Richard J Williams: Expressways and the urban imagination.

In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, the University of Edinburgh’s Richard J. Williams discusses The Expressway World, his brand new book with Polity Press. Richard is an old friend of the podcast, having recorded the first episode in the autumn of 2021. Back then, we spoke about Richard’s book on that bearded provocateur Reyner Banham who, among things, was known for his 1971 book, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. I guess Expressway World naturally springs from this…

While often associated with destruction, severance and car-centric modernity, urban expressways are complex, multifaceted spaces, not merely engineering structures. Richard argues that we would be better served to read expressways as cultural, political, and social landscapes shaped by their design, use and resistance. And rather than demolition of what are increasingly moribund artefacts of a bygone age, he advocates for a nuanced approach to living with these infrastructures. Drawing on global case studies in cities as diverse as New York, London, São Paulo, Madrid, Seoul and Glasgow (and of course, LA), Richard demonstrates how communities, activists and planners have creatively repurposed expressways into public spaces, parks, or cultural hubs. 

Another banger from a great scholar. Listen, then drive out to buy his book.

Richard can be found here at work, on Instagram and on his personal website. The book is linked above.

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Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick