BDP Podcast: Recent Episodes
BDP
The BDP Podcast highlights and debates the biggest challenges facing designers today. From sustainability and carbon-free building to designing for a more inclusive world, each episode welcomes international experts from architecture, engineering and urbanism professions to discuss the most prominent issues in the industry.
Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet.
In our third episode, Delhi - Rewriting the Code, we turn to one of the world’s fastest‑urbanising nations. India is already 40% urban, and by 2050 will welcome 400 million new city residents - an entire new urban India built in a single generation. But cities across India are being shaped by outdated volumetric planning codes that prioritise floor area, setbacks, and parking over walkability, climate resilience, and public life. As Manisha Bhartia notes, “good urban design is being thwarted by the planning system itself.”
Joined by the authors of The Good City – Delhi paper, we explore how form‑based planning could rewrite the rules - shifting the focus from mathematical envelopes to the physical form of streets, blocks, and public spaces. From the vibrant lanes of Old Delhi to the gated compounds of Gurgaon, our panel unpacks how India’s historic urbanism offers timeless lessons, and how modern codes can once again build cities with a beating heart.
Panellists
- Michelle Xuereb (Host), Director of Innovation, BDP Quadrangle
- Kanak Tiwari, Urban Expert and Team Lead – Vision for the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region
- Nilesh Prakash Rajadhyaksha, Urban Policy Specialist
- Manisha Bhartia, Urbanism Director & Head of India Studios, BDP
- Radhika Mathur, Associate Director & Head of Urban Design, BDP
This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city
Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet.
In our second episode, Toronto - Growing Pains, we turn to one of North America’s most dynamic and pressured cities. Every year, around 120,000 people arrive in the Toronto region, testing the limits of its housing, infrastructure, and public services. But behind the headlines of rising costs and crowded streets lies a bigger question: can rapid growth become a force for good?
Joined by the authors of The Good City - Toronto paper, we unpack how community-centred TOD, gentle density, and inclusive design can shape a fairer, more resilient and future-ready Toronto.
Panellists
- Michelle Xuereb (Host), Innovation Director, BDP Quadrangle
- Sean Hertel, Principal, Hertel Planning, Lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Waterloo, and York University Canada
- Harim Labuschagne, Senior Architect & Director of Design, BDP Quadrangle
This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city
Welcome to The Good City podcast series, where we bring together designers, planners, engineers, environmental thinkers, academics, and community voices to explore how design can help cities tackle their biggest challenges and create better places for people and the planet.
In our first episode, Rotterdam: Climate Adaptation, we spotlight a city that has turned its greatest climate risks into a platform for innovation. With around 85% of Rotterdam sitting below sea level, water is an everyday reality. By embracing rather than resisting it, the city is transforming into a forward‑looking metropolis where nature, design, and resilience work hand in hand.
Joined by the people behind The Good City - Rotterdam paper, we explore how community driven adaptation, experimental field labs, and climate adaptive public places are turning climate stress into opportunity - showing how liveable, nature positive spaces can be designed and scaled - offering practical lessons to cities worldwide.
Panellists
- Michelle Xuereb (Host), Innovation Director, BDP Quadrangle
- Johan Verlinde, Program Manager, Rotterdam Climate Adaptation Plan
- Lindsey Schwidder, Programme Manager, The Green Village at Delft University of Technology
- Yasmin Stip, Citizens Initiative Leader, Iedereenaanboord
- Björn Bleumink, Architect Director, Head of Rotterdam Studio, BDP
This podcast forms part of The Good City, a global initiative by BDP and Nippon Koei to help cities across the world become better. Find out more: https://www.bdp.com/in-depth/the-good-city
Panellists
- Michelle Xuereb (Host), Head of Innovation, BDP Quadrangle
- Eve Roodhouse, Chief Officer, Culture and Economy, Leeds City Council
- Deb Hetherington, Head of Innovation, Bruntwood SciTech
- Vicky Casey, Architect Director and head of Leeds Studio, BDP
BDP's Innovation Applied campaign demonstrates how we harness innovation from within our industry to deliver exceptional results for our clients. The campaign delves into four main themes about innovative practice in the built environment, solving some of the industry’s most challenging issues such as achieving carbon emission reduction targets, increasing operational efficiencies, improving project performance, and best leveraging digital design.
When we talk about the adaptive reuse of old buildings, we often think of buildings from pre WW1 – romantic buildings from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian era. But a large proportion of the UK building stock consists of vacant buildings dating from the fifties to seventies – the not so old, and not so loved buildings.
This genre of buildings are generally not considered as 'attractive' as pre-war, heritage buildings, and there is a consensus to want to knock these down and start again. But left neglected, they will continue to erode. So how do we successfully modify them?
With their efficient and lean construction, they can be more difficult to modify and present unique challenges. But they also offer fantastic opportunities to save carbon.
In this episode, Principal and lead of BDP's civil and structural engineering group, John Roycroft invites colleagues and fellow structural engineers, Victoria Martin and Chris Goodwin, along with George Ballard - building surveyor and structural engineer and chairman from GBG Group to explore the challenges these buildings bring when bringing them back to life.
First we must determine how these buildings operate, their defects, and how we can work with the building...
Long gone is the simple ‘pie and pint’ set up. Make way for a more nuanced, increasingly luxurious future for sports spectatorship.
From ‘fan villages’ modelled off the high street to a myriad of ticketing options offering enhanced dining, drinking and viewing add-ons, discover how top-tier venues like Everton Football Club and Ashes host, Lancashire County Cricket Ground, Emirates Old Trafford are elevating the sports fan’s big day out.
Marking the second episode in our Season of Sport series, this week, BDP Pattern Architect Director, Jon-Scott Kohli is joined by Head of Sport, Gavin Elliott, Everton FC’s Senior Manager of New Stadium Sales, Vicky Jaycock and CEO at Lancashire County Cricket Club, Emirates Old Trafford, Daniel Gidney,
Together, our industry experts explore the latest trends in sports-based hospitality design, asking what’s driven changes to the fan zone and how designers can respond to driving forces like sustainability, disruptive tech and demographic shifts in spectatorship.
Meet the speakers
- Jon-Scott Kohli
- Gavin Elliott
- Vicky Jaycock
- Daniel Gidney
Socials
The training venue to the athlete is what the office is to the aspiring CEO - a place where elite sportspeople go to perfect their craft, hone their skills and connect with their team and trainers.
Yet, in the highly competitive world of professional sport, can decisions taken during the design of training venues really determine a team’s long-term shot at victory?
From personalisation to community use, social media partnerships and the rise of female and disabled sports, learn about the evolution of training venues in this week’s episode, where Head of Sport Gavin Elliott is joined by Architect Director Andrew Capewell and Ardent Sports Founder and MD Nick Smith, best known for his work with UFC, UEFA and Munster Rugby.
Meet the speakers
- Gavin Elliott
- Andrew Capewell
- Nick Smith
Socials
Not only are workers demanding more flexibility in where they work, but they are also increasingly directing the shape of our offices in a post-pandemic world. But what do employees really want and need from workplaces that can’t be achieved from home setups? In this week’s episode, our guests reveal what it takes to create a truly hybrid and inclusive workplace, and how to elevate office design from merely satisfactory to revolutionary.
Meet the speakers
- Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
- Julie Sumairski
- Eirini Theodorou
- Steph Calder
Socials
How can we give power to those historically excluded from planning processes and champion inclusive spaces for all, from the moment a rendering is drafted through to the completion of a building? Navigating the complex conversations of cost, timelines, funding and representation - and how these impact the inclusive design process - this week’s guests ask how we can challenge default norms to account for race, colour and culture in the built environment.
Meet the speakers
- Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
- Daniel Walder
- Frances Hahn
- Esther Yeboah
Socials
The design of buildings and spaces can shape our behaviour and perceptions of the world in subtle yet powerful ways. How then, have public spaces come to impact people of different genders and reinforced narrow stereotypes and assumptions? For the debut podcast in our Design for Inclusion series, we invited four guests to share their experiences of designing for gender equity. From wayfinding and lighting intensity to residential development layouts, this week’s design experts debate what truly matters when creating a more inclusive world.
Featured projects
- Reina
- Manchester Town Hall
Meet the speakers
- Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson
- Colin Ball
- Heather Rolleston
- Romulus Sim
Socials
Why do some buildings last for centuries while others disappear in mere decades? From the remerging role of passive design measures to creating ‘flexible’ buildings, this week sees guest experts from our lighting, engineering and architecture teams question what it takes to design long-lasting, sustainable buildings for generations to come.
Featured projects
- Welsh School of Architecture
- Senate House, University of London
Meet the speakers
- Alan Davies
- Nick Durham
- Jessica Kennedy
- Mark Ridler
Socials
This week, Alan Davies and his new panel of experts discuss how to bring old buildings back to life. As we emerge from the global pandemic, new civic strategies require more modern solutions for spaces. From adaptive reuse of historic structures to retrofit projects in modern buildings, there are more options available to building owners and designers than ever before. Retrofit and refurbishment seems like the obvious choice but is it more cost-effective and can we retain the important character and history that is inherent in these buildings?
Featured projects
- Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport
- Bata Shoe Factory
- Aberdeen Music Hall
- Glasgow Queen Street Station
Meet the speakers
- Alan Davies
- Michael Cambden
- Bruce Kennedy
- Dev Mehta
Socials
Alan Davies is joined by Tianyi Gu, Akshay Khera and Illyas Maljee to explore how adaptive reuse is becoming a global trend in design and architecture. No one country has the ability to solve the climate emergency and when it comes to the reuse of buildings, we have to be sensitive to the building stock, environments and policies that influence the industry. But how does this affect the design and construction process? Do we still have a way to go to persuade some nations that reusing older buildings is the best approach or is it already taking off as a worldwide initiative?
Featured projects
- 42 Abu Dhabi
- Shanghai Yangshupu Power Station
- University of Bristol Dental School
Meet the speakers
- Alan Davies
- Tianyi Gu
- Akshay Khera
- Illyas Maljee
Socials
In this first episode of our debut series, Old Buildings - New Beginnings, BDP’s head of heritage, Alan Davies meets with Lucy Townsend, Il’ic Testoni and James Hepburn to ask the fundamental question, ‘Can we make historic buildings sustainable?’ They discuss how to measure sustainability in old buildings and analyse what we can do to adapt existing structures to meet ever-stringent net zero carbon ambitions in the face of a climate emergency.
See our projects
- BDP.com
Meet the speakers
- Alan Davies
- Lucy Townsend
- Il’ic Testoni
- James Hepburn
Socials
In this episode of Old Buildings - New Beginnings, Alan Davies is joined by Jesse Klimitz, Christine Davis and David Artis to discuss how to make old buildings more inclusive. Together they debate the meaning of accessibility, inclusivity and equality in the built environment, highlighting physical and perceived barriers that users can face. Concluding the episode, our experts discuss how heritage buildings can be adapted to be more considerate of everyone who uses them.
See our projects
- BDP.com
- BDP Quadrangle
- Human Space
Meet the speakers
- Alan Davies
- Jesse Klimitz
- Christine Davis
- David Artis
Socials