Ana Belizário: ‘Timber should be the material of choice in the global south’

Episode 61. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams.  In this episode, we turn our attention to the global south. Ana Belizário describes Brazil’s burgeoning mass timber movement, which includes notable exemplars such as the Children's Village School (in Tocantins in northern Brazil) which won the RIBA International Prize in 2018.  Many talented Brazilian architects are shifting their focus from concrete to timber. Belizário cites Waugh Thistleton’s Murray Grove as a precedent many Brazilians designers initially strove to emulate. By now there are many more typologies and approaches, including a high-end retail complex in São Paulo’s fashionable Pinheiros district which will open in early 2026. We also discuss the biodiversity challenges of pine and eucalyptus plantations, which supply Brazil’s mass timber industry, including their potential for growth and how they relate to native species. Belizário argues that hybrid construction is a crucial way forward. While not carbon negative, hybrid construction is an easy win because the industry ‘feels safe’ with it, according to Belizário. ‘Every cubic metre counts. A thousand hybrid structures is better than one super mass timber structure that will never come,’ she explains. At the time of recording, Belizário had just returned from COP 30 in Belém where Built by Nature launched its Principles for Responsible Timber Construction. She describes the five principles as a useful tool for a project, a company, or even a country to situate itself on its timber journey and develop an action plan for the various points.  Post-COP, Belizário is hopeful. ‘Sustainability got popular,’ she says.  Reflecting on how Brazil’s mass timber industry has grown in recent years, Belizário hopes that within five years Urbem will be able to boast an all-female mass timber installation team! For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here. Supported by Built by Nature

Episode 60. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams.  In this episode, we take a deep dive into building with timber. Haggart shares numerous tips for practices just getting started. Early engagement with the supply chain and getting the right engineer are essential. Efficient use of timber is essential, as is designing for longevity and adaptability by getting column grids right and incorporating ‘soft spots’ where connections between floors can be introduced at a later date. Managing moisture by designing out wet trades is just as critical as fire risk. Haggart also explains how engineered timber structures can be designed for circularity. She sees a future of more manufacturer take-back schemes, rather than the current fledgling approach of one-to-one reuse between a host building and a donor building.   Waugh Thistleton's Black & White Building recently won global recognition as a winner of the Built by Nature prize, recognised particularly for its efficient use of timber in both structure and facade and an informative LCA report which sets out the metrics behind the building in an engaging and accessible manner that others can learn from. Current projects in the pipeline include a twin office building for Lendlease on the Milan Expo site, a stone clad office tower in Maidenhead and collaboration with community housing practice We Can Make in Bristol. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here. Supported by Built by Nature

Episode 59. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams.  On the eve of Cop30 in Brazil, Built by Nature European Networks Lead and ACAN co-founder Joe Giddings talks to the AJ about how to build responsibly with timber. Giddings takes a deep dive into Built by Nature's (BbN) five Principles for Responsible Timber Construction, which provide a holistic framework for building with timber without unintended consequences. He also describes BbN’s workstreams to quantify and promote lean use of timber. Current research includes the development of two new metrics for assessing the impact of building with timber: the use renewal ratio (the length of timber remains locked up in a building compared to how long it takes the tree that supplied it to grow) and wood use intensity, the volume of timber used per square metre of building. Giddings challenges numerous tropes. Local is not always best; what’s needed is a holistic understanding of what timber is abundant in the supply chain that is appropriate for a particular application. Monocultures of Sitka Spruce are not all bad; in the UK, they are a stronghold for red squirrels. Different aspects of biodiversity can drive different specification choices. Again, a holistic view is what matters. He also describes his work with partners across Europe, including Bauhaus Earth in Berlin, BBCA in France and MassMadera in Spain. ‘I’ve been blown away by the pace and scale of change across Europe,’ says Giddings. He predicts that in the next decade, the pockets of innovation that have emerged in Denmark, Sweden and France will spread across Europe driven by EU legislation – and ‘hopefully the UK, too’. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here. Supported by Built by Nature

Episode 58. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  Material Cultures co-founder Summer Islam explains how a regional ‘materials matrix’ informs the design process. ‘We imagine the future, rather than working within the present,' says Islam, describing the approach of design and research consultancy Material Cultures. ‘We speculate on the potential for woodlands to produce certain materials, even though today we import them from mainland Europe.’ Material Cultures, co-founded in 2019 with Paloma Gormley and George Masoud, advocates greater use of biobased materials in construction and bioregional material sourcing. Bioregional mapping involves in-depth research to find out what resources, products and skills are local to a site, such as visits to sawmills and interviews with nearby foresters and farmers to build local supply chains. Through built projects, hands-on workshops, research, teaching and films, Material Cultures has emerged as a significant disruptor of business as usual. The practice's main message is that our extractive construction industry needs a radical overhaul. ‘Our experience is that people want to make choices that align with their values’, Islam explains. ‘They just aren’t informed because we deliberately obscure, as an industry, the impact of certain processes and materials.’ Hands-on workshops with builders and community residents have evolved to be one of Material Cultures' most impactful workstreams, simultaneously addressing lack of industry understanding of how to build with biobased materials and empowering builders and local residents with new construction skills. ‘Straw is the ultimate equitable material. Everyone can pick up a bale and build with straw,’ says Islam. In addition to straw, Material Cultures advocates greater use of hemp and wood fibre. These are three regenerative materials which could be scaled in the British context, according to Islam. In this episode, we also discuss Material Cultures' work with Civic Square in Birmingham, developing a neighbourhood microfactory for community retrofit. In terms of retrofit, Islam cautions that ‘more insulation is not always the answer.’ An awning or a minor modification to the plan might result in a more impactful outcome for a given cost. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 57. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  Melissa Mean from community land trust WeCanMake explains how a community-led approach in Bristol is tackling the housing crisis. ‘What if the power and resources to make good homes were in the hands of our communities? What if you literally put the tools in people's hands to design and make your own homes?’ asks Mean. For over a decade, WeCanMake has been doing exactly that, developing a bottom-up approach to ‘gentle densification’ in Bristol that builds social infrastructure and community wealth. WeCanMake is pioneering a new approach to housing delivery on the Knowle West estate, an interwar housing estate of 5,000 homes in south Bristol. At its heart is an opt-in scheme whereby eligible social housing tenants gift a ‘microsite’ from their garden to someone with a housing need to build a home in their back garden. The components for the houses are cut to size by local residents in a neighbourhood micro-factory equipped with laser cutters and 3D printers and delivered to site for assembly. The project started small with two prototype single-storey affordable homes now complete, two in planning and two more in the pipeline. Mean estimates that this approach could be rolled out in similar neighbourhoods across the UK to deliver more than 30,000 homes with just a 3% increase in density. In this episode, Mean also describes current work with Mikhail Riches to explore the spatial transformation of Knowle West’s three-bed one-bath homes into four-bed two-bath houses.  Working with Waugh Thistleton, WeCanMake is now tackling larger sites such as small car arks and derelict garages and developing a kit of parts for low-rise buildings. Mean describes the multiple challenges of obtaining approvals for the use of bio-based materials. ‘We lean into the power and the joy of small. Knowle West and other neighbourhoods like it, can be the future of housing,’ says Mean. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 56. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  Gbolade Design Studio’s Tara Gbolade shares insights from her new book, Changing the Game: How to be a sustainable and regenerative small practice. Gbolade champions the nimbleness of small practices that enables them to rapidly pivot toward a more regenerative future. Drawing from her own experience and through a series of short case studies (nimtim, Knox Bhavan, Studio Gil, among others), she shares the simple steps designers can take to upskill without being ‘overwhelmed’. Four-strong Gbolade Design Studio recently won an AJ architecture award for Hermitage Mews, eight net-zero town houses in Crystal Palace. In this episode, we also delve into the challenges and successes of that project. ‘What I’m most proud of is the friendships we built. We had a predominantly female-led team that has grown well past the project. We’re at each other’s hen dos and weddings,’ says Gbolade. Collaboration is central to Gbolade Design Studio’s ethos. Shared values of sustainability, transparency and joyfulness determine the clients and projects the practice chooses to take on. Included in her book (co-authored with her business partner and husband Lanre Gbolade), is a ‘client assessment chart’ that sets out criteria for evaluating potential clients. A founding member of the Paradigm Network that champions Black and Asian representation in the built environment, Gbolade touches on why the industry still has a long way to go. ‘We need procurement teams and client teams to be intentional, because none of this can happen without intentionality’. In conjunction with this episode, RIBA Publishing is offering a 20% discount on Tara’s book. Use this code: CTG20 (valid until June 30). For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 55. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  AJ Climate Champions’ latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today is Thom Brisco of Brisco Loran, who talks to us about Costa's Barbers, a live-work shopfront which triumphed in the Project under £500,000 category at the AJ Architecture Awards last week. Brisco describes the conversion of a former barbers in Battersea High Street for Arrant Industries into a home/office for himself and his partner Pandora Loran. Enabled by the recent expansion of ‘retail to residential’ permitted development rights, Costa’s Barbers sports a yellow shopfront, maroon signage and a deep awning which is rolled out on sunny afternoons or when ‘it’s spitting’, providing a popular place to linger and chat.   The architects have packed ingenuity into Costa Barbers’ 54 square metres. The shopfront incorporates sliding sash windows with panels of translucent patterned glass that can be adjusted for degrees of privacy. Behind is a tiled front room - which is used as an office and living space - and at the back the bedrooms are raised above ground level, due to flood risk from the nearby Thames.  The project incorporates numerous salvaged materials, including corbels which support the awning box that are made of quarter sawn snooker table legs. ‘We definitely feel like a different kind of architect now,’ says Brisco. ‘The process of going through a build like this has made us less precious about having all the decisions made up front and knowing where our materials are going to come from.’  The architects designed and self-built the project while living on site, which meant ‘two years without a shower, two years without heating and two years of all of our stuff covered in dust.’ Sponsored by Holcim Foundation Awards. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 54. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  AJ Climate Champions latest series focuses on retrofit. Our guest today is IF_DO founder Sarah Castle, who explains that community engagement is not just asking people what they want, but what they can do. ‘It’s about giving people the power to change their environments and making them feel part of it,’ Castle explains in this episode. It’s an approach that is at the heart of IF_DO’s work and is manifest in their work in Hastings, East Sussex, where they have transformed derelict buildings into affordable, community-centric spaces for social enterprise Hasting Commons. We discuss the refurbishment of the grand 1924 Observer Building which had suffered more than three decades of neglect and a dozen owners when IF_DO took on the project. The first phase created a cultural venue with exhibition, theatre and music spaces, workspace, a cafe and gym. ‘It’s a space that can hold everything - from raves to weddings,’ says Castle. IF_DO’s approach prioritises ‘essential improvements over cosmetic enhancements.’ Rather than allowing ourselves to get ‘overexcited about tile colours,’ we have to focus on making the building ‘robust, well-insulated and easy to look after,’ says Castle. The building’s intricately detailed faience facade has been upgraded through a careful balance of repair and renewal. Central to IF_DO’s work is an understanding of procurement that is driven by available grant funding, which Castle terms ‘pod,’ phased organic development. Hastings Commons has secured over 100 grants over the last decade. The Observer Building is owned as a community land trust, which provides a legal framework to ensure affordability and perpetuity. ‘This creates protected spaces within a sphere of gentrification, where rents are controlled below market rates,’ Castle explains. ‘It’s about forever,’ she says. Sponsored by Holcim Foundation Awards. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 53. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.  AJ Climate Champions is back, with a new series focusing on retrofit. Our guest today is Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, associate director and project lead on the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Global Hub (FLGH). In the episode she explains how each building element requires one-to-one conversations to determine the best reuse, and that the contractor must be on the same journey. After deconstruction at FLGH, up to 70% of bricks  were broken or crushed powder.  Piccinelli argues that a new design aesthetic, a hyperlocal vernacular, can emerge from the specificity of the building, its materials and its location. She cautions against the standard default response of using timber, insisting that all materials should be explored. Sponsored by Holcim Foundation Awards. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Episode 52. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams.  To achieve replication at scale, Nicolas Coeckelberghs of Brussels-based BC Materials favours compressed earth blocks over rammed earth. ‘Our goal is to bring earthen construction from a niche to a growing market,’ says  Coeckelberghs. He likens this challenge to playing chess on multiple fronts, creating demand while simultaneously supplying the market. While acknowledging the aesthetic appeal of rammed earth,  Coeckelberghs cautions that it is technically complex and unaffordable at scale. In this episode, Coeckelberghs describes BC Architects’ 15-year trajectory from its first earth building in Burundi, to the proliferation of collaborative workshops which led to a strand of consultancy work, to the creation of cooperative BC Materials in 2018. This led in turn to the recent launch of Léém, a manufacturing company that produces circular materials: unfired bricks, and clay plasters and paints. While  Coeckelberghs is an innovator, he is also pragmatic and advocates focusing on easy wins. ‘Don’t use earth to make facades, just use it to make structures inside,’ he says. He sees enormous scope for application of earth blocks internally where they are protected from the weather and hence more durable. In search of a way to scale the earth blocks production, BC Materials visited concrete and brick manufacturers across Belgium to understand their manufacturing techniques and explore possibilities for collaboration. Partnerships with large manufacturers are now underway, and BC Materials produces its blocks through  ‘industrial co-working’,  using the larger plants’ production line during their ‘off’ hours. For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.