AJ Climate Champions
Episodes
Ana Belizário: ‘We don’t have to repeat European mass timber’
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 61. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. In this episode, we turn our attention to the global south. Ana Belizár...
Kirsten Haggart: Building with timber has reached a ‘tipping point’
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 60. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. In this episode, we take a deep dive into building with timber. Haggart ...
Joe Giddings on the ‘mind-blowing’ growth of bio-based materials in Europe
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 59. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. On the eve of Cop30 in Brazil, Built by Nature European Networks Lead an...
Material Cultures' Summer Islam: ‘We start with a map of nearby materials and products’
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 58. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Material Cultures co-founder Summer Islam explains how a regional ‘materia...
‘Retrofit is seen as really alienating. We’re trying to blow that apart’
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 57. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Melissa Mean from community land trust WeCanMake explains how a community-le...
Tara Gbolade: ‘It’s unsustainable for small practices not to upskill’
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 56. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. Gbolade Design Studio’s Tara Gbolade shares insights from her new book, Ch...
‘Even a small practice can push the boundaries of reuse’ – Brisco Loran
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 55. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions’ latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today i...
IF_DO’s Sarah Castle: ‘People become the project’
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 54. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today is ...
Chipperfield’s MC Piccinelli on how retrofit can enhance creativity
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 53. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens. AJ Climate Champions is back, with a new series focusing on retrofit. Our gu...
Why earth is the ultimate circular material
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 52. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. To achieve replication at scale, Nicolas Coeckelberghs of Brussels-based...
Vinu Daniel on transforming mud and waste into architecture
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 51. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Daniel views mud and waste as opportunities, not obstacles. He advocates...
Carmody Groarke’s Sian Ricketts on making bricks from waste
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 50. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Carmody Groarke sustainability lead Sian Ricketts explains how architect...
AKTII’s David Watson on how to reduce the environmental impacts of brick
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ep 49. Structural engineer David Watson describes the enduring appeal of brick and its underexploited superpower: reuse Brick has many advantages: dur...
‘Over-specification of concrete is an industry addiction’
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 48. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. Structural engineer Eva MacNamara of Expedition Engineering explains how w...
Henning Larsen’s Martha Lewis on how to screen materials for both chemicals and carbon
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the first in a new six-part series on materials, Hattie is joined by co-host Joe Jack Williams to interview Martha Lewis, head of materials at Da...
‘I’m no longer the wood weirdo,’ says Andrew Waugh
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 46. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Andrew Waugh explains how building with timber can address industry transforma...
The Public Practice associates driving retrofit and net zero in the public sector
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 45. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Two Public Practice associates explain how working in the public sector has in...
Je Ahn on setting up Studio Weave and working with found materials
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 44. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Studio Weave founding director Je Ahn explains the challenges of sourcing timb...
Material passports and Architects Declare four years on
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ep 43. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. London Eye architect Julia Barfield explains how the climate emergency changed the ...
Architects must re-educate themselves on timber sourcing
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 42. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. Montreal-based architect and systems thinker Scott Francisco explains why arch...
Architype’s Ann-Marie Fallon: ‘Net Zero has almost lost its meaning’
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 41. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and George Morgan. In this episode, AJ100 Sustainability Champion and Architype associate directo...
‘We apologise for designing buildings that exploit the planet’
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bonus episode. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. During an Obel Award panel at the UIA conference in Copenhagen, Heringer seized the opportun...
Chinese architect Xu Tiantian on revitalising rural villages
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 40. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we explore the global phenomenon of shrinking villages in the countryside, hear...
Historic England’s Morwenna Slade on why a ‘fabric first’ approach must be used with caution in heritage buildings
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Slade, head of historic building climate change adaptation at Historic England, explains why ins...
Adapting conservation area guidance for climate emergency
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 38. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman.In our second episode exploring how sustainability impacts heritage buildings, we speak to Procte...
Balancing heritage and climate urgency in listed buildings
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 37. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. 5th Studio co-founder Oliver Smith shares his radical approach to upgrading listed buildings. He...
Educators Sofie Pelsmakers and CÃaran Malik on teaching climate literate design
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 36. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, Pelsmakers argues that teaching values must be at the heart of architectural ed...
The trade-off between ventilation and airtightness in the post-pandemic world
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 35. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Environmental engineer Patrick Bellew of Atelier Ten shares insight from having worked on high-p...
Why architectural education needs radical reform
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 34. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Glasgow climate activist Scott McAulay and ACAN’s Rosie Murphy advocate for a curriculum which...
Danish architect Lone Feifer on ‘absolute’ sustainability
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 33. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Velux director of sustainable buildings Lone Feifer explains why ‘relative’ sustainability, ...
Hawkins\Brown’s Louisa Bowles on what net zero actually means
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 32. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we speak to Louisa Bowles - winner of this year’s AJ100 Sustainability Champ...
Editional Studio on persuading domestic clients to build less and retrofit more
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episide 31. The Manchester-based Jo Sharples and Jack Richards of Editional Studio share top tips from Decarbonise Your House Now!, a timely domestic ...
Bob Prewett explains why Passivhaus is often too much for heritage buildings
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episide 30. Retrofit expert Bob Prewett describes how a client’s brief for an ‘extreme retrofit’ in 2008 gave him ‘something bigger than archi...
ACAN founding member Sara Edmonds on ramping up domestic retrofit
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 29. We speak to architect and ACAN (Architects Climate Action Network) steering group coordinator Sara Edmonds who is jumpstarting widespread ...
John Christophers on his zero carbon home, which generates a 40% energy surplus
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 28. Architect John Christophers shares lessons from a decade of monitoring his own home which generates 40 per cent more energy than it uses. ...
Lessons from AHMM’s Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School building performance study
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 27. We continue our focus on building performance; AHMM sustainability lead Craig Robertson shares important lessons from a building performan...
Judit Kimpian on why building performance studies are crucial for net zero
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 26. A year after publication, Judit Kimpian and Hattie Hartman revisit key messages from the book they co-authored with Sofie Pelsmakers. Judi...
AKT II’s Hanif Kara on CLT virtue signalling, concrete innovations and Bloomberg’s embodied carbon
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 25. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we hear from structural engineer Hanif Kara who is working with leading archite...
Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum on why the climate crisis is not a north-south problem
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 24. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, Soane Medal (2021) winner Tabassum describes her approach as distilling the ess...
Philippe Madec on combining sustainable development with Frampton’s critical regionalism
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 23. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we continue our focus on France, speaking to one of the country’s leading pra...
How France is pioneering contemporary architecture built from straw, hemp and thatch
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 22. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. New year, new horizons: Climate Champions is going abroad in search of fresh approaches to ecolo...
Why France is increasingly building with bio-renewable materials – with Dominique Gauzin-Müller
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 21. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. New year, new horizons: Climate Champions is going abroad in search of fresh approaches to ecolo...
Justin McGuirk on the Design Museum’s Waste Age exhibition and Kat Scott on the Architects Declare Practice Guide
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 20. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. As 2021 crawls to a close, Hattie Hartman converses with Design Museum chief curator Justin McGu...
Rachel Hoolahan on material passports for retrofit
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 19. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. This week we continue our focus on reuse with a step-by-step approach to tagging the components ...
Duncan Baker-Brown on mining the Anthropocene
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 18. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Architect and academic Duncan Baker-Brown shares the latest developments in material reuse, incl...
COP26: Glasgow‘s plans for carbon neutrality by 2030 + ACAN‘s COP26 fringe activism
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 17. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this episode, we speak to Glasgow City Council architect Paola Pasino about her work with Dan...
COP26 pop-up activism and Glasgow’s new climate resilient public realm
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ep 16. Continuing its focus on the international climate conference, AJ Climate Champions speaks to Becca Thomas of New Practice about activating a si...
RIBA Climate Special with Simon Allford and Gary Clark
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The new RIBA president discusses his advocacy role at COP26, and the chair of the institute’s Sustainable Futures Group explains revisions to the 20...
The 21st-century village: Sarah Featherstone and Jennifer Ross on VeloCity
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ep 14. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Architect Sarah Featherstone and planner Jennifer Ross, both members of the all-female VeloCity team...
Rewilding expert Isabella Tree on why a 3,500-home development must be stopped
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ep 13. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In our continuing series on landscape and the biodiversity crisis, we speak to rewilding pioneer Isab...
Thamesmead Waterfront and Home of 2030, two competitions wins where ‘landscape is the glue’
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
12. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Continuing its focus on landscape, Climate Champions turns its attention to two recent high-profile comp...
Landscape architect Jo Gibbons on why trees matter, urban forestry and greening our cities
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
11. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this second episode on landscape, we speak to Jo Gibbons of landscape practice J&L Gibbons whose wi...
Barnabas Calder revisits architectural history through the lens of energy and climate
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
10. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Barnabas Calder charts the course of architectural history from hunter gatherers’ earliest mud and bon...
Guy Shrubsole on rewilding Britain and greening our cities
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
9. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. In this first of several episodes on landscape and biodiversity, we speak to Guy Shrubsole, policy and ca...
Steve Webb & Wilf Meynell: ‘We’re brainwashed into steel and concrete mode’
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
8. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman. Steve Webb of Webb Yates Engineers explains how to persuade clients to use more timber and stone, and Wil...
Harry Paticas on empowering communities through the low-carbon retrofit of primary schools
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
7. AJ Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Harry Paticas explains why he left architectural practice to focus on retrofitting schools, and how ...
Owen Hatherley on Modernism + Will Hurst explains RetroFirst (bonus episode)
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bonus episode. AJ Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Author and critic Owen Hatherley describes approaches to the retrofit of Modernist build...
Anna Heringer: 'You can build with clay in a very modern way'
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
6. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. In the final episode in this series, German architect Anna Heringer talks to the AJ about mainstream b...
Sarah Wigglesworth: 'Sustainable architecture is fantastically creative'
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
5. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. This episode centres on the retrofit of Stock Orchard Street, Wigglesworth's home and office completed...
Haworth Tompkins' Diana Dina: 'We want to share ideas with other practices'
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
4. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Diana Dina, head of sustainability and regenerative design at Haworth Tompkins, shares her insights on ...
Sofie Pelsmakers: 'Sustainable architecture is "architecture on steroids" – it needs to perform'
02 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
3. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Architect, author, educator and sustainability expert Sofie Pelsmakers shares insights on sustainable ...
Annalie Riches: 'We need more projects that show sustainable design isn't ugly'
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
2. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Mikhail Riches' Annalie Riches discusses the Stirling Prize-winning Goldsmith Street scheme, and the cr...
Maria Smith: 'It's depressing how much architects are the problem'
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
1. Climate Champions hosted by Hattie Hartman. Buro Happold's director of sustainability explains why she felt she had to leave architecture and retra...