Londown Live: Something From Nothing – What is the Most Sustainable Way to Build?
A live recording of The Londown podcast held as part of the Open City Stewardship Awards public programme featuring architect and engineer Smith Mordak, Peabody director of sustainability Richard Ellis and Open City director Phineas Harper
Join the studio audience for a special recording of the award-winning Londown podcast at the Forum in Bureau, Design District.
The live panel discussion is part of ‘Who Makes the City?’ a new series of public events, supported by Peabody in association with the Open City Stewardship Awards.
The Wednesday 6 July event – titled ‘Something From Nothing – What is the Most Sustainable Way to Build?’ – will see Phineas Harper and special guests Smith Mordak and Richard Ellis review the week’s biggest London architecture news with a special focus on holistic green construction.
Buildings account for 38 per cent of UK carbon emissions. Of this figure, 28 per cent is generated by the ongoing operational needs of existing building stock, outlining the scale of intervention needed to make them fit for the future.
Better understanding of the heavy embodied carbon of traditional building materials such as bricks and concrete has led to the adoption and development of lower-carbon and bio-based materials. It has also led to calls for significantly less demolition and more consideration of adaptive reuse as an alternative to redevelopment.
With so many different approaches, which strategies should we be looking to as we shape the city for the next generation? Hear fresh takes on this crucial debate and contribute to the recording itself as live studio audience in this pioneering new format.
Doors open 5pm and recording starts 5.30pm Wednesday 6th July in Forum, Bureau D1, Design District, 19 Soames Walk, SE10 0AX. Tickets: £8
The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal and won Best Podcast at 2021 Archiboo Awards. Bureau is a members co-working space for creatives located within London’s Design District. Learn about Bureau membership here
Smith Mordak
Director of Sustainability and Physics at Buro Happold, Smith is a multi-award winning-architect, engineer, writer and curator. They work across disciplines to bring the built environment in line with planetary limits.
Richard Ellis
Peabody Group is responsible for over 67,000 homes in London and the South East that house over 155,000 residents. Their mission is to help people live well while simultaneously attempting to tackle the carbon issue dominating the housing industry right now. Richard Ellis is director of sustainability helping to shape Peabodys zero carbon journey.
Phineas Harper
Phineas Harper is a critic and curator exploring the intersection of architecture and politics. Harper has been director of Open City since 2020 and was previously deputy director of the Architecture Foundation and chief curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Nordic based architecture festival addressing urban challenges.
