Kunlé Adeyemi, Nelly Ben Hayoun and Cameron Sinclair feature in VDF's collaboration with The World Around for Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! To mark the occasion, VDF has collaborated with The World Around to host a series of talks, interviews, short films and essays exploring ideas that could "shape the future of our relationship with the planet".

Today's programme features designers Nelly Ben Hayoun and Thomas Thwaites and architects Kunlé Adeyemi, Cameron Sinclair and London studio Cooking Sections, whose Climavore installation is pictured above, plus curator Aric Chen and more. See the schedule below for timings.

Curated by Beatrice Galilee of The World Around in partnership with Facebook's Artist in Residence programme, the Earth Day 2020 symposium will feature over twenty leading figures working on environmental issues around the world.

Beatrice Galilee curated The World Around Earth Day 2020 symposium

It takes place on the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day on 22 April 1970, which saw 20 million people in the USA demonstrate against the damage human activity causes the natural environment.

Event will include interviews, short films, essays, manifestos and reflections

The online programme replaces a physical conference that Galilee was planning, which had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The convening will give a platform to the work and ideas that could shape the future of our relationship with the planet," said Galilee.

"[It will explore] ways to ethically reconnect with our food, designing, building and living with human and non-human animals, radical new forms of pedagogy, biodegradable accessories and an insight into the extreme new visual landscapes the coronavirus has generated."

Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi will present work including his Makoko Floating School

"The event will include interviews, short films, essays, manifestos and reflections that together create a diverse and complex voice of a generation of pluralistic practitioners designing, thinking and making with the earth and its multiverse of inhabitants in mind," she added.

The Earth Day 2020 symposium is the second event organised by The World Around, a platform for architecture and design discussions founded last year by Galilee, Diego Marroquin and Alexandra Hodkowski.

Dezeen live streamed the first The World Around event in New York in January this year.

Architect Kunlé Adeyemi and Facebook's Margaret Stewart to give talks

Starting at 1:00pm UK time with a live conversation between Galilee and Dezeen's editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, the Earth Day 2020 symposium is structured around three themes – Rethink, Reimagine and Recreate.

Each part of the event will be broadcast in a separate post on a dedicated page as part of Virtual Design Festival.

Designer Thomas Thwaites is one of speakers at The World Around Earth Day symposium

The first part of the symposium, from 2:00pm, will include a talk by Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, alongside a series of discussions.

Writer and curator Maite Borjbad will speak to London research studio Cooking Sections, curator Sepake Angiama will talk with French experience designer Nelly Ben Hayoun, and Pratt University dean of architecture Harriet Harris will have a conversation with philosopher Timothy Morton.

From 4:00pm, the second part of the programme will include short films by Kalyanee Mam and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, as well as two more discussions: curator Aric Chen will speak to designer Thomas Thwaites, while curator Mariana Pestana will be in conversation with architecture firm Studio Ossidiana.

The third part of the event, which will be broadcast from 6:00pm, will feature talks by Facebook's vice president of product design Margaret Stewart, architect Cameron Sinclair, visual artist Amanda Williams, and landscape artist Walter Hood, as well as a conversation between curator Karen van Godtsenhoven and designer Mats Rombaut.

The symposium will close with a premiere of the short film The Transscalar Architecture of Covid-19

These talks will be followed by an interview with collaborative architecture practice Design Earth conducted by curator and writer Carson Chan, and an exclusive screening of a new short film called The Transscalar Architecture of Covid-19 by Andrés Jaque and Ivan Munuera.

Here's today's schedule:

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VDF x The World Around Earth Day 2020 symposium schedule

1:00pm Live interview with The World Around curator Beatrice Galilee

2:00pm Live broadcast of part one of the symposium, titled Rethink

• Cooking Sections in conversation with Maite Borjabad
• Nelly Ben Hayoun in conversation with Sepake Angiama
• Kunlé Adeyemi in conversation with Beatrice Galilee
• Harriet Harriss in conversation with Timothy Morton

4:00pm Live broadcast of part two of the symposium, titled Reimagine

• Malika Leiper in conversation with Kalyanee Mam, plus film screening
• Aric Chen in conversation with Thomas Thwaites
• Mariana Pestana in conversation with Studio Ossidiana
• Apichatpong Weerasethakul in conversation with Andrea Lissoni, plus film screening

6:00pm Live broadcast of part three of the symposium, titled Recreate

• Cameron Sinclair talk
• Amanda Williams talk
• Karen van Godtsenhoven in conversation with Mats Rombaut
• Margaret Stewart talk
• Walter Hood talk

8:00pm Design Earth interview by Carson Chan

9:00pm Premiere of The Transscalar Architecture of COVID-19 short film by Andrés Jaque and Ivan Munuera

All times are UK time.

The full schedule and biographies of all the speakers are available on The World Around's website.

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Peter Belsey uses pale bricks and thick mortar to create monolithic facade of Brisbane's Couldrey House

Mortar oozes between the off-white bricks that clad this house in Brisbane, which architect Peter Belsey has designed to look "immensely heavy".

Couldrey House measures 320 square metres and is situated west of central Brisbane, nestled in the foothills of Mount Coot-tha.

Besley wanted the house's heavy materiality to contrast vernacular residential architecture in Australia, which he thinks is too-often built with lightweight materials that constantly need to be repaired.

It's also meant to stylistically echo structures that Besley saw in Iraq, where he worked for a number of months.

"Buildings there seem aware of the scale and solemnity of the land in which they sit," said Besley, "the forms and spaces are compelling but simple – they sit heavily on the ground."

"Through them, I have become particularly aware of the deeper, haunting quality of ancient landscapes of which Australia is one," he continued. "The architecture of [the house] is designed to allow visual noise to fall away to heighten awareness of these qualities."

Slim, off-white bricks completely cover the house's south and west-facing facades.

They've been joined together using a "mortar snot" technique – where excess mortar that pushes through the gaps between bricks is allowed to set and dry, rather than being scraped off.

It leaves behind a bumpy, uneven surface texture that Besley hoped would juxtapose the uniformity of the bricks. The way in which the thick mortar bulges out from the facade creates shadow-play throughout the day.

"Together, the textural effect is striking, and starts to form aesthetic allegiances with landscape features – people have likened the brick elevations to tree bark, for example, or sedimentary rock," explained Besley. "Children prefer to see it as a cake with icing."

Concentric rectangles frame the home's front door to form what the architect describes as a "concertina" effect.

Directly in front is a wide flight of steps, crafted from perforated bricks that will be able to drain away rainwater when necessary.

Apart from a couple of louvred openings that have been punctuated in the south side of the house, the rest of the brick facade is windowless to stop passersby peeking in.

Large windows feature on the north and east-facing facades, which can be slid back to let in fresh air and cooling breezes during the summer months.

These purposefully weren't replaced with full-height panels of glazing – Besley wanted inhabitants' sightlines directed away from the street and towards the greenery outdoors, fostering the feeling of "living high up amongst a tree canopy".

Inside, communal living spaces have been arranged across the first floor, while sleeping quarters are down at ground level.

Rooms have been finished in a pared-back aesthetic that Besley felt complemented the home's "sober" exterior – concrete floors run throughout and a majority of surfaces, including the storage units, are plain white.

Elements like the door frames, staircase handle and breakfast island in the kitchen are crafted from warm-hued timber. Bricks that were about to be cast away in a rubbish skip were also saved and used to create a backing for the fireplace.

"The overall effect of the envelope is sober, and somewhat other-worldly; the masonry was important so the building's character develops and becomes more nuanced as it weathers and ages, and does not require continual replacement in order to look new," concluded Besley.

"The building should get better, not worse, with time."

Besley previously headed-up architecture practice Assemblage but now runs his own self-titled studio, working between offices in London and Brisbane.

Bricks are a popular material of choice for architects looking to create statement facades. Khuôn Studio fronted a house in Vietnam with perforated grey bricks, providing shade to its internal atrium, while Stanton Williams used an array of cream-coloured bricks to create a "textured protective shell" around a London home.

Photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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Project credits:

Architecture and design: Peter Besley
Thanks to: Jessica Spresser, Max Blake, Andrew Furzeland, Assemblage
Structural engineer: Projex Partners
Builder: TM Residential Projects

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