It turns out what's good for us is also good for the planet.

How can we design housing for human beings that aligns with our evolution? In this episode I talk about how Co-Housing and Eco-Village concepts could be a proxy for hunter gatherer tribes by creating small, cooperative communities within urban settings. This way of living has huge benefits for our wellbeing and can also be an effective way of minimising energy and resource use. A Win-Win for people and the environment.

Resources and further reading:
Articles/web pages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing
https://journal.theaou.org/news-and-reviews/the-popularity-of-cohousing-in-demark/
https://cohabitas.com/a-visit-to-saettedammen-co-housing/
https://www.lilac.coop/community/
https://gen-europe.org/podcast/episode-6-lets-build-an-ecovillage-lessons-from-a-life-in-community/
https://laecovillage.org/

Books:
Civilised to Death, Christopher Ryan
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Uncivilised Genes, Gustav Milne

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This episode is part 1 of a series about  human evolution, our prehistory and Hunter Gatherer ways of life. Why should urbanists be interested in this? In this episode I make the argument that:

• We evolved over 2 million years as foragers and it is the only environmentally and socially sustainable way of life we know of.
• Living this way, embedded within ecosystems, is what what we are optimised for and therefore how human beings thrive.
• Life in our prehistoric past (and in modern hunter gatherer bands) is not nearly as awful as we think. In fact we can learn a lot from their approach to life, work, play and community.

This means that our pre-history should be a key design consideration in architecture and urban design. In part 2 (and maybe 3) I will set out specifically what this means for urban design.

Sources:
Civilised to Death, Christopher Ryan
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Uncivilised Genes, Gustav Milne
https://theconversation.com/hunter-gatherers-live-nearly-as-long-as-we-do-but-with-limited-access-to-healthcare-104157
https://phys.org/news/2016-07-hunter-gatherers-fundamental-human-social-networks.html

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Michael Pawlyn established Exploration Architecture in 2007 and has built a reputation as a thought leader in regenerative design and the circular economy. He has lectured internationally and, in 2011, became one of only a small handful of architects to have a talk posted on TED.com which has since had over 1.8 million views. He is the author of Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency (with co-author Sarah Ichioka) and Biomimicry in Architecture.

In this episode we talk about:

• Regenerative Design
• Biomimicry
• Indigenous Wisdom
• Systems Change and shifting Paradigms.

All of these ideas are captured in the amazing new book Flourish, which I encourage you to read. More info here: https://www.flourish-book.com/

Michael and Sarah also have an excellent podcast called Flourish Systems Change: https://www.flourish-book.com/flourishsystemschange-podcast

Flourish Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/flourish.systems.change/
Michael's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelPawlyn

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Today we’re talking about the intersection of of mobility, sustainability, social justice and disability rights.

I am joined by Anna, Micah and Abby from Disability Rights Washington who are part of the Disability Mobility Initiative for Washington State in the US. They are doing amazing work in sharing the stories of how people with disabilities move around and campaigning for systemic change in how our urban environments are designed and built. They want to see people with disabilities in real positions of power and influencing decision making and they talk about the barriers that are currently stopping this.

Learn more about Disability Mobility Initiative:

https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility/
https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/storymap/
https://twitter.com/dismobility
https://www.tiktok.com/@dismobility?lang=en

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Simon is CEO of the business improvement districts Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town, as well as being CEO of Camden Collective, & the Camden Highline.  He is also Co-Chair of the Cross River Partnership and Chair of Camden Giving.  Simon sits on the London Enterprise Action Partnership (LEAP) and is its Champion for Small Business.  During the pandemic Simon was seconded to Mayor’s Covid Business Forum and the London Transition Board, where he Chaired the Business Reopening Strategy Group.  He now sits on the London Recovery Board.  Simon has been leading the Camden Highline project since its inception in 2017.

Learn more about Simon and his Work:
Camden Highline Website
Camden Green Loop Website
Simon's Twitter

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Dr Morgan Philips is UK Co-Director of The Glacier Trust, a UK charity that enables remote mountain communities in Nepal to adapt to Climate Change, and Head of Insight at Global Action Plan. He has a PhD in Environmental Education and is the author of Great Adaptations, a new book about climate adaptation.

In this episode we are talking, unsurprisingly, about climate adaptation. What is it, why we need to be talking about it and lots of examples of good and bad adaptations from cities adapting to increased heat to rural communities in Nepal using agroforestry.

Morgan also tells me about two concepts called Deep Adaptation and Transformational Adaptation, which explore how we may adapt to a society level collapse due to climate change. So, we really cover climate adaption from micro to macro scales in this episode.

Learn more about Morgan and his work:
http://theglaciertrust.org/
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/home
Great Adaptations Book: http://theglaciertrust.org/great-adaptations/shop/great-adaptations

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"So, here's a big problem we need to talk about.
Net Zero Carbon means different things in different situations. We all get to define what we "mean" by net zero (i.e. what we include in our calculations) to suit our project."

In this episode I delve into the problems associated with the term 'Net Zero Carbon', particularly from an urban design and placemaking perspective.

Today's episode was sparked by a Linkedin post I made criticising McDonald's Net Zero Carbon restaurant: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ross-o-ceallaigh_mcdonalds-opens-uks-first-net-zero-restaurant-activity-6878675708114153472-X3HI

It got a lot of traction, with over 40,000 views, 500 likes, 70 comments and 19 reshares so far. Some people supported my criticism while others offered challenges and corrections. This has all fed into a really interesting discussion and informed my thinking further. Rather than responding to all the Linkedin comments, I have laid out further thoughts here on the McDonalds example and on the problems with Net Zero in general.

Dezeen article: https://www.dezeen.com/2021/12/20/mcdonalds-net-zero-restaurant/

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Soils matter! Chris Churchman explains how protecting green areas and improving soil quality is crucial for fighting climate change.

 Chris is a landscape architect and strategist, and the founding Director of Churchman Thornhill Finch landscape architects. As well as having decades of experience designing stunning projects like the gardens of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Chris is interested in the role of soil in tackling climate change. He joined me to talk about the potential for soil to play a much bigger role in sequestering carbon, how new development on greenfield sites releases a lot more carbon than we currently account for, and some thoughts on urban greening tactics.

Follow Chris:
https://www.churchmanthornhillfinch.co.uk/

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Rachel Hoolahan is an architect and sustainability co-ordinator at Orms Architects, a leading London practice with extensive experience working with existing buildings. For the past few years, the practice has engaged in a series of deep research assignments and is utilising this data and knowledge to push the boundaries of sustainable development – both in refurbishment and new build projects.

Recently, she led a research piece on material passports as part of a wider Grosvenor Estate Innovation Project into material reuse. The outcome of this work is a methodology for encouraging more meaningful material reuse, by creating a material database for the project. The approach is deliberately open source and flexible, allowing design teams of any size or skill set to apply the work to their projects.

Rachel is the recipient of the 2021 AJ100 Sustainability Champion Award

This episode covers:

• What circular economy means for buildings 
• Material passports
• Buildings as Material Banks (BAMB)
• Building a culture of sustainability
• Consumerism and fast fashion 

As you may have guessed, this episode is all about Circularity, also called Circular Economy. Rachel explains so clearly why reusing construction and building materials is so important, but also practically how to do it, with examples from her own work. We also talk about how Orms Architects are embedding sustainability in their work culture, which is fascinating. And we end with a discussion on consumerism, the fashion industry and how we need a change in mindset to live within the planet's boundaries.

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George is an urban designer at Create Streets, working to create greener, happier and healthier communities. He believes that designers have a key role to play in safeguarding the long-term well-being of communities and our environment through design that recognizes the value of nature, local context and sustainable connectivity. He has a background in human geography and holds a Masters’ in urban design. George works closely with landowners, developers, councils and neighbourhood groups and has experience of working on masterplans for new settlements, urban extensions and brown field sites, at a range of scales both in the U.K. and abroad.

Today's episode is all about masterplanning for sustainable places but also beautiful places. I do believe that there is a close connection between beauty and sustainability. Places that are attractive and desirable to be in will stand the test of time, will be preserved and adapted into the future. Whereas places that are ugly or inappropriate, like a lot of mid-century modernist tower blocks and estates, are much more likely to be torn down and replaced, which brings with it a huge waste of materials and carbon emissions.

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The Green Urbanist podcast is created by Ross O'Ceallaigh.