Open City
Open City
Open City is a charity dedicated to making architecture and built heritage more open, accessible and equitable.Providing you with essential listening, inspiring voices and built environment insights – the Open City Podcast covers news and current events as well as in depth studies of landmark buildings, and cities around the UK and world.At the centre of our line-up is our flagship show The Brief – an award-winning review of the big stories in architecture, planning and housing news – hosted by Sahiba Chadha and Fran Williams on a fortnightly basis.Alongside this is Deconstructed – a monthly podcast hosted by Matthew Lloyd Roberts taking apart the architecture of individual buildings and InterCities – a monthly podcast hosted by Owen Hatherley exploring municipal transformation around the world. All three shows profile new, expert and diverse voices from across industry, journalism, academia and beyond. The Open City Podcast is produced by Hunter Charlton and Paige Reynolds. The commissioning editor is Merlin Fulcher. The Open City Podcast is supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture platform and produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, London Society, C20 Society and Save Britain's Heritage. The Open City Podcast is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City Friend.Photo credit: Owen Hatherley portrait © Antonio Olmos Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 25, 2021 • 35min
Camden, Heritage, HS2 and TfL with Owen Hatherley
This week Camden is crowned the start up capital, heritage battles rage across the city, HS2 is part-dumped and TfL faces dire financial woes - yet three big names in the London architecture scene make it to the top of the rich list.... Owen Hatherley - the architecture writer, journalist and author of Red Metropolis; a polemical history of municipal socialism in London - joins Merlin in the studio.The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 18, 2021 • 44min
Londown Live with Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Hettie O'Brien from the SLG
This week, the Londown was recorded in front a of a live studio audience at the beautiful South London Gallery. Merlin took to the stage with architect and director of Studio Nyali Nana Biamah-Ofosu, and Guardian Opinions Editor Hettie O'Brien to discuss this week in architecture. As COP26 drew to a close this weekend, we look at the response in architecture and the built environment, and spotlight Norman Foster’s contentious Tulip tower which was last week vetoed over embodied carbon concerns. We also discuss the enormous £1.4 bn burden appalling housing puts on the NHS each year, the serious racism allegations mounting against London's cultural giant the Barbican, and the dreaded 4 month Northern Line closure on the horizon!The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 11, 2021 • 33min
More on the Marble Arch mound with Jonathan Glancey
This week, Merlin spoke to the renowned architecture critic and writer Jonathan Glancey. Tune in to hear them discuss the staggering cost of making our homes green, what we mean by radical zebra crossing revolutions, the awful permanent evacuation of an east London tower block, and of course the infamous marble arch mound... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 4, 2021 • 30min
Biobased materials, futuristic architecture, and vertiports with Alpa Depani
This week Zoe caught up with architect Alpa Depani to discuss this week in architecture. The stories this week include the U+I buyout by behemoth rival, the ground-breaking new research tackling the housing AND climate crisis', why youth homelessness is surging in the city, the new exhibition exploring a novel kind of 21st century architecture, and Grimshaw's plans to electric flying taxi vertiports! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 28, 2021 • 34min
The budget and COP26 with Will Ing
This week Merlin is joined by fellow AJ journalist Will Ing. On the menu: A 1.8 billion pounds budget boost for new homes on post industrial ‘brownfields’ | 'Greenwash’ accusations over a rash of vertically planted ‘living walls’ sprouting over London | Outrage after MPs green light dumping sewage in London’s rivers | Hotel plans for Grade-I listed Customs House unanimously voted down | And what the COP26 climate summit could mean for London’s built environment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 21, 2021 • 39min
Estate Demolition, Cycling, and Podcasts with Luke Jones
Sadiq Khan announces a major review into affordable housing delivery | Lambeth Council forced to compensate residents over refurb works which left Grade II-listed Kate Macintosh-designed homes in disarray | 'Failing to learn the lessons of Grenfell'. A bitter row erupts over redevelopment plans for Ernö Goldfinger's Notting Hill estate | How private companies are ejecting vulnerable Londoners to cheaper cities | The tens of thousands still waiting for safe bicycle parking spaces | And the Londown is named Best Podcast at the 2021 Archiboo Awards!Tune in to hear Merlin and Luke Jones; host of the podcast 'About Buildings + Cities' discuss this week in Architecture.The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 14, 2021 • 34min
The Stirling Prize and estate demolitions with Siraaj Mitha
Join critic Phin Harper and head of Accelerate Siraaj Mitha to chew through the week's big stories in London's architecture, housing and planning worlds. On the Londown this week, a Cambridge eco-mosque tipped to win the Stirling Prize, the ARB shake-up architectural education, City of London vetoes new skyscraper next to listed synagogue, an alleged ‘unfair’ estate demolition ballot in Tottenham, iconic post-war housing set to be flattened in massive Lambeth redevelopment, and the life and legacy of the late great Owen Luder.Support the Londown and Open City in making London's built environment more open and equitable by donating the equivalent of one flat white a month to the charity so it can keep making the Londown, staging the free Open House Festival and delivering important educational work supporting children and young people from under-represented backgrounds. Go to open-city.org.uk/flatwhite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 7, 2021 • 36min
Michael Gove, the cladding scandal, and Cosmic House with Edwin Heathcote
This week on the Londown Zoe and FT architecture critic Edwin Heathcote analyse Gove's first public outing as housing secretary, and his comments on 'ugly' concrete and steel buildings. They also discuss why George Clarke is blasting the government over the cladding scandal, the newly opened Cosmic House, the plans for V&A Youth, and the new competition to redesign RIBA HQ... tune in!The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 30, 2021 • 40min
Nine Elms regeneration & retrofit with Cllr Aydin Dikerdem
This week Merlin spoke with Aydin Dikerdem - the councillor for Queenstown Ward in the Battersea and Nine Elms area of Wandsworth, south west London. They discussed the criticism of the Northern Line extension, the very real flooding threat London faces, the pros and cons of retrofit, and the architecture lecturers who are standing up against unfair and discriminatory contracts.The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 23, 2021 • 34min
Londown Live with Cath Slessor and Thomas Aquilina
This week we bring you the first ever Live Londown - direct from the Museum of the Home as part of their Festival of the Home. Merlin is joined by Catherine Slessor; President of the Twentieth Century Society, and architect Thomas Aquilina. Tune into their conversations on legendary bane of architects Michael Gove named housing secretary, the London co-living pioneer teetering on the verge of administration, Kevin McCloud's radical housing reform views, the pedestrianisation of Strand Aldwych, and the explosive planning meeting in Camden that saw furniture fly...The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
