AHEC launches new podcast 'Words on Wood'

Words on Wood is a new podcast exploring forests and the timber industry, and why the decisions we make about their governance are essential to designers and architects.

Developed in conjunction with Disegno, the Quarterly Journal of Design, the podcast offers a deep dive into some of the big issues surrounding forests and our relationship to them.

The podcast provides in-depth analysis and serves as a platform for cross-disciplinary discussion. Drawing on the work of scientists, conservationists, forestry professionals, academics, designers and architects, Words on Wood is a space for frank reflection on the challenges and opportunities presented by working with forests.

Each episode is built around in-depth interviews with experts in their field. Designers and architects including Formafantasma, Waugh Thistleton, dRMM, and Asif Khan reflect on their work with forests and timber, joined by academics and forestry professionals such as Dr Galina Churkina from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Oxford University’s Dr Constance McDermott, and Rupert Oliver, technical consultant to the EU’s FLEGT plan to address illegal logging.

Woven together by the podcast’s hosts, Disegno’s Kristina Rapacki and Oli Stratford, these interviews offer multiple viewpoints on how we can relate to and understand forests. Offering expert analysis and science, alongside industry perspectives and concrete design proposals, Words on Wood provides an accessible route into understanding the global forces shaping our environment.

 

Words on Wood is spread over an initial four episodes:

  1. Welcome to the Forest – the fundamental issues surrounding forests, and how these impact upon the timber that eventually ends up in buildings, products and furniture, with guests Sebastian Cox and Jameson French.
  2. The Carbon Sink – the significance of forests to climate change, their role in reducing carbon in the atmosphere, and the importance of carbon sequestration for architecture and product design, with guests Andrew Waugh, Galina Churkina and Sean Sutcliffe.
  3. Illegal Logging – the challenges facing the design and timber industries to cut out illegal logging, and how architects and designers can respond, with guests Formafantasma, Constance McDermott and Rupert Oliver.
  4. Wood and Wellbeing – the opportunities to use timber within design and architecture to improve our mental wellbeing and physical health, with guests Asif Khan and Alex de Rijke.

 

Episode 1 launches on 31st March, with subsequent episodes to follow each fortnight. You can listen and subscribe to Words on Wood on Apple podcasts, Spotify and on americanhardwood.org.