Ten Talks + Podcasts on Greening Our Cities for Earth Day

This Earth Day, we’d like to invite you to consider just how “staggering the environmental impacts of the built environment are” as described in a recent op-ed from Fast Company stating that it is estimated “the building industry holds nearly 40% of global climate emissions”. Resolving this issue entails more than just creating energy efficient spaces, but necessitates recognising and mitigating the damage caused by construction. Thus, we’ve rounded up some impactful talks and podcasts on bringing true sustainability, and what that actually means, to our built environment.

Enric Batlle, architect and partner at Batlle i Roig, does not speak of infrastructure, but infrastructures. Using his native Barcelona, he illustrates how merging public space, nature, and production is crucial for lovable and liveable city. “Connectivity is an essential condition,” according to Batlle. Keeping the concept of biodiversity front and centre, he believes it is possible to merge public space and nature “anytime, anywhere”—even if that space is a landfill.

Kathryn Gustafson, founding partner of Gustafson Porter + Bowman, seeks to channel art through landscape design as a reflection of the world around. In this talk she exhorts fellow architects to “turn back to art and learn from the art what makes the human experience something nourishing and beautiful.” From the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain to the landscape design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gustafson’s work appears as if it was always there—an integral part of the natural landscape.

Chris Precht, founder of studio Precht, believes “we are a generation of strategic dreamers that asks what is possible and not necessarily what is profitable.” With our rapidly urbanising world, Precht posits that cities must be part of the food production of the future, going as far to suggest recentering the urban environment around it. If we don’t create buildings and spaces which inspire curiosity and reunite city-dwellers with nature, then our cities will lose their vitality. If you are curious to hear more from Chris, listen to him on our Design and the City podcast.

“We’re calling for a paradigm shift,” says MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the SweetWater Foundation, Emmanuel Pratt when discussing the deep-rooted inequalities of Chicago's western and southern neighborhoods in this talk. He practices what he calls “regenerative neighborhood development” that responds to the ecology of Chicago’s blighted spaces. With his team of dedicated, self-described “Solutionaries,” Pratt involves the community through education and hands-on projects to redraw the map of the South Side—transforming the “ecology of absence” into living, engaging places.

Sou Fujimoto, sees striking similarities between the seemingly opposing forces of nature and architecture. Drawing on the varying scales of a forest canopy, Fujimoto “layers the boundaries” of the structures he builds, as evidenced by his projects such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, the Musashino Art University Library, and the Milles Arbres in Paris.

By creating differing levels of engagement between the structure and the surrounding landscape, just as there are unexpected clearings in a forest, he seeks to inspire curiosity and wonderment using real green space as the blueprint for his designs.

Vienna is continually ranked the most liveable city on Earth, renowned for its worldly, cosmopolitan splendour; however, it has embraced localism in a way often overlooked-- its waste. Martina Ableidinger, head of Waste Prevention & External Affairs at the Municipal Department of Vienna, demonstrates how managing waste locally mustn’t be limited to its disposal. In Ableidinger’s view, “Waste is an aspect of the metabolism of a city.” Under her stewardship, the primary waste management objectives in Vienna have been waste prevention, minimisation, and reuse. However, as she illustrates in her talk, even non recyclable waste can be repurposed to heat the homes and businesses of the Viennese--keeping waste local.

Forging emotional connections and relationships between people and nature by creating seamless, barrier-free architecture is MAD Architects principal, Yosuke Hayano’s, modus operandi. He says, “It’s quite important to think how our projects can trigger people’s feelings, their emotions towards our architecture.” Hayano does not seek accolades, nor does he wish for the structures he designs to be remembered—his aim is to build spaces which tap into our ancient collective memory and primeval desire to commune with the natural world. Listen to more from Yosuke Hayano on our Design and the City podcast.

More ideas on creating greener cities from reSITE's podcast, Design and the City

"Design and the City" is a podcast about the ways we can use design to make cities more livable and lovable.

Vancouver-based architects, Michael Green and Natalie Teleiwak champion the idea that Earth can, and should, grow our buildings--or grow the materials we use to build them. They are the principals of Michael Green Architecture, or MGA, and have made it their mission to tackle world housing and climate change by harnessing the power of timber, which they call “the most technologically advanced material we can build with,” to sequester carbon, to accelerate construction and reduce local disruption, and to create spaces that foster a more holistic well-being in our built environments. Read along with our visual transcript.

Winy Maas’s, co-founder of MVRDV and founder of The Why Factory, ideas are seemingly larger than life, and pushing the boundaries of our urban potential. He asks, “how much water it costs, or how much it can store, how much 'Earth' it costs, and how much structure it costs, etc.” to maintain the planet. Through projects like the “Green Dip” that imagines what a “green city” might actually look like and the Tainan Market which features a rooftop garden where produce can be grown to be sold in the market below.

Maas imagines how a “green city” might actually look, such as the Tainan Market which features a rooftop garden where produce can be grown and sold in the market below. When discussing his work on controversial projects, such as the Gazprom Neft Headquarters, he explains with pragmatism that “it’s a pity that we don’t use our collective power to make the planet better” explaining that “sometimes you come into circumstances [in which] you can make a difference. I hope that our work can somehow do that.”

For Trey Trahan, founder of Trahan Architects views each of his projects as part of the natural ecosystem, including the soil. Soil is the repository for all living, organic matter, and for Trey, our buildings should not be separate from it, but constructed in harmony. He said “I once read that it takes 1000 years to build three centimetres of topsoil. And so there's this precious layer that we build on, we almost encapsulate it recklessly in my opinion." He argues of its sacredness to it, because embodied in it is life. He makes the case that technology can contribute significantly to biodiversity fighting climate change. Read along on on this episode's published transcript.

Support your local planet. Happy Earth Day!