Climate360° : a changing climate's impact & brilliant people making a difference

Join us as we interview Joost Bakker on the design of the Regenerative Futures Studio for Woodleigh School, a learning centre that exemplifies his principles. The project utilises carbon-sequestering materials like hemp and straw, emphasising the distinction between net-zero and truly regenerative design. The buildings also have a thriving indigenous rooftop garden incorporating an innovative rain water harvesting system that ensures an ongoing, climate resilient habitat. Locally sourced natural, recycled and repurposed materials feature throughout, Bakker demonstrates how architecture can actively contribute to environmental restoration and create an exceptional healthy, sustainable learning environment.

https://www.futurefoodsystem.com

@joostbakker

@climate_360

About Joost Bakker

Joost Joost Bakker is an Australian environmental designer and sustainability advocate, celebrated for pioneering zero-waste systems and regenerative architecture. His innovative projects, such as the "Future Food System," showcase closed-loop living environments that integrate food production, waste recycling, and sustainable construction.

About Climate

360 Climate360 is a podcast series that will take a broad view of how climate impacts our whole world. It is an initiative of Sam Redston and Andrew Mackenzie. Over the weeks and months ahead we will explore how climate impacts health, economics, politics, science, farming, manufacturing and everything else. We will explore the challenges of a changing climate, while throwing a light on a rich community of innovators and activists, professionals and academics, makers and motivators, who are leading the way in how we might respond to our changing climate.

Special thanks to:

David Baker, Principal, and the Woodleigh School community Woodleigh Regenerative Futures Studio Design Team: Joost Bakker, Design Lead; Frank Burridge, Project Architect; John McIldowie, Design Architect; Craig Brown, Project Director; Elizabeth Burger, Interior Designer, Sam Cox, Landscape Consultant; TGA Engineers, Structural Engineer; BRT Consulting, Services Consultant; A2M Consulting, Cost Consultant.

Thanks also to Melbourne Design Week 2025 and the architectural photography of Earl Carter.

We acknowledge that we work and create on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Boon Wurrung People of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Always was. Always will be. www.climate360.com.au

Join us for the second part of our conversation with Professor Dan Hill is a renowned designer, urbanist, and educator, currently based at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne.

With a career spanning over two decades, Dan has led transformative projects intersecting design, technology, and urban development across global cities, including Manchester's Northern Quarter and Google's campuses. His expertise lies in crafting social and cultural infrastructures that respond to contemporary urban challenges.

In this episode, our first long-form interview from the ClimateRelay: Building season, Dan introduces the Australian Carbon Reduction Roadmap, a collaborative initiative launched in early 2025 with the aim of translating global commitments of the Paris Agreement to local targets, from a national emissions limit through to definition of a carbon budget specific to the built environment.

In presenting the Roadmap, Dan demonstrates “design’s capability to produce tangible settings in which to encounter other ideas”, advocating for experiential engagement and demonstrating a myriad of ways we can “show don’t tell at system scale”. We covered a lot of ground, and none of it could be left behind in the edit suite, so this is the first of a two part presentation.

ClimateRelay: Building is a series of interviews with diverse thinkers and doers from the worlds of research, design, insurance, engineering and farming. Each in turn discusses how their work intersects with climate and building. Five full interviews will be published weekly, from next week, however we kick off this week with a ClimateRelay - a short excerpt from each of five interviews running back-to-back. In so doing, ClimateRelay is designed to demonstrate that climate issues cannot be discussed in silos. The impacts of climate change are intrinsically cross-disciplinary, requiring us to think in complex, non-linear ways.

Building launches Climate360, a weekly podcast that will take a broad view of how climate impacts our whole world. Over the weeks and months ahead we will explore how climate impacts health, economics, politics, science, farming, manufacturing and everything else. We will explore the challenges of a changing climate, while throwing a light on a rich community of innovators and activists, professionals and academics, makers and motivators, who are leading the way in how we might respond to our changing climate.

Climate360 is an initiative of Sam Redston and Andrew Mackenzie.

Join them every week for fresh ideas and bold propositions for a changing world.

The Australian Carbon Reduction Roadmap is a collaborative initiative, and we would like to acknowledge the team and encourage you to visit their website and join the movement at https://reductionroadmap.au

Australian Reduction Roadmap

Robert H. Crawford, James Helal, Dan Hill, André Stephan (University of Melbourne)

Gerard Reinmuth, Mikkel Moller Roesdahl, Sarah-Jane Wilson (TERROIR)

Gerard Reinmuth (University of Technology Sydney)

Tim Schork, Sarah-Jane Wilson (Queensland University of Technology)

Special thanks also to

Melbourne Design Week 2025

Ewan McEoin, Timothy Moore, National Gallery of Victoria

Creative Victoria

We acknowledge that we work and create on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Boon Wurrung People and we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Always was. Always will be.

www.climate360.com.au

Professor Dan Hill is a renowned designer, urbanist, and educator, currently based at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne.

With a career spanning over two decades, Dan has led transformative projects intersecting design, technology, and urban development across global cities, including Manchester's Northern Quarter and Google's campuses. His expertise lies in crafting social and cultural infrastructures that respond to contemporary urban challenges.

In this episode, our first long-form interview from the ClimateRelay: Building season, Dan introduces the Australian Carbon Reduction Roadmap, a collaborative initiative launched in early 2025 with the aim of translating global commitments of the Paris Agreement to local targets, from a national emissions limit through to definition of a carbon budget specific to the built environment.

In presenting the Roadmap, Dan demonstrates “design’s capability to produce tangible settings in which to encounter other ideas”, advocating for experiential engagement and demonstrating a myriad of ways we can “show don’t tell at system scale”. We covered a lot of ground, and none of it could be left behind in the edit suite, so this is the first of a two part presentation.

ClimateRelay: Building is a series of interviews with diverse thinkers and doers from the worlds of research, design, insurance, engineering and farming. Each in turn discusses how their work intersects with climate and building. Five full interviews will be published weekly, from next week, however we kick off this week with a ClimateRelay - a short excerpt from each of five interviews running back-to-back. In so doing, ClimateRelay is designed to demonstrate that climate issues cannot be discussed in silos. The impacts of climate change are intrinsically cross-disciplinary, requiring us to think in complex, non-linear ways.

Building launches Climate360, a weekly podcast that will take a broad view of how climate impacts our whole world. Over the weeks and months ahead we will explore how climate impacts health, economics, politics, science, farming, manufacturing and everything else. We will explore the challenges of a changing climate, while throwing a light on a rich community of innovators and activists, professionals and academics, makers and motivators, who are leading the way in how we might respond to our changing climate.

Climate360 is an initiative of Sam Redston and Andrew Mackenzie.

Join them every week for fresh ideas and bold propositions for a changing world.

The Australian Carbon Reduction Roadmap is a collaborative initiative, and we would like to acknowledge the team and encourage you to visit their website and join the movement at https://reductionroadmap.au

Australian Reduction Roadmap

Robert H. Crawford, James Helal, Dan Hill, André Stephan (University of Melbourne)

Gerard Reinmuth, Mikkel Moller Roesdahl, Sarah-Jane Wilson (TERROIR)

Gerard Reinmuth (University of Technology Sydney)

Tim Schork, Sarah-Jane Wilson (Queensland University of Technology)

Special thanks also to

Melbourne Design Week 2025

Ewan McEoin, Timothy Moore, National Gallery of Victoria

Creative Victoria

We acknowledge that we work and create on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Boon Wurrung People and we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Always was. Always will be.

www.climate360.com.au

Building is a series of interviews with diverse thinkers and doers from the worlds of research, design, insurance, engineering and farming. Each in turn discusses how their work intersects with climate and building. Five full interviews will be published weekly, from next week, however we kick off this week with a ClimateRelay - a short excerpt from each of five interviews running back-to-back. In so doing, ClimateRelay is designed to demonstrate that climate issues cannot be discussed in silos. The impacts of climate change are intrinsically cross-disciplinary, requiring us to think in complex, non-linear ways.

Building launches Climate360, a weekly podcast that will take a broad view of how climate impacts our whole world. Over the weeks and months ahead we will explore how climate impacts health, economics, politics, science, farming, manufacturing and everything else. We will explore the challenges of a changing climate, while throwing a light on a rich community of innovators and activists, professionals and academics, makers and motivators, who are leading the way in how we might respond to our changing climate.

Climate360 is an initiative of Sam Redston and Andrew Mackenzie.

Join them every week for fresh ideas and bold propositions for a changing world.

The ClimateRelay participants are, in order of appearance,

00:00 “The road to Paris is steep. Very steep.” Dan Hill, Designer, Urbanist & Educator, Melbourne School of Design

13:15 “Hemp to the rescue.” Doug Rennie, Farmer

27:00 “Buildings as habitat.” Joost Bakker, Zero-waste innovator

39:45 “Climates and the housing insurance crisis.” Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management, University of Queensland.

51:30 “Rethinking and reusing big buildings.” Sam Pear, Sustainability Engineer, Hassell Studios

The series of interviews was presented on 24 May 2025 at the Regenerative Futures Studio, Woodleigh School as part of Melbourne Design Week 2025.

We thank the ClimateRelay panellists, and Woodleigh School for their part in the ClimateRelay Building program and look forward to sharing their insights later in the series:

Janis Fischer, Landscape Architect, Tract Consultants & Nature Based Cities Advisory Councillor

Frank Burridge, Architect, Main& Frank

Dan Hill, Designer, Urbanist & Educator, Melbourne School of Design

Special thanks also to

Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art Design and Architecture, National Gallery of Victoria

David Baker, Principal, and the staff of Woodleigh School

Creative Victoria

We acknowledge that we work and create on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Boon Wurrung People and we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Always was. Always will be.

www.climate360.com.au