Brendan MacFarlane: reinventing cities with eco-friendly architecture

Brendan MacFarlane is a leading architect and co-founder of the Paris-based architectural firm Jakob + MacFarlane - a multidisciplinary architectural agency with a focus on environmental transition and digital culture. Jakob + MacFarlane are the initiators of the French chapter of ‘Architects Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency’ – a network of architectural practices committed to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency. They also recently won the C40 Reinventing Cities awards for their innovative, carbon-friendly projects, Living Landscape and The Energy Plug – both of which we speak about in this episode.

Living Landscape is a new urban hub located in Reykjavik, Iceland. It will be the largest wooden building in Iceland and will house a local ecosystem of indigenous plants, local rocks and topographic surfaces. The space will also be home to a kindergarten, restaurant, greenhouses, office space and is designed to be an eco-systemic methodology for developing cities into the future.

The Energy Plug is located in the northern suburb of Paris and is a reinvention of a former industrial site. Through a modular design, a reversible wooden extension and solar panels which are attached to the building, this site will become a self-sufficient producer of renewable energy, as well as being a centre for cultural events, scientific workshops, exhibitions and a place for start-ups, NGO’s and industrial partners to test and share their solutions for clean energy, climate change and sustainable urban development.

Jakob and MacFarlane also initiated an imaginary project called Tonga Above which rethinks the Tongan capital of tomorrow after it becomes inundated with rising sea levels due to climate change. As sea levels rise, a number of states within the Pacific Islands risk disappearing underwater. So, Jakob and MacFarlane, in partnership with the Tongan-based artist Uili Lousi, have proposed to create an urban landscape that would exist above the current Tongan capital and therefore prevent a mass relocation for citizens of Tonga.

Other major projects by Jakob + MacFarlane include the Georges Restaurant at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, Orange Cube, Lyon, FRAC Centre, Orléans, and Euronews’s global headquarters, Lyon.

Jakob + MacFarlane’s projects have been exhibited in museums around the world, including London's V&A Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Moscow’s Museum of Architecture, Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum and Pompidou Centre, Paris.

If you’d like to see some of Jakob + MacFarlane’s work, here are a few links to some the projects we spoke about in this episode:

• Living Landscape
• The Energy Plug
• Tonga Above

And if you’re interested learning more about Green Canvas, you can find us on our website.

We hope you enjoy the episode!