Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Constructive Voices, the podcast for the construction people, with news, views and expert interviews.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Hi, and welcome to Constructive Voices. I'm Steve Randall and in this episode we'll meet Professor Julia Watson.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: It's not about how many buildings can I build or how many projects can I squeeze in and, you know, what's my mark on this land, on this earth? I think it's more about, you know, what can I use my voice and my conceptions of design to make humans do a better job?
[00:00:35] Speaker B: How can we use the natural resources and environment to improve building design? And what can we learn from indigenous communities? That's all to come. Plus, of course, Peter Finn, Pete the builder is here too.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Constructive Voices, media partner in Ireland and the United Kingdom is Construction industry news.
Since 2002, Construction Industry News has been focused on the very latest projects and developments within the UK and Ireland.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Here we are again, back with one of our, well, more familiar surroundings of podcast environment. We're not at an event, we're just chatting in the studio. How's things?
[00:01:14] Speaker C: All good, Steve? Yeah, it was great to be face to face with you and face to face with all the people at Footprint plus there. It was a great time that we had in Brighton and got to meet so many interesting people.
Education wasn't award, it was like, it was just such a huge wealth of knowledge there together. I've taken so much away from it. I'm really impressing every architect and engineer I meet now with all my, my knowledge that I've picked up.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: But the thing is, Pete, I mean, yes, everyone had different perspectives and different parts of the puzzle, but there were some common themes, you know, that whole thing of, of using the heritage buildings that we have, not just thinking we've got to tear those down because they're, they're old and drafty and perhaps a little bit tricky to, to retrofit with some of the things we need to, to get in there, to, to make them sustainable. But, you know, everybody did seem to be on the same page with all of these things, which was really, really amazing to hear.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: Yeah, it was like everybody there was of a similar mindset in terms of, you know, they turned up at the event, obviously with sustainability to the forefront of their thoughts and their, their everyday work. But you're dead right. Like, you know, when it came to retrofit and it came to being sympathetic to the buildings that we have, there was a huge push towards that as well. And it was impressive to see and it was, it was refreshing to kind of see that mentality as well. We were speaking to the converted, you know, people who, who have this in their minds. But I mean, there was such a strong force. You could feel the energy there driving this issue and the passion that was there. People really are absolutely committing to this process and it's great to see it and it's great to see people at such a high level and people who are so well respected having these thoughts.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Definitely. And there's so much content to listen to. So many people that we spoke to, so many interviews available both on our stream. If you ask Alexa to launch Constructive Voices or if you go onto our website and click the player on there, you can listen to the stream of just almost like a stream of consciousness, isn't it, we should call it, perhaps, because there's just so much stuff going on there, but also lots of on demand stuff on our website as well and podcast episodes too. So listen to all of those through our website, constructive-voices.com don't forget the dash. We're sort of sticking with moving on from Footprint plus, but sticking with the sustainability topic with our guest today and Professor Julia Watson, who's been speaking to not only Henry McDonald but also Jackie as well, Jackie Deberker. So a great interview on the way.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: She's an extremely interesting lady and a very well traveled lady. Like she has traveled and has got to know the architecture and the construction in so many different countries across the world. I think she's visited and worked in over 18 different countries and really immersed herself into how the industry in those different countries are approaching construction from an indigenous perspective. You know, she's going to explain it much better than, than me or you ever will, Steve. But basically Julia looks at architecture in terms of nature and how the two can connect together and how we can use nature as it is to either work our buildings around what's already there and how we can bring the nature basically into, into our, into our architecture and design and obviously into, into the buildings themselves. So really, really impressive stuff.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Excellent. Well, let's hear that interview and then we'll chat again in just a moment. Pete.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: I am a designer academic and an author. I wrote a book called Low Tech Design by Radical Indigenism that was published by Taschen in 2019 and much to my surprise and joy, it became a bestseller. And the work that I've been doing for many years, apart from teaching for 12 and working in the design profession for the last 20 years as a landscape designer and urban designer, is I've been researching and working with indigenous and local communities across the globe. To look at the ways they transform their environments and trying to understand the ways and the systems that they use as technologies that haven't yet been recognized as technologies, but also technologies that can really assist us in trying to understand and work with climate change.
[00:05:37] Speaker D: There's a quote from you in the book Madam Architect conducted by the interview by Julia Gamolina. And I want to quote it because I think it's very powerful and quite moving too. In a Strange Mind. When I read it first, it's this ultimately I am thinking through where the most impact can be made and where the most advocacy and allyship can happen and what we, in the little time that we call one life, do for the mission of human beings being more symbiotic with the planet. Can you elaborate on that, Julia, for us, please?
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I have a bit of a nuanced understanding of what design is. I think for myself as a designer, you have this incredible ability to be able to speak to so many different audiences in a language that can be primarily visual.
But that design doesn't have to just be this exercise in putting something on a site or the creation of a space for, for a human to inhabit.
It can be an exercise in kind of the expansion of one's understanding about how we should relate to our environments and within that, how we should relate to all those other species that we have the pleasure of sharing the earth with at this point in time. And so I think that today we all understand that we are an agent that is incredibly compromising the ability to have a shared experience on this Earth. And so I really believe that as a designer, it's for me the idea of being an advocate of the landscape and of all the different beings that inhabit that. And I think the point of allyship is being able to provide a platform to engage different voices is a really, really important thing. And I think my career, my professional career, which sort of like encompasses my life, and it's not about how many buildings can I build or how many projects can I squeeze in and what's my mark on this land, on this Earth? I think it's more about, you know, what can I use my voice and my conception of design to make humans do a better job? Because I think we're doing a pretty pathetic job at this moment of really thinking beyond just ourselves and really thinking about how we can live symbolically with the planet and really thinking, you know, being incredibly short sighted about what's important. And so I think, you know, part of my work is just this mission about, like, let's bring back this idea of intergenerational thinking. Let's bring back this idea that we can live symbolically, that, that we have incredible examples of how human beings live with nature, with all, lots of many other species that are in existence. And why are we choosing to ignore that? So, yeah, I think, you know, the idea that all cultures are incredibly relevant and incredibly important to understand and to provide space and breadth and understanding for, that's what I see the role as sort of designer, as agent and advocate.
[00:09:27] Speaker E: So Julia, in terms of understanding a very central part of your work, your book, Low Tech Designed by Radical Indianism. It's a culmination of years of research in 18 different countries around the globe. What inspired you to go so deep?
[00:09:43] Speaker A: I mean, honestly, Low Tech was the book that I wanted somebody else to write so I could read it and I couldn't find it. And so I just decided that I would have to do it. I found a lot of work from a lot of different people and through my relationships with different communities, I just found so fascinating and ideas related to these nature based technologies. And I was teaching technology at the time and everything that I was reading and teaching around the sort of the academy, the work of the academy was really more about high tech systems or conservation strategies and to deal with environmental problems. And I was just so fascinated in this idea that there were ways of living, different ways of living that were in existence and that people had done for thousands of years that kind of were just being ignored.
And so once I started working with some communities and thinking about the relationships of some of the systems and nature based technologies that I had had exposure to, I sort of started to see this thread of commonalities between different communities and their technologies. And that's kind of when the larger thesis started to evolve. When I saw that there was these very optimal responses to climate extremes that you could see different communities who had had no communication, they were coming to, they were, they were coming up with and implementing and had been evolving. And so in my mind it was kind of a light bulb where I thought, you know, okay, we're not, we're not teaching this, we're not teaching these types of solutions, we're not seeing these as technologies in my industry. But yet they're incredibly obvious once you start to sort of see a thread. So I need to write the book so other people can see the thread that I've been able to see.
[00:11:54] Speaker D: You also took part in a podcast called Time Sensitive in an interview with Andrew Zuckerman. And you were well, he described you as talking about the power of indigenous technologies to transform our planet. And the quote that left out was that your book is poised to become something of a bible for a growing design movement that's focused on harnessing nature based technologies and better understanding of how we can live in closer harmony with the earth. What nature based technologies are you referring to? And I appreciate there's a number of them, but perhaps highlight a few.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: The nature based technologies that I'm talking about in low tech, you can just sort of describe them as I call them, like the new renewable, the kind of the renewable that we haven't really realized are renewables yet. They're not high tech, they are systems.
They're technologies in the landscape that use sort of the natural energetics of the landscape of like algae and bacteria informed by sunlight to clean waters. So humans kind of putting together these relationships, these natural relationships in the landscape to create an outcome, like a positive outcome, like water cleansing technology. And like an example like that is the Berry wastewater aquaculture system that you find in Calcutta in India, where it's 350 fish farms and they clean all the wastewater that's coming out of the city of Calcutta, sorry, half of the wastewater that's coming out of the city of Calcutta every single day through a really natural treatment system that integrates aquaculture. So what this system does, it doesn't just clean the water, it grows food for the city, it feeds the city fish. It creates an incredible habitat for a lot of different biodiversity. It is a carbon sequester. It has really great microclimatic conditions. So it does, it provides 100,000 jobs for residents of the cities and it does all of this stuff for free in place of a wastewater treatment system that the city would build that does one thing using chemicals and coal, coal fired power.
So that's one really incredible example. Another example, nature based technology, which something a little bit different is on the front cover of the book. There are these living root bridges that are grown by the Khasi who live in northeast India in a place called Cherrapunji in the Gayanti Hills. And they actually grow bridges out of trees called ficus elastica trees across river corridors, and that allows them to cross the rivers when the monsoon rain comes through and completely flood this really hilly, mountainous landscape. And you know, these, these are bridges, but they're bridges that are alive and they're bridges that are growing. They're bridges that are getting stronger as they get older. And they also, you know, they stabilize the slopes of the banks, they create incredible biodiversity for animals and the bird species in that forest. And so they have not, you know, they're not just a bridge. They do all these other things. They clean the air, you know, and that's kind of like one of the key things about these nature based technologies. You know, they don't do one thing like an infrastructure or a technology. You know, we would think of an infrastructure now like a wastewater cleaning infrastructure or a bridge infrastructure. They do so many different things at the same time. They're incredibly adaptive to their environments because they grow at the same time as their environments grow. And they can adapt to, because they're alive, they can adapt to different, you know, extremes that are happening. It also means that they're, you know, they're not, they're not fragile, but they're responsive. So if there's something wrong within that system, it'll respond by telling you, by indicating there's a disruption in that system. And then so you immediately understand that you have to reconcile that sort of disruption to get the system back to sort of a healthy relationship. So they're incredibly responsive to your environment, which our technologies don't really. They don't have any sort of monitoring, immediate monitoring systems that tell us when things. Something's going wrong.
And I think something that's really interesting is like sea level rise technologies today.
You know, there's a lot of work happening with sea walls and trying to keep rising sea levels out of places where lots of people live. And obviously, you know, that makes sense, but there are ways to do that that actually on a larger scale increase the destruction that will happen and that compromise down the line the viability of that system working or that community staying there. And I think that there is examples of how to do that, that indigenous people who've been living with rising waters or living with water or trying to keep water out from their coastal, coastal landscapes for a very long time. And we don't look at any of those types of technologies like the ase asi islanding technology of the Solomon Islands or the Kutanaan technology of South India, where there's an intertidal relationship allowing seawater into different types of aquaculture landscapes and doing that in a very controlled and a very intelligent symbiotic way.
[00:17:41] Speaker E: Okay, and Julia, what projects have you been involved in architecturally that have a connection to the symbiotic relationship between culture and nature?
[00:17:50] Speaker A: So, I mean, the work, the writing of the book actually began 2013, 2014, when I was working on a project with one of the Communities. He was a Subak community in Bali. I was helping to write the tourism management and biocultural conservation plan for Bali's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the cultural landscape of Bali, which was a World Heritage site that sort of was all of these incredible Subak rice terraces and Subak watersheds and water temples. And I mean, one of the other projects that I worked on was actually with one of the other communities which was the Madan, working on a designing a wastewater treatment park on the edges of the southern wetlands of Iraq, in that area where the Medan live and the Madana, the aquatic community who live on islands made of the Kasab and houses made of the Kasar breed.
And so those are projects that have really got me first involved in a lot of this work.
And then a lot throughout has been teaching and through a teaching position that I had at Columbia where I was teaching urban design in the international program. And we would work in the Global south, going to different communities who were trying to evolve climate resilience strategies for cities and with the students who would come up with different, looking at different nature based technologies that were evolved by the communities that we were working in, thinking about how we could scale that up to actually become part of a resilient strategy for a city or a bigger community. And then just recently actually I had a project open in a group show at the Barbican in London called the Symbioscene. And the group show is called Our Time on Earth and it's up from May until September, then it's going to Quebec and it will tour around the world for the next five years. And the particular piece that I have in that show, I worked with an engineering company, Bureau Happelt, it's a global engineering company. And we took three technologies, the Living Bridges, the Subac rice terraces and the Madonna floating islands. And I sort of introduced Bureau Happel to the communities. And we started having workshops with the communities to try and think about how their technologies like the Living Bridges, how that might be hybridized, working with the community to create a technology for the year 2040 that perhaps could work in an urban environment or work in sort of a built up environment. And so that project has sort of been almost a manifestation of a lot of the research into a playbook on how to start to initiate the process of working with the community. Thinking about that idea of an indigenous nature based technology being hybridized using expertise from engineers and different types of bridge facade water experts and community experts and what that might bring. And part of actually that Project which was really exciting is we evolved a new type of legal technical innovation called an soou, which is a smart oral oath of understanding that would allow the communities to retain intellectual property over any of the knowledge that they shared with Bureau Happel and the engineers, so that in the future, if any of these technologies were actually to be created and sold, that the communities would actually get value sharing and benefit sharing and reparations based upon the information and intellectual property that they've shared from this project.
[00:21:56] Speaker E: As you were speaking, Julia, the next. And I know it's a huge question and it's far too generalized, how easy or how difficult is it to bring one of these technologies into, as you say, an urban setting?
[00:22:08] Speaker A: It's a very nuance, actually. The first question I think that especially architects, designers have after a presentation is, well, how can I use this in New York and how can I use this in Boston or in London? You can't just take a technology and pop it into Brooklyn. There are really important questions of intellectual property, sharing of Indigenous knowledge, permissions from these communities that all of that process needs to happen. But I haven't seen sort of the documentation in the built environment field of how do you even, how do you begin that process and what happens when you begin that process? And I think that this particular piece of work at the Barbican is really interesting because we had in a somewhat, you know, in an environment that was about creating a piece of art, the breadth and the ability to really think through and to create a really rigorous process around how do you begin that, to think about the steps to begin that process, to allow that to happen. And the first thing that, you know, one of the really obvious things was how do we set up a legal framework that works for Indigenous communities to protect their intellectual property? If we start to think about, well, what is the extension of these types of technologies into different environments beyond their, you know, the locations that, where they exist right now and how far are we. I mean, this is a step in that direction and everyone, you know, you know, I think that there are a lot of people making steps to understand this direction, both in their own, you know, communities and people who are working already with communities and in their own countries. But also this idea of what's the expansion of the possibility of these climate technologies working in other locations. And this is, I think, a really important next step. And as I said, I feel it's kind of somewhat of a playbook in starting to understand how this process should occur with incredible community involvement.
[00:24:18] Speaker E: I'm going to Slightly digress, Julia, just because I believe it's relevant to people understanding sustainability, people who are maybe trying to avoid the issue. I actually live on an olive farm in Spain, and when I return from spending time in a big town or a city, I actually feel about 10 years younger. Is this something you get from your experience? And if so, how would you explain.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Actually goes back to, I think, a little bit why I became a landscape architect as well. I remember, you know, as a young child, my parents, like, took me to the US From Australia, and we went to Yosemite national park. And I remember being outside the Ahahnee Hotel. And, like, in that landscape, which is actually an incredibly sacred land to the Ahwahneechi people who were forcibly removed from those lands, that I have always had this incredibly uplifting experience in those types of landscapes.
A lot of my work previously had been looking at sacred natural landscapes. That's what I actually studied when I was at Harvard. And the conservation of those sacred natural landscapes, which actually has a link to these types of technologies, because a lot of these technologies are found in those landscapes. And I was always really interested in how do you design landscapes that give you that type of expansive, really uplifting, sort of connected. I don't know. I don't even think that we have enough words in the English language to actually describe what you or I are talking about right now, because I struggle to talk about it.
But, you know, that sort of. Sort of a deep sense of reverence and connection to your landscape. And I think that that's. That kind of like a sort of an understanding or a symbiosis with your coming to a sense, sensory, experiential understanding of your environment and your connectedness to that environment. And so, yeah, a lot of, you know, I think initially part of the work, I was always trying to understand what is that, like, why do people go to natural landscapes like Mount Kailash in Tibet, and why do they spend four days walking around this incredible mountain that they think is a God?
And what. What makes human beings sort of go to a space and spend years and years praying there? And what makes a space sacred? I know I'm digressing from your initial question, but these are all, like, the questions that have really inspired a lot of.
[00:26:57] Speaker E: But it's all interconnected, Julia, isn't it? Everything you've said is absolutely interconnected.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: I think that part of it is that we forget that we need trees and plants to breathe. We need our. You know, we need our soils that are connected to the root systems of Those trees to be healthy so that the trees are healthy, so that, you know, and to eat and that, you know, where this is incredibly complex and intelligent web of life that we are a part of, that we get kind of, I think maybe these energetic moments of connection with. And I think that's what we're talking about. And I think, you know, going back to that idea of the designer, that's what the key to this work is, is trying to reweave the possibility for those moments to happen, and not just in, you know, a tourist landscape, but in your everyday. Like you said on your olive farm.
[00:27:59] Speaker E: Absolutely, Julia. And I think that brings us into Henry's next question, in a sense, because for me, it's like that collaboration with nature. Henry.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: Yes, a seamless run into this question, definitely. And it's really about our ancestors and how they collaborated with nature and learned from the animals and the natural world. And indeed, especially in relation to building a home or building somewhere to work, how much do we urgently need to do the same and follow their example?
[00:28:25] Speaker A: I mean, I think, you know, we, we. We really need to remember, and this is, this is sort of a learning for me from a lot of the communities that I've worked with and researched is that, you know, we're part of nature, we're not separate. This idea that humans and nature is separate is a construct of thinking of the last, you know, hundreds of years, that. And for many, for many communities, there is no word for nature because there's. It's not even considered to be a separate thing. So they wouldn't say nature as that thing. That's something else to a human.
And I mean, I think it's incredible. All of these things are really incredibly important because I also, working with communities, indigenous communities and local communities, one of these pillars of understanding for many is that human beings are these custodians of life and custodians of different forms of life on Earth. And what I think is really frightening is that while traditionally, for many, many generations in many, many different cultures, that has been the understanding for the dominant global culture, we're actually the greatest threat to life and all other forms of life on this earth at this present moment in time. And I think that there's such a stark dichotomy, it's just that has happened, that that's where we stand now, that we, the only, you know, we need to urgently understand and create a new mythology about our relationship with the planet just because of, you know, that polarity of where what humans, human and culture has Understood for time immemorial as our role and where we've ended up in that role at this moment.
[00:30:38] Speaker E: Now, Julia, if you were to design a college course for the likes of, you know, architects, constructors, engineers and any others who are interested, that was intended to educate in the ways we've all talked about today. What modules would it have and why?
[00:30:53] Speaker A: I mean, I think first and foremost, in no particular order, there would be, you know, aboriginal environments, an understanding taught by indigenous experts precursored by a non US Eurocentric framework of understanding history and culture and technology, Geopolitics really sort of, I think that we need to, you would need something that is giving a very, very different understanding about the idea of regionality and locality and how we can create, you know, how we can decolonize the education system for architects and designers and engineers. But you know, and again, I think that indigenous systems thinking coupled with ecological systems thinking. So, you know, this, you know, a very deep understanding of ecology, an understanding of site analysis, because a lot of these technologies and these communities, it's all talking about place based knowledge. And I think that, you know, in cities and in the way that we sort of have evolved our relationships with our environments as quite, you know, sort of these universal understandings that really have incredibly deep understandings about places and place based knowledge anymore. So I think I'm always a huge proponent of site analysis and an understanding of sight and then I think coupled with passive design and a very sort of strong engagement with technologies, but technologies that, you know, our nature based technologies and I think the power of that part of the education coupled with looking at material technologies, data monitoring, gis, you know, all our, you know, our incredible software as if they were embedded as well with some type of that thinking. Then I think you're going to evolve a very different type of way that, you know, a discipline of architecture and a relationship of, you know, a course surround that sets stuff apart from the current ways that we interact with the built environment. I think, you know, systemic change brings about a very different result and that, you know, thinking about really systemic change in the way that we educate is really critical and important. This is Constructive Voices.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: So there we go, Pete. Julia Watson with some amazing insights. I mean just so much knowledge that she's gleaned from all her travels and all the different cultures and different projects that she's worked on.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: Yeah, Steven, again we've spoken to so many different people on Constructive Voices and we've heard so many different perspectives on construction, design, architecture, all the different facets of construction that we always, you know, say are out there. And then this is one, I suppose, that I hadn't really studied or I hadn't really looked into. But it's funny, when I heard Julia speaking, I kind of subconsciously have been doing it really interesting stuff to hear the places that she's been, the people she's met, the projects that she's been involved in, and, and how she. And the people that she's worked with have used the, the environment and nature itself and incorporated them into the, the buildings and into design. We all know what it's like if we live in a city and we take a, we take a trip to the country, we come back and we, we all feel, you know, totally refreshed and we feel like, you know, recharge the batteries is something that you often hear when somebody's gone away to the country for the weekend. And I, I suppose what, what Julia is doing is she's kind of trying to make us understand that you can have that with you within your building by using nature within the building and therefore, you know, gaining the, the positives from what nature gives you all the time, you know, so really, really interesting stuff.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and as you're speaking there and you're talking about nature in your home and things, a little birdie told me, and it could actually have been a little birdie because it would be the sort of place they would be hanging out that. You have a tree in your house.
[00:35:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: I mean, it's not a tree. You don't live in a treehouse. They are.
But you have a tree in your house.
[00:35:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I wish I, I wish I could live in a tree house, to be honest. I love that type of, type of stuff going on. I've got loads of tree houses. I got tree, tree houses, believe it or not, built around for my, for my kids. But yeah, no, many, many years ago when I, when I was building my house, there was some, some trees being moved on the top of the hill here where I live. And I asked my grandmother could I use some of those trees then in the construction of my house. So in my kitchen, basically it's quite an, it's an open plan kitchen with, with a, with a fairly high ceiling in it and sitting proudly right in the middle is a tree from the top of the hill here. So it kind of, every time I look at it, it reminds me of my grandmother and it reminds me of my connection with the area that I live in. And I, I did that. I made that decision 18 years ago. So it's funny how even back then I was kind of thinking along those lines and, you know, hearing what Julia says there, certainly I resonate with an awful lot of what she has said. And look to me at the point, at the time, it was just a small thing that I wanted to do to connect with my, my grandmother, my grandmother's past on since. So I'm delighted that I've done it now because I, I'm able to have that connection forevermore. Every time I walk into my kitchen, I see the tree and I, I get that little, nice little feeling and also connects me to, to the land. It's a silver birch tree, and silver birch would be one of the native plants or native trees of Ireland. So it's a nice thing to have done. And I'm even happier now when I've heard what Julia said as well, because I feel as though I've, I've made a good decision many moons ago. But, you know, Julia takes it to a different level there, what she's spoken about and the connection to nature there that she encourages and has obviously become an expert in, in terms of using what nature provides to basically build your buildings around and also to incorporate them into buildings. Like, I read an article where she has done what they call rewilding, which is in the Rockefeller Center. She has introduced native grasses and native trees from the local area into the center. So again, it's about bringing the nature into our lives and into our environment on a regular basis. So, you know, I have to say I'm, I'm, I'm a big believer. I've got lots of timber and I've got lots of natural products in my own home. It's kind of something I've always been interested in, and it's something that I am seeing a lot of in construction these days where people are using products from nature and usually from, from close to where they live and incorporating them into their homes. And again, maybe we can start even taking that another step forward the way Julia has, where we're actually, rather than just using the local materials, we're actually using the, the nature around us as it's living. Use that to incorporate into our construction as well. So, yeah, brilliant stuff. And I, I, I firmly believe that if you have that surrounded by nature and, and that type of, of environment around you, it does send positive vibes and it does make you feel refreshed and it does help clear your head. Whereas, you know, if we're living in that concrete jungle and we, we were only looking at man Made products all around us. It certainly does change our. Our perspective, you know.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I love that. I love the fact that, you know, just going back to your. Your story with the. The. The tree, I think that's a lovely connection with. With your grandmother. And I think those sort of stories, we just love those. When it comes to buildings, you know, when you go and look at a house or even if you just go into the pub and there's something up on the wall telling, you know, there's a low. Like a connection, something like they're great stories, and it makes a home or any building just feel a bit more human, doesn't it, in a way, to have those connections to. Either to nature or to some heritage or ideally, combining the two.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And again, I think that's, you know, part of Julia's ethos. I think it's certainly an ethos that I like. And I think that if we can start introducing more of this into our designs and into our material selections and our design selections, when we're in construction, it's about kind of having a balance where we're. We're connecting and, you know, a bit of symmetry with nature.
So it's not about, you know, stripping the whole area out and rebuilding from scratch. It's about, you know, being sympathetic to what's there and using the environment and keeping it in its natural habitat. Because the. The air has been here for a lot longer than me and you, Steve, you know, so we've got to. We've got to be respectful for. For what's gone before us and maybe learn from. From, you know, what nature has given us and. And how mistakes that we've made from the past. Let's make good decisions with that going forward. I think we. I'm robbing that line off. Off one of our previous guests, but I. I really do like the idea of that, like, learning our mistakes from the past and. And also learning the positives from the past and. And using those in. In what we do going forward. So, yeah, great stuff. And I'm gonna make sure now when I'm. When I'm home this evening that I have my cup of tea and have a look at my tree and say a quick hello to my grandmother as well, because I always symbolize that with her and enjoy the nice surroundings that I have, which I made the decision to bring into the. Into my home. And it's great. I'm able to tell my daughters about it. And anyone that comes to visit my home, I obviously get to tell them that little story. Because people inevitably always ask, what's the story with your tree in the middle of your house?
[00:40:49] Speaker B: You know, as you would. Yeah, I mean, you can't sort of ignore something like that when you walk into a room. Pete, as always, great to talk to you. And we'll, we'll talk again in the next episode. But a reminder that there's always stuff evolving on our stream and on our website. Lots of content on there and, you know, you can listen again to things that we've done on the podcast. You can listen to the podcast episodes, but a lot more as well at constructive-voices.com. forget the dash, Pete. Talk to you next time.
[00:41:18] Speaker C: Cheers. As always, an absolute pleasure. Talk to you soon.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: And that's all for this episode of Constructive Voices. Please take a moment to share it with others who may find it interesting. Follow or subscribe to get the latest episodes automatically on your favorite podcast app and rate and review the podcast if you can. You can also listen to the latest episode by saying, Alexa, play Constructive Voices podcast.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Here's Constructive Voices. Here's the latest, latest episode.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: And on our website, where there's lots more information too. That's constructive-voices.com don't forget the dash until next time. Thanks for listening. You're really helping us build something.
