and design.

Jan Gehl: "First life, then spaces, then buildings"

The Bee Network creates 75 miles of Dutch-style segregated cycle lanes and safe pedestrian crossings, and 1000 miles of walking and cycling routes in Manchester and will be accessible to 92% of the Greater Manchester population, the largest network of its kind in the UK. Nitasha Kapoor met with street design engineer Brian Deegan on designing cycling infrastructure for the northwest.

"The Bee Network is unlocking cycling and walking in Manchester"

What kind of cultural infrastructure is needed in our cities, how do we value culture and can it be curated? From music to food, we explore the ways in which culture contributes to place, and how to help creatives nest and grow. An on-stage conversation with Emma Warren, Author of Make Some Space: Tuning into Total Refreshment Centre, Danny Keir, Global Head of Business Development for Sound Diplomacy; Clarisse Tavin, Group Manager of Major Programmes and Projects at City of London Corporation; Akil Scafe-Smith, Founder of Resolve Collective and Mark Davy, CEO and founder of Futurecity

Curating culture: How can we foster culture in the city, can it be created?

“Liverpool is undergoing unprecedented growth in investment,” Claire Slinger, Assistant Director for Investment and Development at Liverpool City Council tells The Developer. We learn how the council unlocked plans for its stalled 100 acre Festival Gardens site, and hear about their plans to entice more than 80,000 university and college students to stay in the city after graduation. We also talk about "inclusive growth" and how to bring the public along in a rapidly changing city.

Claire Slinger: "Liverpool is a very well-kept secret"

Can property development be an enabler for improving the environment? London-based developer The Berkeley Group is committed to increasing biodiversity on all of their sites. Louise Clarke, Head of Sustainable Places from The Berkeley Group explains why and how they incorporated a focus on nature into their corporate vision, and explains their biodiversity toolkit. Recorded at The Developer Live: Risk & Resilience

Berkeley Group: Why incorporating nature into real estate makes sense

We need to ‘depave’ our cities street by street, says De Urbanisten’s Dirk van Peijpe, whose famous water squares combine flood resilience with public space including basketball courts and skateboard ramps. In this podcast, we hear van Peijpe's talk at The Developer's Risk & Resilience conference, where he talks about combining budgets to combine urban drainage with green space.

Designing water-sensitive cities: Dirk van Peijpe, De Urbanisten

Martin Farrington, Director of City Development at Leeds City Council, about how the city tackled flood risk and created public space at the same time with its moveable weir, recently used during Storm Ciara. This podcast was recorded live at The Developer's Risk & Resilience conference.

Floodproofing Leeds: Martin Farrington from Leeds City Council

A visit to Liverpool One shopping centre leads anthropologist Rebecca Toop to explore the role that shopping plays in our lives. In the context of the retail apocalypse, what can replace the social role of shopping? Part of a new miniseries where Christine Murray explores the best of The Developer 2020.

What is shopping for?

"Built spaces are important signifiers to outsiders, and people in power like to think that what they don't see, doesn't exist," says Dr Omeasoo Wahpasiw in this podcast from her popular talk at the Festival of Place. Wahpasiw is Assistant Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, in the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education, and has written about Indigenous feminism and about how Indigenous design-thinking can inform architecture in a 'new-old' way. Wahpasiw is a policy analyst, facilitator and presenter on Indigenous historical issues, and has worked with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. In this podcast she talks about the links between identity and place, and how "identity building spaces" determine how we live our lives

Dr Omeasoo Wãhpãsiw: "Space and place matters, but more importantly who designs and who builds it"

How do we make places where people want to live, work, play and learn? A podcast on cities, property, architecture and urban design. Support us on Patreon www.patreon.com/thedeveloperuk

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