AT Conversations

Gender inequality within architecture and construction, tokenism, diversity, role models and mentors, new models of practice and the groundswell of groups campaigning for positive change.

The Rock – a manifesto house in Canada's Whistler mountain resort, designing for extreme weather conditions and striking a balance between aesthetic purity and the messy reality of family life.

Learning from forest schools, allotments and falling out of trees and making the case for rewilding the urban childhood and enshrining access to nature as a universal human right.

Volume housebuilders and biodiversity, lessons learnt from Cator Park and the lasting impact of a formative exchange between Tony Pidgley, Richard Attenborough and The London Wildlife Trust.  

Biophilic design and biodiversity, humanising the workplace and harnessing the power of technology – and poetry – to bring the magic of the forest into the places where we live and work.

Exchange Square, the value of a natural haven in a highly corporate world and the futility of trying to predict the way wildlife behaves and landscapes evolve.

Transforming Thamesmead, blending brutalism and biodiversity, natural capital accounting, Living in the Landscape and delivering a vision for a post-pandemic world.

The Architects Climate Action Network, collective action, change-making, giving the RIBA a run for its money and channelling positive energy into the race against the clock.

Working on school buildings, making sense of masterplans and the challenges involved in wrapping an existing building in a new exoskeleton and an entirely new facade.

The Greenwich Design District, designing a new part of the city and the distinction between delivering a characterful masterplan of separate parts and building an architectural zoo.

The Museum of the Home, hitting the right balance between conservation and transformation, the delicate relationship between engagement and education and the role of the museum as an agent of change.

Displacement and migration, bridging the gap between academia and activism and the Global Free Unit's mission to channel architects' expertise to the people who need it most.

Architect speak, crit culture, feeling like an outsider and the importance of plain speaking and finding time to watch TV.

Late-night parties, too-loud television and other factors that come into play when people of different generations live side by side.

Postmodernism versus multiform, making clients smile and the role of pattern, playfulness and ornament in contemporary architecture.

The Illuminated River project, painting with light and the challenges involved in realising the longest public art project in the world.