The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 50

Guest:  Stephen O’Malley, founder and chief executive, Civic Engineers

Better cities for better lives

In this, the 50th episode of the Infrastructure Podcast, we talk about cities – specifically how we should be designing our urban landscapes to be both fit for the future and fit for the people of the future.

It’s a huge and growing issue. The UN reckons that around 57% of the world’s population currently lives in an urban environment – and that this number is perhaps as high as 80% in many developed nations. It’s a number that is growing fast, both as a percentage but also as an absolute number, as the global population increases and our lives become more intertwined and interdependent.

And with this change comes a number of challenges - and a number of opportunities around creating equity, liveability, sustainability and prosperity for inhabitants. And creating safe places to live. The 2017 Grenfell Fire in London certainly highlighted the tragic consequences of failure.

Of course, we must also now add to that list resilience to climate change. Protection from flood; from drought; from heat; from storms and from pollution has never been so important.

All of which puts our built environment designers – those creating the buildings, the infrastructure and the spaces in between – absolutely in the driving seat - and the spotlight. 

Fundamentally, better cities create better lives. Which is why barely a week goes by without a new report or paper into why and how we should transform our urban landscapes. The latest of which being the New London Agenda by the team at New London Architecture.

I mention this because amongst many other things, my guest today was involved in producing this Agenda and so I hope will be well placed to guide us through the issues. 

So let’s discuss this issue with Stephen O’Malley, founder and chief executive of Civic Engineers, a firm with the mission “to create inspirational structures and places that have a positive impact on the environment and enable people to lead happier and healthier lives”.

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