Episode 249: Designing Responsibly Built Environments

My guest this week is Blanche Cameron, who leads UCL Bartlett School of Architecture's Environmental Design and Greening Cities modules, and is an urban green infrastructure advocate who works closely with industry and the government on urban greening issues. To say our towns and cities are not always good examples of environmentally sound design and biodiversity would be quite the understatement, but Blanche is one of a group of outspoken advocates for nature inclusive design who are are working towards better outcomes in this regard.

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Dagger flies

What We Talk About 

The built environment and biodiversity collapse

Landscaping in towns and cities

How good design can help mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change

Vertical planting and green roofs

Do we need a coherent plan or is it up to individuals to start changing their landscapes?

“Productising” and the construction industry’s need for homogeneity

Where does technologically fit in?

About Blanche Cameron

Blanche leads UCL Bartlett School of Architecture's Environmental Design and Greening Cities modules, and is a tutor on the Making Cities module and Environmental Design modules in the Landscape Architecture Masters courses. She is currently coordinating the Living Landscape Strategy for UCL’s £1Bn UCL East development, and sits on UCL’s campus greening ‘Wild Bloomsbury’ steering group. Blanche is an urban green infrastructure advocate, working closely with industry and government, and especially with the independent advisory organisation Livingroofs.org founded by Dusty Gedge in 2004. She edited the 2019 policy update report on the impact of 10 years of urban greening through the London Plan Green Roofs and Walls 2008 policy by Dusty Gedge and Gary Grant.

Links

Blanche on LinkedIn

www.naturalgrower.co.uk

www.veteransgrowth.org

Other episodes if you liked this one:

John Little

Green Roofs with Dr Anna Zakrisson

Patreon