Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Henrik Schoenefeldt, Professor of Sustainable Architecture, who has been at the University of Kent since 2011. He was at Cambridge prior to moving to Kent and we learn about the role of sustainability in architecture from an historical perspective, such as from the Victorian era. Henrik grew up in Germany in a former industrial city, a site of industrial heritage, and indeed he grew up in a house on a former industrial site. Henrik reflects on how Covid and Brexit prompted a lot of thinking regarding identity, including his own future in the UK. He’s working on the largest conservation project in the UK at the Palace of Westminster, and reflects on how far what one does in academic work resonates with our interests as teenagers. We find out how the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral became a personal story for Henrik as his grandmother was in Dresden during the bombing. It also links to matters of faith, as Henrik recounts. Henrik discusses how his family did talk about the Second Worl