More top speakers to address this week’s AJ Summit

The CPD-accredited Summit – which will take place in a virtual format after being postponed last year due to Covid-19 – is run in partnership with the AJ RetroFirst campaign.

The event focuses on how architects and others can ‘build back better’ in the face of the climate crisis by embracing the whole-life carbon agenda and the principles of the circular economy.

Speakers taking part include British Land’s head of sustainable developments Juliette Morgan; head of buildings and international at the Committee on Climate Change Jenny Hill; professor of social policy at the LSE Anne Power; and engineer and instigator of the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI), Clara Bagenal George.

Topping the bill for the day-long event is keynote speaker and American architect Edward Mazria, who was awarded this year’s Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in recognition of his ‘unwavering voice and leadership’ in tackling climate change.

And other architects taking part include former RIBA president Angela Brady, Featherstone Young’s Sarah Featherstone, Bennetts Associates director Peter Fisher and Freehaus director and AJ 40 under 40 winner Jonathan Hagos.

Other speakers at the summit include Kelly Alvarez Doran of MASS Design Group, dRMM director Jonas Lencer, founding director of Waugh Thistleton Andrew Waugh, director of sustainability at Grosvenor Britain & Ireland Victoria Herring and the government’s chief property officer, Janet Young.

Described as an ‘exceptional opportunity for architects to learn how to incorporate climate-responsible working methods into everyday practice’, the summit will be hosted by property expert and AJ columnist Kunle Barker, ft'work director Clare Richards and architect and TV presenter Damion Burrows, alongside AJ journalists Emily Booth, Hattie Hartman and Will Hurst.

Altogether, the built environment is responsible for more than 40 per cent of UK carbon emissions. With about 10 per cent of this stemming from the construction process, there is now a renewed focus on reducing such embodied carbon emissions through the re-use of buildings and materials as well as bringing down the day-to-day or ‘operational’ emissions of buildings.

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