Woodknowledge Wales

Woodknowledge Wales

Inspiring innovation through collaboration

Podcast

Innovation Challenge | WoodBUILD Podcast with Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson

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Podcast

Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson are two innovators with a passion for working with timber in all its forms. In this podcast, recorded earlier this year, they join David Hedges for a conversation about why we innovate, collaboration and partnership, ingredients for and tests of success, the curse of the pilot, the role of Government and regulation and a lot more besides. Rob and Matt are keen to work with other like minded people and they offer an open invitation to listeners to get in touch if they have an idea they want to explore.

Guests

Matt Stevenson
 Rob Thomas
Contact Matt via email: matt@ecosystemstech.com Contact Rob via email: rob@hiraetharchitecture.co.uk

 

Trees and Timber | WoodBUILD Podcast with Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin

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Trailer

Everyone has an agenda when it comes to trees and tree planting – in Wales this is one of the first areas of attention for the new administration. There’s broad agreement that we need to grow more trees, we have such a poor level of tree cover in the UK, but there’s less agreement on what we should plant and what we want our future woodlands to be for. The debate is often quite polarised. In this podcast Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin talk about the impact of the pandemic, climate change, productive woodlands, the role of government and policy, pests and disease, tree species and how we can add value to the timber our woodlands produce.

Guests

Tom Barnes
 Andrew Bronwin
Tom runs his family business Vastern Timber and recently featured in Wood For The Trees. You can find out more about his work at www.tombarnesblog.com and www.vastern.co.uk. Andrew is founder and director of Bronwin & Abbey, Chartered Foresters and Surveyors, located on the Wales / England border in Powys. https://bronwin.co.uk/

Full Podcast

 

WoodBUILD 2020 Autumn Series – Podcasts

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A series of four 60-minute conversations on some of the themes of the Home-Grown Homes Project – Forestry, Manufacturing, Housing and the Foundational Economy. Each podcast features two individuals with a passion for the subject matter and a willingness to share their thinking. David Hedges, Home-Grown Homes Project Manager introduces each podcast and asks the questions.

Our Future Forests

Two chartered foresters in conversation: Jo O’Hara, Managing Director at FutureArk Ltd in Edinburgh and John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences in Bangor University’s School of Natural Sciences. They discuss our forests, what they look like now, how and why they have changed over time and what the future holds. Plus, forest use, growth and management, culture and history, land use policy, governance and forestry as a career.

Jo O’Hara John Healey

Jo is a member of the Institute of Chartered Forester’s Council – see details here / And you can follow Jo on Twitter @mrsjo

 John Healey refers to his work in Bangor. You can find out more about the University’s work in forestry here.

Future Homes and how we build (or make) them

Two timber housing manufacturers in conversation: Jasper Meade, Director of PYC Group in Welshpool and Neil Sutherland, Director of MAKAR in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. They talk about natural materials, high performing homes, change and the barriers to it, specifications, legislation and regulations, energy and carbon, Passivhaus, collaboration, culture, behaviours and more.

Jasper Meade Neil Sutherland
Jasper is a board member of Woodknowledge Wales and for more information about Jasper’s company, PYC Group, see here. Neil’s company is MAKAR and their website is here.
You can follow Neil on Twitter @makarneil

Better Performing Homes

Two architects in conversation: Fionn Stevenson is Professor of Sustainable Design in Sheffield University’s School of Architecture and Rob Wheaton is Senior Associate Architect at Stride Treglown. They talk about how different the homes of the future will be from the homes we live in now, sustainability, standards, building performance, architecture education and more.

Fionn Stevenson Rob Wheaton
Fionn is the author of Housing Fit For Purpose: Performance, Feedback and Learning, published by RIBA Publishing in September 2019. You can read more about Fionn and her work here.
You can follow Fionn on Twitter at @fionnstevenson		 Rob is based in the Cardiff office of Stride Treglown which is a multi-disciplinary employee-owned practice working across the UK. He has recently been working with housing associations on schemes under the Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme. See here.
You can follow Rob on Twitter at @robwheaton

The Foundational Economy

Two Housing Association people in conversation: Debbie Green, Chief Executive with Coastal Housing and Steve Cranston, Foundational Economy Lead at United Welsh. They talk about what the foundational economy is, the pandemic, risk aversion, communities of practice, decarbonisation, listening to people, paradigm shifts and a green recovery.

Debbie Green Steve Cranston
Amongst other things Debbie, who is based in Swansea, has been chairing the Ministerial Foundational Economy Steering Group. You can find out more about her and her career here and follow Debbie on Twitter at @debbiegcoastal Steve, who is based in Pontypridd, has been with United Welsh since 2009 heading up their community investment and in the last year, leading their FE work. He’s also had a period of secondment in the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner. You can find out more about Steve here.  and follow him on Twitter @stevecr