Working on It

From being global citizens back to local dwellers, from zipping around the world back to discovering our local neighbourhoods, the Covid-19 crisis has transformed how we view our place in the world. The good and the bad.

Jeremy Salmon is an architect, husband, father and a director of an architectural practice. His career has literally taken him across the four corners of the world. 

Back in the UK, Jeremy is now rediscovering the village he lives in and the new, growing role that our local communities are having in our lives and our behaviours.  

Back in the day when I was at university, I couldn’t wait for the student life to end. 

Although there were parts of being a student that I really (really, ...really) did enjoy, I was fed up with the little room I lived in, fed up with the dirty flat and fed up of being broke all the time. 

Speaking to Frank Uffen made me wish I was a student again.

Frank is a partner at Student Hotel and those guys have redefined what living as a student means, while also giving a hotel a new definition. 

They have created places where learning, social life, fun, work, rest and many other parts of life are blended.

I really wish I was a student again.

Like many other things that make a space function, things like light, temperature or sound for example, wayfinding is unnoticeable until you realise that it doesn’t work.
 
Today’s guest wants her wayfinding designs to be rather invisible.
 
Lucy Holmes is a problem solver who uses graphic design and her understanding of behaviour to almost inconspicuously navigate people through spaces, which include very famous landmarks like the Tate Modern, the British Museum, the V&N and many others.
 
There are not many designers who have literally carved their work into the walls of the National Gallery in London like Lucy has.

What do you think of when you hear or read the word “craft”? Is the marketing promise on an instant coffee “crafted with 100% arabica beans” or a person who patiently, skilfully and lovingly makes a product?

No wonder that “crafting” has become a marketing buzzword, because the real craft industry has exploded in popularity and generates an estimated £3 billion in sales in the UK alone.

In today’s episode I speak with Natalie Melton about how craft reinvented itself and what its role could be in the high street of the future.

If you’ve been to any property events in recent years, you’ve probably stumbled upon a few words that sound authoritative and professional, but that everyone interprets and uses differently.

For me that word is placemaking.

Like everyone else I think I know what it means, but I’ve heard it being used in so many different contexts that I didn’t dare use it myself, on account of not wanting to sound foolish or ignorant. Well at least that was the case until I spoke to Rosanna Vitiello. 

When it comes to placemaking Rosanna is the person you want on your side. Not only does she know how a space becomes a place, she also has the mindset and the experience to make it happen.

With all the property events cancelled everywhere, how do you move beyond the webinar deluge and find a trusty place to connect and exchange views and ideas? 

Today I am speaking wit Bill Kistler who, driven by his own need to reconnect, got a few of his friends together and started a weekly “sanity check” Zoom call.  

What started as a small group of insiders is now selectively adding more and more people and evolving into a brain trust of sorts, where some ideas end and others are formed. 

How do you develop your customer service when, at times, drive-by shootings are briberies are just some of the things you have to deal with?

Today’s podcast guest has managed to do all that and so much more.

Audra Lamoon is a former “failed and miserable stewardess”, who today leads a team of customer service experts across the UK, US, Middle East and Canada.

What if you had the license and the ability to touch and influence almost everything an organisation does: from business strategy and design, to its brand and how the company approaches innovation?

Today’s guest is a person who used his background, his desire to learn and his professional experience to create a unique place for himself as a leader and a thinker. At 60 he went back to school to deconstruct and rebuild his thinking and relearn how to look beyond the obvious.

From his unique viewpoint Paul Hanegraaf can peek behind the curtain and observe how the wounds will heal, and which scars might last long after the current crisis has faded.

Some people are so accustomed to change that it becomes a driving force behind their life and their professional success. They relish a challenge and look for opportunities in pretty much anything.

Alberto Esquevillas is one of those people.

Born in Spain, he grew up in Belgium and worked across Europe and beyond, in the industry leading companies like El Corte Inglés, Lendlease and Westfield. When it comes to property development and asset management Alberto has pretty much seen it all.

Jens Heitland is a well established innovation expert currently working as Business Design Lead at Fjord. He has also served as the Global Head of Innovation at  IKEA Centres.