Tara Gbolade: ‘It’s unsustainable for small practices not to upskill’

Episode 56. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  Gbolade Design Studio’s Tara Gbolade shares insights from her new book, Changing the Game: How to be a sustainable and regenerative small practice. Gbolade champions the nimbleness of small practices that enables them to rapidly pivot toward a more regenerative future. Drawing from her own experience and through a series of short case studies (nimtim, Knox Bhavan, Studio Gil, among others), she shares the simple steps designers can take to upskill without being ‘overwhelmed’. Four-strong Gbolade Design Studio recently won an AJ architecture award for Hermitage Mews, eight net-zero town houses in Crystal Palace. In this episode, we also delve into the challenges and successes of that project. ‘What I’m most proud of is the friendships we built. We had a predominantly female-led team that has grown well past the project. We’re at each other’s hen dos and weddings,’ says Gbolade. Collaboration is central to Gbolade Design Studio’s ethos. Shared values of sustainability, transparency and joyfulness determine the clients and projects the practice chooses to take on. Included in her book (co-authored with her business partner and husband Lanre Gbolade), is a ‘client assessment chart’ that sets out criteria for evaluating potential clients. A founding member of the Paradigm Network that champions Black and Asian representation in the built environment, Gbolade touches on why the industry still has a long way to go. ‘We need procurement teams and client teams to be intentional, because none of this can happen without intentionality’. In conjunction with this episode, RIBA Publishing is offering a 20% discount on Tara’s book. Use this code: CTG20 (valid until June 30). For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

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