Episode 40. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we explore the global phenomenon of shrinking villages in the countryside, hearing about a remarkable series of interventions in southeastern China by DnA_Design, a small Beijing practice.
Xu advocates a role change for architects in both rural and urban contexts. Architects should no longer accept a commission as given, but take the initiative and evaluate a project’s regional context to make a proposal that is unique and rooted in its place.
In less than a decade, Xu and her team have built more than 20 projects that vary widely in programme and materiality: a tofu factory, a museum, performance spaces and a sugar factory. These projects have attracted new residents back to formerly dilapidated villages by creating jobs and a sense of purpose in these forgotten places.
CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY Win a copy of Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book (Penguin 2022). We have two copies to give away. To enter the prize draw, email hattie.hartman@emap.com with your name, address, affiliation and a testimonial about the podcast before 15 January 2023. We will choose the winners in the new year.
For show notes to this episode, go to www.architectsjournal.co.uk/podcasts
Hawkins\Brown’s Louisa Bowles on what net zero actually means
Editional Studio on persuading domestic clients to build less and retrofit more
Bob Prewett explains why Passivhaus is often too much for heritage buildings
ACAN founding member Sara Edmonds on ramping up domestic retrofit
John Christophers on his zero carbon home, which generates a 40% energy surplus
Lessons from AHMM’s Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School building performance study
Judit Kimpian on why building performance studies are crucial for net zero
AKT II’s Hanif Kara on CLT virtue signalling, concrete innovations and Bloomberg’s embodied carbon
Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum on why the climate crisis is not a north-south problem
Philippe Madec on combining sustainable development with Frampton’s critical regionalism
How France is pioneering contemporary architecture built from straw, hemp and thatch
Why France is increasingly building with bio-renewable materials – with Dominique Gauzin-Müller
Justin McGuirk on the Design Museum’s Waste Age exhibition and Kat Scott on the Architects Declare Practice Guide
Rachel Hoolahan on material passports for retrofit
Duncan Baker-Brown on mining the Anthropocene
COP26: Glasgow‘s plans for carbon neutrality by 2030 + ACAN‘s COP26 fringe activism
COP26 pop-up activism and Glasgow’s new climate resilient public realm
RIBA Climate Special with Simon Allford and Gary Clark
The 21st-century village: Sarah Featherstone and Jennifer Ross on VeloCity
Rewilding expert Isabella Tree on why a 3,500-home development must be stopped
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