Can buildings make us healthier?
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken explore the building blocks of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, they step outside into the built environment to ask: can buildings affect our health? From light and air to noise, materials and design, they explore how architecture shapes the way we feel, think and function.
They visit Coal Drops Yard to see how a former industrial site was transformed into a modern public space, ask whether wellbeing is something architects actively design for, and explore what small changes we can all make to create healthier spaces. To help answer these questions, they’re joined by architect Lisa Finlay from Heatherwick Studio.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123. Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Lisa Finlay Producer: Faye Lyons-White Visuals Producer: Leon Gower Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Assistant Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Olga Reed
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | An early start here. It's time to kick off. |
| 0:10.0 | Your day. Morning! |
| 0:11.9 | What a line-up. |
| 0:13.3 | Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show. |
| 0:16.1 | The crowd is loving this. |
| 0:18.3 | Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind. |
| 0:20.2 | From morning chaos to match day commentary. |
| 0:23.6 | And everything in between. |
| 0:25.0 | BBC sounds packed with personality. |
| 0:33.1 | Chris, normally at this time on this day of the week, we are in the studio recording |
| 0:39.8 | What's Up Docs, our health and wellness podcast for BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:44.8 | But we're not doing that. Today we're outdoors. |
| 0:47.4 | Well, we are doing that. We're just doing it on locations on. |
| 0:50.4 | Tell everyone where we are. |
| 0:52.8 | Well, we're north of Kings Cross, a station I use a lot. |
| 0:56.7 | We're in the sort of businessy, shopping-y bit. We're in a yard. Do you know what this is? This is cold drops yard. Okay. Do you know what a cold drop is? Okay, so hang on a minute. Well, it's quite cool, actually, looking around. So we've got big warehouses-type buildings, and we've got a canal. |
| 1:11.6 | There's a lot of trains going |
| 1:13.7 | past. So I'm guessing, is where you drop off the coal? The coal comes in on a train, eight million |
| 1:18.9 | tons of it in a year, and then it falls out of the bottom of the train into the coal drop. And then |
| 1:24.7 | it's loaded onto a barge, and it's redistributed then throughout london on the canal |
| 1:29.2 | so this was the kind of industrial heart of london then it fell into disuse in the 90s and then |
... |
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