海角视频

海角视频 is fortunate to benefit from the energy, enthusiasm and skills of those at the start of their careers. We greatly value the insights and perspectives of our people across the practice, and welcome their innovative ways of thinking.

In May 2024, 海角视频鈥檚 Young Employee鈥檚 Forum (YEF), in collaboration with 海角视频 Backstop, 海角视频鈥檚 employee climate action group, hosted a climate conference. The event reimagined the future of the built environment, through the themes of places, movement and materials.

The conference brought together more than 60 of London鈥檚 built environment next generation, creating a space for collaboration and encouraging them to take a new approach to urban challenges, exploring how we as engineers, designers and advisors can create a more sustainable and resilient future.

How can engineers, designers and advisors create a more sustainable and resilient future?

“What if?”

To begin the evening and to inspire free and open thinking, we invited a panel of speakers from across the public and private sectors and academia to explore a series of radical and succinct 鈥渨hat if鈥� statements, encouraging attendees to look at urban environments from a new perspective.

Tessa Devresse, project manager at Re:London for CIRCuIT, posed the question: 鈥淲hat if our cities made space for reuse?鈥� Tessa encouraged attendees to consider what type of circular economy we envision for the future of our cities and emphasised the importance of a considered spatial policy in creating a circular and sustainable future.

Smith Mordak, CEO of asked: 鈥�What if we taxed materials rather than labour?鈥� Smith highlighted the importance of engaging with and understanding the wider systems our work is situated in, in order to empower ourselves to challenge the status quo and leverage sustainable change.

Ben Webb, regenerative practice lead at Planit, considered the total redesign of our food systems, asking: 鈥淲hat if supermarkets ceased to exist?鈥� Ben鈥檚 talk challenged attendees to think about where our food comes from, who controls the supply chains and who profits from the current systems. Concluding that while we have the power to create a regenerative future from the bottom up, it will require a change of mindset: reimagining ourselves as a regenerative species.

Will Evison, director at PWC UK, explored the question: 鈥淲hat if we adapted our cities to optimise the role of nature?鈥� Will highlighted the multiple co-benefits that nature and ecosystem services provide to our urban environments; encouraging us to consider the impact of human activity not only through the built aspects of our cities, but also of our supply chains.

Alex Morgan-Grenville and Audry de Nazelle explored the statement: 鈥淲hat if London had fewer cars?鈥�, presenting findings of Alex鈥檚 MSc research at Imperial College London. Alex and Audry considered the extent to which private vehicles have been prioritised in the design of cities to date, and explored the potential benefits that could arise if we reclaimed the space we give to cars for nature.

Katie Moen, senior technical consultant at Bioregional, asked: 鈥淲hat if emergent utopian characteristics were used to design places?鈥� Rather than questioning how places should be designed, Katie proposed that to unlock impactful and lasting change in the built environment, we need to take a step back and re-evaluate the way we approach such questions. As such, she explored how we can use emergent utopian characteristics as an approach to enable transformational thinking in designing places.

To wrap up the first half of the evening, the speakers came together for a panel Q+A chaired by Anna Woodeson, sustainability director, 海角视频.

Exploration and collaboration

The second half of the conference allowed attendees to continue exploring the concepts that had emerged through the panel discussion in a smaller, more informal environment.

Attendees were asked to reimagine the built environment through a series of different scenarios with 2-by-2 boards: what would a city look like if it was created from a community interest perspective vs. a commercial interest and how would this translate to the use of public and private space?

What would happen if we approached development from a nature-driven perspective rather than a human-driven perspective, and what would this look like in a world where we continue to expand our footprint versus limiting our expansion? Where is the right balance between private and public mobility systems, and how does this translate to high and low density living?

In groups, attendees explored these ideas, considering the challenges and opportunities of each scenario, before reflecting on which may be the 鈥榠deal鈥� scenario and what mechanisms would be needed to make this the reality of the built environment.

The future of cities

While all the speakers approached the radical 鈥渨hat if鈥� briefs they were set from a diverse range of perspectives, backgrounds and subjects, everyone converged on a shared optimistic vision we could imagine for the future. It is possible to build a future which is sustainable and resilient 鈥� and we can all play a part.

To mitigate the dual climate and ecological crises, we need to work together to reimagine the current systems and responses to urban challenges and create regenerative, just cities for both humans and nature.