BDP Podcast

Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet. 

In our third episode, Delhi - Rewriting the Code, we turn to one of the world’s fastest‑urbanising nations. India is already 40% urban, and by 2050 will welcome 400 million new city residents - an entire new urban India built in a single generation. But cities across India are being shaped by outdated volumetric planning codes that prioritise floor area, setbacks, and parking over walkability, climate resilience, and public life. As Manisha Bhartia notes, “good urban design is being thwarted by the planning system itself.”

Joined by the authors of The Good City – Delhi paper, we explore how form‑based planning could rewrite the rules - shifting the focus from mathematical envelopes to the physical form of streets, blocks, and public spaces. From the vibrant lanes of Old Delhi to the gated compounds of Gurgaon, our panel unpacks how India’s historic urbanism offers timeless lessons, and how modern codes can once again build cities with a beating heart.

Panellists

This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city

Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet.

In our second episode, Toronto - Growing Pains, we turn to one of North America’s most dynamic and pressured cities. Every year, around 120,000 people arrive in the Toronto region, testing the limits of its housing, infrastructure, and public services. But behind the headlines of rising costs and crowded streets lies a bigger question: can rapid growth become a force for good? 

Joined by the authors of The Good City - Toronto paper, we unpack how community-centred TOD, gentle density, and inclusive design can shape a fairer, more resilient and future-ready Toronto. 

Panellists

This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city

Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet.

In our first episode, Rotterdam: Climate Adaptation, we spotlight a city that has turned its greatest climate risks into a platform for innovation. With around 85% of Rotterdam sitting below sea level, water is an everyday reality. By embracing rather than resisting it, the city is transforming into a forward‑looking metropolis where nature, design, and resilience work hand in hand.

Joined by the people behind The Good City - Rotterdam paper, we explore how community driven adaptation, experimental field labs, and climate adaptive public places are turning climate stress into opportunity - showing how liveable, nature positive spaces can be designed and scaled - offering practical lessons to cities worldwide.

Panellists

This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city

Panellists

BDP's Innovation Applied campaign demonstrates how we harness innovation from within our industry to deliver exceptional results for our clients. The campaign delves into four main themes about innovative practice in the built environment, solving some of the industry’s most challenging issues such as achieving carbon emission reduction targets, increasing operational efficiencies, improving project performance, and best leveraging digital design. 

When we talk about the adaptive reuse of old buildings, we often think of buildings from pre WW1 – romantic buildings from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian era. But a large proportion of the UK building stock consists of vacant buildings dating from the fifties to seventies – the not so old, and not so loved buildings. 

This genre of buildings are generally not considered as 'attractive' as pre-war, heritage buildings, and there is a consensus to want to knock these down and start again. But left neglected, they will continue to erode. So how do we successfully modify them?

With their efficient and lean construction, they can be more difficult to modify and present unique challenges. But they also offer fantastic opportunities to save carbon.  

In this episode, Principal and lead of BDP's civil and structural engineering group, John Roycroft invites colleagues and fellow structural engineers, Victoria Martin and Chris Goodwin, along with George Ballard - building surveyor and structural engineer and chairman from GBG Group to explore the challenges these buildings bring when bringing them back to life. 

First we must determine how these buildings operate, their defects, and how we can work with the building... 

Long gone is the simple ‘pie and pint’ set up. Make way for a more nuanced, increasingly luxurious future for sports spectatorship.  

From ‘fan villages’ modelled off the high street to a myriad of ticketing options offering enhanced dining, drinking and viewing add-ons, discover how top-tier venues like Everton Football Club and Ashes host, Lancashire County Cricket Ground, Emirates Old Trafford are elevating the sports fan’s big day out.  

Marking the second episode in our Season of Sport series, this week, BDP Pattern Architect Director, Jon-Scott Kohli is joined by Head of Sport, Gavin Elliott, Everton FC’s Senior Manager of New Stadium Sales, Vicky Jaycock and CEO at Lancashire County Cricket Club, Emirates Old Trafford, Daniel Gidney,  

Together, our industry experts explore the latest trends in sports-based hospitality design, asking what’s driven changes to the fan zone and how designers can respond to driving forces like sustainability, disruptive tech and demographic shifts in spectatorship.

Meet the speakers

• Jon-Scott Kohli
• Gavin Elliott
• Vicky Jaycock
• Daniel Gidney

Socials

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

The training venue to the athlete is what the office is to the aspiring CEO - a place where elite sportspeople go to perfect their craft, hone their skills and connect with their team and trainers.

Yet, in the highly competitive world of professional sport, can decisions taken during the design of training venues really determine a team’s long-term shot at victory?

From personalisation to community use, social media partnerships and the rise of female and disabled sports, learn about the evolution of training venues in this week’s episode, where Head of Sport Gavin Elliott is joined by Architect Director Andrew Capewell and Ardent Sports Founder and MD Nick Smith, best known for his work with UFC, UEFA and Munster Rugby.

Meet the speakers

• Gavin Elliott
• Andrew Capewell
• Nick Smith

Socials

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

Not only are workers demanding more flexibility in where they work, but they are also increasingly directing the shape of our offices in a post-pandemic world. But what do employees really want and need from workplaces that can’t be achieved from home setups? In this week’s episode, our guests reveal what it takes to create a truly hybrid and inclusive workplace, and how to elevate office design from merely satisfactory to revolutionary.

Meet the speakers

• Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
• Julie Sumairski
• Eirini Theodorou
• Steph Calder

Socials

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

How can we give power to those historically excluded from planning processes and champion inclusive spaces for all, from the moment a rendering is drafted through to the completion of a building? Navigating the complex conversations of cost, timelines, funding and representation - and how these impact the inclusive design process - this week’s guests ask how we can challenge default norms to account for race, colour and culture in the built environment.

Meet the speakers

• Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
• Daniel Walder
• Frances Hahn
• Esther Yeboah

Socials

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

The design of buildings and spaces can shape our behaviour and perceptions of the world in subtle yet powerful ways. How then, have public spaces come to impact people of different genders and reinforced narrow stereotypes and assumptions? For the debut podcast in our Design for Inclusion series, we invited four guests to share their experiences of designing for gender equity. From wayfinding and lighting intensity to residential development layouts, this week’s design experts debate what truly matters when creating a more inclusive world. 

Featured projects

• Reina
• Manchester Town Hall

Meet the speakers

• Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
• Colin Ball
• Heather Rolleston 
• Romulus Sim

Socials

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram