Webinar on Green Development and Eco-Urban Planning | 16^th May 2022 Recording

Our Panel of Speakers:

Dr Mina Samangooei; Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University

Dr Mike Wells RDI, FRSA, FCIEEM; Founding Director and Owner of Biodiversity by Design

Gary Grant, CEnv, FCIEEM; Director of Green Infrastructure Consultancy Ltd.

With

Ms Julia Charlton; Chairman, Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong

Moderated By:

Mr Andrew Wells; Secretary-General, Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong

During this insightful and thought-provoking webinar, our brilliant panel of speakers, each experts in their fields contributing to the global shift towards sustainable infrastructure and green development, presented their key research findings on the current global progress in sustainable infrastructure, noting how we are making progress but still have a long way to go. The panellists also shared with the audience about their respective projects emphasising the need for a holistic approach encompassing all UN Sustainable Development Goals into consideration when planning the design of any urban infrastructure. They also highlighted the need for architects and urban planners to focus on biophilic design as a basis for all blueprints and that simply fulfilling renewable energy requirements is not enough to tackle the foundational challenges of reversing climate change.

Dr Mina Samangooei is an architect in the UK and a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University. Mina’s extensive range of experience in practice includes residential, commercial, community, healthcare, and ecclesiastical buildings. She is passionate about inspiring and working with people and communities to understand the need for future-proofing their projects, through lifestyle and long-term resilience. She has worked closely with co-housing and community led housing groups, thriving in her role as designer and design facilitator. Ecological and energy-efficient design and retrofit, including Enerphit, using a holistic approach is one of her main strengths. Mina’s research focuses on the role that food production in and on buildings plays for the future of cities.

Dr Mike Wells is the first ecologist in the UK to be made a Royal Designer for Industry for lifetime achievements in ecological design. He is a Fellow both of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. Mike has worked globally in ecological design of urban areas from new city build to urban regeneration and retrofit. Mike was the ecological designer of the London Athletes Village for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Gary Grant is a Chartered Environmentalist and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, with four decades of experience of urban ecology and urban greening. He advises on how to incorporate ecology into planning and design, writing strategies and design briefs and working with design teams. He helped to devise the Urban Greening Factor for the London Plan and worked on the green infrastructure strategies for Swansea (Wales) and Phnom Penh, amongst others.

Watch the recording of the live 1.5 hour webinar with instant playback through the link here or by clicking on the video player at the top of this page.