Original Thinkers Podcast

Tasmanian Timber

Great interviews with creative minds from the worlds of architecture, design, the environment, culture and business.

  1. Gerard Reinmuth & Philip Oldfield

    04/21/2025

    Gerard Reinmuth & Philip Oldfield

    Gerard Reinmuth is a Director at Terroir Architects and the inaugural Professor of Practice in the School of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, and Philip Oldfield is Head of the Built Environment School in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at the University of New South Wales. They are both co-authors on a paper recently published in Sustainable Cities and Society, titled 'Towards net-zero embodied carbon: Investigating the potential for ambitious embodied carbon reductions in Australian office buildings'. "From my perspective - I'm an educator and a researcher - the thing that keeps me awake at night, the research question I'm interested in, is how can we create buildings that are necessary for society? We know 3 billion people globally don't have access to adequate housing. United Nations say we need to build 96,000 new homes a day. How can we achieve that within planetary limits? How can we  achieve that without screwing the environment? And it's a paradox. How can we effectively double building stock while getting down to net-zero?" originalthinkers.com.au/gerard-reinmuth-philip-oldfield Links & Show Notes: Towards net-zero embodied carbon: Investigating the potential for ambitious embodied carbon reductions in Australian office buildingsPhilip Oldfield (UNSW)Philip Oldfield (IG)Gerard Reinmuth (UTS)Gerard Reinmuth (IG)TerroirArticle: Launceston's mass timber building a glimpse into the built environment future[Related] Original Thinkers: Scott Balmforth (Terroir)[Related] Potsdam Institute: Buildings can become a global CO2 sink if made out of wood instead of cement and steel[Related] Original Thinkers: David Rowlinson (Planet Ark) Episode Sponsor: Tasmanian Timber

    44 min
  2. Stephen Geason

    04/07/2025

    Stephen Geason

    Stephen Geason is Director at Cykel Architecture. Stephen has an expertise in designing for people living with dementia. He's a registered architect in Australia and a Churchill fellow, and was heavily involved with presentations for the Built Environment for the Understanding Dementia MOOC at the Wicking Dementia Center at the University of Tasmania. Stephen was the fireside architect for Korongee Dementia Village, a project that he managed from inception to completion. "A colleague and a friend of mine came to us as a client, had a PhD in dementia care, was very well respected in it. And he would say to me, 'you architects Stephen, you tell a good story, but you don't deliver'. But his point was, as an architect, you've got the confidence you're designing, you're going to sell the idea. He was saying there was no substance behind what people were telling him were good for people with dementia. I kind of took the challenge on, you know, cups of coffee on the deck of the house that we designed and worked with him over many years was a part of this ongoing conversation around architecture, built environment, design for dementia care models; I took him to task and got him to assist me and we started to get really deeply involved in how it unfolded, and he was my referee for my Churchill Fellowship. So I got an interview; one of my interview panel says to me, 'Stephen, so how do you feel that one of your referees said that there is no architectural expertise in the design of dementia in Australia?' and I said, 'it looks like I'm sitting in the right seat, doesn't it?' " originalthinkers.com.au/stephen-geason Links & Show Notes: Cykel ArchitectureWicking Dementia Research and Education Centre - University of TasmaniaKorongee Dementia VillageUTAS Article: Korongee Dementia VillageHydrowoodChurchill FellowshipChristopher Alexander - UC Berkeley College of Environmental DesignPlanet Ark - Wood: Nature Inspired DesignRobert Morris-NunnCorumbene Care by Cykel ArchitectureNational Aged Care Design Principles and GuidelinesThe Dignity Environmental Assessment Tool (Dignity-EAT) Episode Sponsor: Tasmanian Timber

    30 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

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Great interviews with creative minds from the worlds of architecture, design, the environment, culture and business.

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