From Award-Winning Homes to Transformative Community Projects - Jon continues his chat with Carl Turner about his journey from traditional residential projects to pioneering public and community-focused developments. Carl shares the pivotal moment of selling his award-winning home to fund Pop Brixton, a transformative community workspace made from shipping containers. This bold move opened new opportunities for Carl's practice, leading to more impactful projects like Peckham Levels and Hackney Bridge. Carl highlights the importance of taking risks, embracing failure, and self-initiating projects to create meaningful architectural work. The discussion also explores the evolving nature of Turner.Works, their future ambitions, and the significance of designing spaces that people can adapt and thrive in.

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Today’s Guest

Carl Turner is the founder of Turner Works, an architecture and urban design studio specialising in the early activation of sites and the meanwhile use of buildings. Carl has founded and set up several meanwhile projects, including Pop Brixton, Peckham Levels and Ashford Coachworks. The building of his own Brixton home was filmed by Grand Designs, and Carl has gone on to feature on Channel 4's 'Ugly House To Lovely House' as an expert in low-cost, high-impact design.

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Episode Highlights

00:00 Introduction

01:17 The Pop Brixton Project

08:03 Expanding Horizons: Peckham Levels and Hackney Bridge

09:56 Transforming Turner.Works

14:10 Future Aspirations and Stability

23:33 Embracing Failure and DIY Ethos

29:39 Travel Tales and Final Thoughts

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Key Takeaways

Taking risks and learning from failure can lead to new opportunities and growth. If you try new things, even if you fail, you will learn and move forward.

Working with others and building a strong team helps you achieve more than working alone. You do better when you share ideas and support each other.

Creating spaces and projects that people can use and enjoy is more important than just making something look perfect. When you focus on real needs, your work has a bigger impact.

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