This October, save the date to join RIBA Cornwall for Resilience Roll Call, a one day event focussing on sustainability to share, discuss and review the theories, practices and toolkits to help make real change in the future of the built environment.
The day includes an impressive line-up of key speakers who will share their knowledge and facilitate discussion. Speakers include:
- Paul Atkinson of Green Works
- Amanda Forman of Plant A
- Stephen Davis of Recollective
- Stefano Pascucci from the University of Exeter
- Duncan Baker-Brown, author and architect
There will also be plenty of time for networking and conversation.
Resilience Roll Call has been initiated by RIBA Member Julian Mills from Studio Gather in Cornwall. We asked Julian what has motivated this call to action and his collaboration with RIBA through the Local Initiative Fund (LIF) to bring his idea for this event into reality.
Julian Mills says, “For us, it’s pretty simple, the built environment plays a huge part in the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Through construction techniques, fossil fuel dependency within inefficient buildings, and generally a systemic pattern of waste from materials or whole buildings.
In the last 10 years, we have seen this trend start to shift. It is certainly recognised that something needs to be done and mechanisms have been put in place hoping to make a positive effect. The question is, are we doing enough and perhaps more so, is this just a slightly different ‘business as usual’
As a practice, we are motivated in exploring this, making changes with the work we do and along the way sharing these endeavours. Setting up Resilience Roll Call is a way to map the exploration into what alternatives look like, creating a platform for pioneers to share in their journeys, offer advice, and share guidance with others. This event is a great opportunity for our professional community to come together and find synergies and hopefully collaborate on towards a more resilient future.”
Resilience Roll Call will take place at Mount Pleasant Ecological Park, Porthtowan, Cornwall on Tuesday 8 October, 9.45am to 3.45pm.
This event has been supported by RIBA’s Local Initiative Fund.
About Julian J Mills
Julian J Mills says “Having spent my career chasing down what it means to ‘design sustainably’, I have explored in depth from the perhaps slightly alternative construction side all the way to the number crunching geeky building physics spreadsheet side. All have their place and all of them share a collective goal to have a lower impact on our environment with the hope we leave it in a better place than when we found it.
When I found myself becoming both a first time founder and first time father at pretty much the same time, my drive to make sure I left a positive environmental legacy was fixed. Both of these pinnacle points really focus the mind – what do I believe in, what do I want to spend my time doing and what do I want to share/pass on to others.
With the support from my family and team, who enjoy the explorations into the alternative and engage in wider thinking, it allows this vision for a better future to flourish. I am by no means an expert, but I have met some very well researched and commended specialists – from architects to activists, professors to politicians, and farmers to timber framers. They all have inspired, educated, and influenced me from their works and that is what the RRC is all about.”
About STUDIO/gather
STUDIO/gather is a Chartered Practice studio based in West Cornwall, founded by Julian J Mills. They are a growing team of architects and master technicians.
The practice operates in a collaborative manner, with the aim to create timeless designs that enact joy and pleasure through both the process and the end result. Each project is approached through a similar fine-tuned creative exercise that explores the site's setting, local materials and design context along with clients' individual wants and needs. This forms a basis for an architectural output that is crafted, is beautiful, stands the test of time, and fulfils more than just a noted brief.
Their projects range from works with listed buildings, terrace house extensions, stand-alone dwellings, barn conversions, garden studios - and everything in between.
About Mount Pleasant Ecological Park
Mount Pleasant Ecological Park has been developed over the last 20 years as a flexible, imaginative community resource. It provides high quality work-space for businesses and groups, organic growing space for local people through the community garden scheme, and training and education in traditional and sustainable skills to schools, colleges, universities, and the general public through our charity the Down to Earth Foundation.
The venue is also a charming location for green weddings, wild camping, and outdoor events including theatre, skills fairs, workshops, conferences, festivals, live music gigs, and private celebrations.
