Passive House Plus magazine, Summer 2022
In my final article as deputy editor of Passive House Plus, I reflect on 15 years covering the built environment, and ask how we can start to make community as integral to our design aspirations as energy and carbon. You can read my short essay here.
An essay on applying systems thinking to the built environment
Written with Andy Simmonds of the AECB
In recent years, as energy efficiency targets for new buildings have tightened, attention has turned to cutting the embodied carbon of buildings by switching from materials like concrete and steel to lower carbon alternatives like timber. But if we are serious about solving the ecological emergency as well as stabilising the climate, we must look even further than embodied carbon, and think more deeply about the core values we apply to materials and buildings, and the manner in which we use them.
Three-part radio documentary on how nature and culture have shaped the Irish landscape
RTÉ Lyric FM, Spring 2021
I served as researcher on this three-part documentary series, broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM, which looks at the changing relationship between people and nature through time in Ireland, and asks how we might shape the future of the natural world. The series was produced and presented by Anja Murray.
You can listen to the three episodes at the links below, or search for ‘The Lyric Feature’ wherever you get your podcasts, and scroll to March/April 2021.
A short essay on Ireland’s lost forests, and their ghostly inhabitants
THE DAY IS COLD and bright as I walk up the quiet road through small wet fields edged with hawthorn and gorse bushes. The sky is ice blue; behind me, the road slopes down to the bay, whose green water moves with the quality of mercury, slow and heavy. It is early February in the west of Ireland, and there is the faintest warmth on the sea breeze coming over the bogs. But this is only a lull: winter storms will soon come back with fury.
A deep-time audio journey across the Irish landscape
RTÉ Lyric FM, October 2020
I served as co-producer, with Anja Murray, of this one-hour radio documentary exploring the past and present of nature in Ireland — and peering into its imagined future. Broadcast by The Lyric Feature on RTÉ Lyric FM, you can listen here or search for The Lyric Feature wherever you get your podcasts. The programme was broadcast on October 11 2020.
The best Irish walks with good food at the end
Irish Times, Saturday, May 4, 2019
Keane’s Bar of Maam in Connemara is a rather singular place known to many walkers in the west. The allure of its roaring fire and cheese toasties is so strong that, when planning walks, I often find myself subconsciously choosing hills and trails within an easy radius of the place. Or even making a detour when I’m not that close.
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Camping gear strapped to our bikes, we headed off for a blissful weekend
Irish Times, September 28, 2019
After finishing work one Friday in high summer, my girlfriend Michelle and I left her house in Cabra, took a short cycle up to the Royal Canal, and followed it all the way to the Shannon.
It was a warm, grey evening. We left having done minimal research: we just knew that a cycling greenway was under construction along the canal, and that it was mostly complete. Camping gear strapped to our bikes, we would figure out the rest as we went.
Read MoreHi, I’m Lenny Antonelli. I write, and produce audio stories, mostly about nature, culture, science and travel. You can find a selection of my work on the left.
Email: lennyantonelli[at]icloud.com
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