Building Green

What if your home could outsmart floods, reduce energy bills, and make you healthier - all at once? 

Architect Nathalie Manzano walks us through the world’s first WELL-certified house in Miami, built for 100-year floods and designed to be fully taken apart, not torn down. 

This isn’t your typical Miami home… This house might just be a living blueprint for the future of sustainable living. 

It’s built using a method called hypo-struction, it’s part fortress, part wellness retreat - and entirely unlike anything else on the market.

To explore more about Ted Caplow and Nathalie Manzano and their work, visit their website and follow them on their Instagram.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina: ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com

If you're careful about what you eat, why not care about what your house is made of?

Nathalie and Ted didn’t just build a house - they created a whole new way of thinking. Instead of following the usual short-term approach that’s common in South Florida, they decided to do the opposite.

Nathalie started in public health, researching how homes affect people’s well-being. Ted comes from an engineering background, with experience in renewable energy and food systems. Together, they built the world’s first WELL-certified home - designed to support both the planet and the people living in it.

They came up with their own method, called hypostruction, which questions everything we think we know about how homes should be built.

Their goal? To create houses that can last over 100 years. And they didn’t build it in a fancy neighborhood - they chose a regular part of Miami on purpose. Because this isn’t just about adapting to climate change. It’s about showing that healthier, longer-lasting homes can be built right now.

To explore more about Ted Caplow and Nathalie Manzano and their work, visit their website and follow them on their Instagram.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buildinggreenshow.com/

Produced by: ⁠⁠https://marketyourarchitecture.com/

Our future depends on how we organize society. The question is: are we getting it right?

David Auge argues that we’ve been looking at it all wrong. In his book “Man’s Search for Sustainability”, he explores how honeybees and desert locusts - two extreme insect societies - hold surprising lessons for how we build our own communities.

In this episode, David reveals:

• why stress is essential for growth, 

• how human society mirrors both, the order of bees and the chaos of locust swarms, and 

• why history - not just innovation - is the key to designing a truly sustainable future. 

We also unpack the biggest misconception about sustainability and the one question everyone should ask to define their own why.

This conversation will change how you think about society.

To explore more about David Augé and his work, visit davidaugebooks.com or follow him on LinkedIn.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

Why did six top firms get six very different answers - to be exact they varied by 34% -  when measuring the same building’s carbon footprint?

Most architects want to design sustainable buildings, but the reality is - sustainability tools are often complicated, expensive, or come into the process too late to make a real impact. That’s exactly what Sheena Zhang is working to fix. 

As a Sustainability Strategist at Autodesk, she helps develop tools like Forma and Insight that make it faster and easier to design greener buildings.

Sheena breaks down:

• how to spot and avoid greenwashing

• why AI can be both a game-changer and a sustainability risk.

• how Autodesk is making sustainability insights accessible to the entire industry - not just high-budget projects.

If you want to know how technology is shaping the future of green buildings, how to make sustainability decisions backed by real data, and why the way we measure carbon today might be misleading, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

To explore more about Sheena Zhang and her work, you can follow her on Linkedin or visit Autodesk’s sustainability section. Or read this if you want to learn more about the project Autodesk ran with WBCSD.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

• Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠
• Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com
• Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

This one shift in how you talk about your business could bring in massive growth. 

Karl Feldman explains how. He helps architecture, engineering, and consulting firms turn their expertise into real business growth. 

As a managing partner at Hinge Marketing, he uses research - not guesswork - to show companies how to stand out, attract the right clients, and prove their value without relying on empty buzzwords.

This episode was especially interesting to me because, as some of you know, I'm also the co-founder of a marketing agency for architects and interior designers, Market Your Architecture. Karl and I discussed:

• Why most firms fail at marketing (and how to fix it)

• The key to making sustainability a selling point for clients who don’t care about it, and

• How to tell if a company is actually eco-friendly or just greenwashing. 

He also explains why small firms have an advantage over big corporations - and how they can use it to compete. If you want to learn how to market your business better, communicate your impact, or see through corporate sustainability claims, this episode is for you.

To explore more about Karl Feldman and his work, you can follow him on Linkedin or visit hingemarketing.com for resources, blogs, articles and books that you can download for research.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

Could AI and modular design be the future of architecture? 

In this episode, we sit down with Ethnie Xu, an architect and real estate expert, to explore how technology, sustainability, and business intersect in the built world. From surviving a devastating earthquake at age 10 to designing resilient, AI-driven buildings, Ethnie shares how we can build smarter, greener, and more affordable cities. We break down the biggest myths about sustainable design, the real potential of AI in construction, and why adaptive reuse is the key to the future of our cities.

🎧 Tune in for insights that could reshape the way we live, work, and build.

To explore more about Ethnie Xu and her work, you can follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn, or visit her YouTube channel.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

Can buildings store electricity like a battery?

Blaine Brownell is a leading voice in sustainable architecture and material innovation, with a career spanning over 20 years. Starting as an architect in Seattle during the rise of the LEED green building movement, he transitioned to academia, where he now directs the School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte. His research focuses on the future of sustainable materials, and he has authored nine books on the topic, including Transmaterial and Radical Green.

Blaine challenges conventional thinking with ideas like:

• Cities made of sky, where buildings store carbon like forests

• Living architecture, where structures are literally grown from trees

• And he advocates for buildings as resource banks, emphasizing that architecture should store energy, water, and materials for reuse

In this episode, Blaine discusses why sustainability must become the default in architecture, how architects can integrate innovative materials visibly into design, and what it will take to shift from incremental improvements to radical change. He also shares amazing projects, from vertical microalgae facades to concrete walls that store electricity like batteries.

Listen now to discover the future of green buildings and why the materials we choose today will shape the world of tomorrow. 

To explore more about Blaine Brownell and his work, you can follow him on LinkedIn, visit his website blainebrownell.com, or read his articles at Architect Magazine’s Mind and Matter Column.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

Can AI design a better, greener future?

Zak Kostura is the leader of the innovative team using AI and genetic algorithms to rethink sustainable architecture and urban planning at Arup. From designing New York’s NRDC headquarters with 3,000+ net-zero options, to optimizing entire transportation networks without building new roads, Zak shares how technology is transforming the built environment.

Discover the future of smart, and efficient design - and why the biggest challenge isn’t the tech, but changing how people work.

To explore more about Zak Kostura and his work, you can follow him on Linkedin, Instagram, Bluesky, or visit his website zakkostura.com.

AI Tools recommendation:

• ARUP Inform -arup.com/services/digital-solutions-and-tools/inform

Other tools mentioned:

• Grasshopper -simplyrhino.co.uk/3d-modelling-software/grasshopper

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

How can we design buildings centered only minimize environmental harm, but actively contribute to better world?

That's exactly the mission of Re:Vision Architecture. Architects Scott Kelly and David Salamon reveal why true sustainability isn’t just about adding solar panels—it’s about designing smarter from the start. They share eye-opening lessons from decades of experience, including why beautiful buildings last longer, how to cut energy waste without breaking the bank, and why the best approach is to "think more, build less."

To explore more about David Salamon, Scott Kelly, and their work, visit their website at revisionarch.com, follow them on Instagram, or connect with them on social media: David Salamon (LinkedIn) and Scott Kelly (LinkedIn).

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠

Why are so many buildings designed to shut out nature instead of working with it?

Vivian Loftness has spent 50 years advancing sustainable architecture, focusing on climate-responsive design, energy efficiency, and healthier buildings. Her career began during the first energy crisis, leading her to research passive solar design and climate-adaptive architecture. She studied in Finland, where she learned from architects who prioritized daylighting and material efficiency.

As a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a leader in organizations like the US Green Building Council and the International Living Future Institute, she has pushed for buildings that operate with minimal mechanical intervention. Her work has influenced policies on passive survivability - ensuring buildings remain habitable during power outages - and environmental surfing, a strategy for maximizing natural ventilation and daylight before using mechanical systems.

In this episode, Vivian explains why modern buildings have become overly sealed and dependent on artificial systems, how architects can design for location-specific climates, and why daylight and operable windows should be non-negotiable in all buildings. She also discusses groundbreaking projects like a Singapore hospital that cut mechanical cooling by two-thirds, replacing it with natural ventilation and rooftop gardens that feed patients.

To explore more about Vivian and her work, you can follow her onLinkedin or visitCarnegie Mellon University's School of Architecture website.

Join me, Ladina, on this green journey, and don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations about sustainable living and architecture and drop us a review. If you have suggestions for future guests or topics, I'd love to hear from you on my socials!

Let's explore the world of green architecture, one conversation at a time.

Contact: 

Ladina ⁠⁠@ladinaschoepf⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠buildinggreenshow.com

Produced by: ⁠⁠marketyourarchitecture.com⁠