S6:E6 Celebrating ten years of AEA Consulting's Cultural Infrastructure Index...
Guest
Natalia Vartapetova, Luna BuGhanem,
Jess Nickelman, and Laura Gildenstern
In conversation with
Stephanie Fortunato
In this special roundtable episode marking the tenth edition of AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index, Stephanie Fortunato speaks with four members of the research team – Natalia Vartapetova, Luna BuGhanem, Jess Nickelman, and Laura Gildenstern – about what ten years of data can tell us about how cultural infrastructure is changing.
Date of Recording
21 May 2026
Date of Publication
4 June 2026
[00:00:00]
Luna BuGhanem: Sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have. It's not optional. It's baked into many requirements from the outset of projects, and working with an existing structure has lower embodied carbon than starting from scratch.
So the attitude in the sector is moving away from expansion to improvement, and they're thinking about how do we use what we already have more effectively.
Similarly, we're also hearing from architecture firms that the mechanical, the electrical, and environmental upgrades in facilities are increasingly taking up a big part of the share of capital budgets and are increasingly in need. So many of the projects we've tracked in the CII are renovations, are updates, are upgrades.
[00:00:45]
THEME MUSIC
[00:00:50]
Stephanie Fortunato: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is one of a series brought to you by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network, in which we explore the relationship between culture and urbanism; how the creative sector strengthens the vitality of a city, and how urbanism influences its cultural life.
The series and supporting materials can be found at www.thethreebells.net. And if you like our content, please subscribe and give us a positive review on your podcast listening platform of choice.
I'm Stephanie Fortunato, Director of Special Projects for GCDN. Today's episode is a little different from our usual format.
I'm joined by four members of the AEA Consulting research team behind the 10th edition of the Cultural Infrastructure Index, and together we're looking at what 10 years of data can tell us about how cultural infrastructure is changing. What emerges is not just a record of what was built, but a broader story about reuse, public life, and the changing role of cultural in the civic fabric.
We're joined today by Jess Nickelman, Luna BuGhanem, Laura Gildenstern, Natalia Vartapetova. Hello, welcome to The Three Bells!
[00:02:01]
Natalia Vartapetova: Hello.
[00:02:03]
Jess Nickelman: Hello.
[00:02:05]
Stephanie Fortunato: How's everyone doing?
Natalia Vartapetova: Doing well. How are you?
Stephanie Fortunato: Good. Thank you so much for joining us for our first roundtable edition of The Three Bells. (laughs)
[00:02:15]
Luna BuGhanem: Thank you for having us.
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