Month: April 2021
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The post-pandemic sustainable future of community gardens in London (Online Workshop)
Online Workshop on Friday 30th of April 2021 from 10am – 1pm During the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s relationships with plant life have altered as has their use of urban green spaces. In UK cities, people have rediscovered public parks as spaces to meet up with friends and family, take a walk, and do sports. In […]
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Claiming our turf. Making spaces safe through inclusive urban design.
Over recent weeks the media has been full of women sharing their stories about their experience of sexual harassment, and the statistics are shocking. It’s shocking too, that women, myself included, are not surprised by them. 97% of young women have been the victim of sexual harassment and, over the last decade, a woman has […]
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Design for repair and maintainability
Recently, I have been thinking about design for repair and maintainability. The three ‘R’s of sustainability remind us to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but ‘Reuse’ can be a challenge when so many products are not designed with maintenance or repair in mind. Home printers are a good example, with huge numbers of printers ending up in […]
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Pick a metric, any metric! Designing Building Energy Standards
The UK Government is currently consulting on the Future Building Standard which includes updates to parts of the building regulations dealing with energy use in buildings (MHCLG, 2021). The built environment is a major user of energy and contributor to carbon emissions so tightening standards for new buildings and retrofit is an important step for […]
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An Open Innovation tool for the design toolkit
Sometimes, designing can mean to juggle multiple ideas, opinions, deadlines or budgets all in a single project. The goal, the plan to get there, and the values that drive us are in constant flux, whether we agree or not. As a project unfolds, it can be easy to lose track of priorities or objectives; becoming […]