The Aesthetic City

Ben Southwood has worked for KPMG, was head of research at the Adam Smith Institute and the head of Housing, Transport and Urban Space at the UK think tank ‘Policy Exchange’. He has also assisted CreateStreets as head of research. Currently he is editor at Stripe, for the online journal Works in Progress. An excellent source for high quality, optimistic articles on scientific progress, innovation and other topics. In this episode he talks about the StreetVotes concept, how it can gently transition low density areas into beautiful, denser neighbourhoods, offering more housing units in overheated markets, giving more power to local communities and enabling them to reap the benefits of this  densification. The concept is a true win-win solution that is now being tested out in the UK on a small scale. Visit Works in Progress here: https://www.worksinprogress.co/ Find the StreetVotes concept and whitepaper here: https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/strong-suburbs/ --- For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Love what we do? Become a patron! With your help we can grow this platform even further, make more content and hopefully achieve real, lasting impact for more beautiful cities worldwide. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/the_aesthetic_city Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.aesthetic.city/

Marjo Uotila is the founder of INTBAU Finland, connecting Finland to the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, and Arkkitehtuurikapina, the Finnish architectural uprising. The Nordic Architectural Uprising groups have more than 100.000 members altogether and are achieving real impact in the Scandinavian countries.  Marjo also works as an elected Member of City Council and the Chair of the Urban Development Committee at the town of Kaarina in Finland. In this podcast, we talk about the most common fallacies about traditional architecture, driving change towards more beauty in cities, the Finnish architectural uprising and much more. Find INTBAU Finland here: https://www.intbaufinland.org/ Connect to Marjo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marjouotila/ Become a member of the international Architecture Uprising group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArchitecturalUprising --- For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Love what we do? Become a patron! With your help we can grow this platform even further, make more content and hopefully achieve real, lasting impact for more beautiful cities worldwide. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/the_aesthetic_city Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.aesthetic.city/

Milly Main is a consultant at a global business strategy firm by day, but late last year she founded an organisation called StreetLevel in Australia. With StreetLevel, the aim is to build a grassroots movement in Australia being led by regular local people for more attractive and liveable cities and buildings, while trying to change things from the top down too. Her outstanding work to promote better forms of urbanism and architecture 'at street level' is a model for other people to follow in other countries. With a professional, well thought out organisation with local chapters that offers clear communication, they do a stellar job at making our world a bit of a more beautiful place. For more information, visit https://www.streetlevelaustralia.org/ Follow Street Level on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/streetlevelaustralia/ ---- For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Love what we do? Become a patron! With your help we can grow this platform even further, make more content and hopefully achieve real, lasting impact for more beautiful cities worldwide. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/the_aesthetic_city?fan_landing=true Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.aesthetic.city/

Coby Lefkowitz is an urbanist, developer and writer living in New York City. He was a real estate analyst, but left his company to co-found Backyard, a real estate startup. He studied urban and environmental planning at the University of Virginia and writes for the Metropolis column for Medium. In this episode we have a great talk on the differences between the European and American urban planning context, Coby talks about what challenges developers face to achieve something more than spreadsheet architecture, the challenge of parking requirements, combatting sprawl and much more. Don't be surprised to see a follow up episode sometime in the future! Find Coby on Medium: https://cobylefko.medium.com/ Follow Coby on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cobylefko ---- For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Love what we do? Become a patron! With your help we can grow this platform even further, make more content and hopefully achieve real, lasting impact for more beautiful cities worldwide. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/the_aesthetic_city?fan_landing=true Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.aesthetic.city/

Vincent Veneman is a professional trombonist, composer and arranger and an architectural designer specialised in classical architectural design.  He has had an interest in both music and architecture since childhood, but chose to pursue music - which led to a full-time career as freelance musician. He appeared on over 50 recordings, as well as on TV and radio. He even appeared on the Grammy-award winning album ‘Sylva’ by Snarky Puppy and the Metropole orchestra; both in the orchestra as well as a featured soloist. Vincent started sharing his designs on his Instagram page, Uplifting Architecture, four years ago. Amongst his followers were professional classical architects, which further inspired him to professionalize. He is active in the board of INTBAU the Netherlands. ---- Love what we do and looking for ways to support us? Become a patron! With your help we can grow this platform even further, make more content and hopefully achieve real, lasting impact for more beautiful cities worldwide. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/the_aesthetic_city?fan_landing=true For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.aesthetic.city/

Ireland faces a horrendous housing shortage and a lack of commercial real estate accessible to smaller entrepreneurs, as well as a homelessness problem. Yet, an astounding quantity of real estate, often consisting of beautiful, incredibly valuable heritage, is rotting away, sometimes even on purpose. Thus, entire historical districts of Irelands' cities are at risk of getting demolished, permanently erasing quality urban fabric and Ireland's very own history. Why is this being allowed to happen? Jude Sherry and dr. Frank O'Connor from anois agency (meaning 'now' in Irish), found themselves as a voice in the wilderness when they tried to address this sizeable problem. With the #derelictIreland hashtag they found an effective rallying cry however, which has lead to increasing media attention all around Ireland. In this episode, they tell all about the nature of the dereliction problem, why it is so incredibly damaging and wasteful, and discuss ways how it could be tackled.  About Jude Sherry & dr. Frank O'Connor: Jude Sherry is has extensive experience in sustainable design and has recently been awarded the Irish Tatler ‘Woman of the Year’ award. Dr. Frank O'Connor is a global expert and thought leader in sustainable design, first calling for a circular economy back in 1989 and has since worked around the globe. Find their agency on http://www.anois.org/ and read more on #derelictIreland by following https://twitter.com/frank_oconnor or by following the hashtag. It is time Ireland starts to value their heritage and make #derelictIreland a thing of the past!

Dr. Nir Buras is an experienced architect, planner, author and founder of the Classic Planning Institute, which is a traditional architecture and urban design consultancy, an academy of traditional architecture and classic urban planning, and a community of like minded practitioners. He authored the book 'The Art of Classic Planning' (Harvard University Press, 2019) which is a must-have for any planner that values beauty and common sense in the built environment. In this episode we talk about dr. Buras' experiences of becoming an architect, about the difference between Beauty and the Sublime, the Classic Planning method and the Art of Classic Planning book, suburbs, and much more. Visit https://www.classicplanning.org/ for more information on the Classic Planning Institute. Join the CPI Stoa community on https://www.classicplanning.org/forum Dr. Buras' book, The Art of Classic Planning, can be bought here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Classic-Planning-Beautiful-Communities/dp/0674919246/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+art+of+classic+planning&qid=1594224749&sr=8-2  ------ For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City

Joseph Jutras is the founder of the Institute of Traditional Architecture, on which he shares useful information on correctly applying traditional architecture. As a Canadian living in the Netherlands and having travelled all over Europe, he has a refreshing outlook on many urban matters. He is chair of the committee organising the brand new summer school on traditional and classical architecture and architecture happening in Utrecht this year, 'Let's Build a Beautiful City'. In this episode he tells all about his life changing experience while seeing the architectural and urban beauty in Europe, his Institute of Traditional Architecture, a lot of details about the Summer School and much, much more. His excellent website can be found at http://www.institute-of-traditional-architecture.org/  For information on (and to apply for) the Utrecht summer school, please visit https://www.beautifulcity.nl/ APPLICATIONS OPEN TILL MAY 1st 2022 For more information on The Aesthetic City, find our website on https://theaestheticcity.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Aesthetic_City 

Michael Diamant is founder of New Traditional Architecture & Urbanism and has been a very vocal critic of contemporary architecture and planning practices. His fight for more beauty and sanity / common sense in urban planning is being heard: through the platform of an acquaintance that has grown explosively, 'Arkitekturupproret' or 'Architecture Uprising', he has attracted the attention of many Scandinavian media. The Architecture Uprising has caused many city councils to listen better to the architectural desires of the population. In this episode we talk about the impact he has achieved and how the platform came to be, as well as how the people are now getting empowered to voice their discontent about what gets built - often against their will. Find his website on newtrad.org for more information, or find a local Architecture Uprising group (like https://www.facebook.com/arkitekturupproret) to join the discussion.

Mieke Bosse is an experienced architect at Scala Architecten, a traditional architecture firm based in The Hague, the Netherlands. With her firm she has created many projects that fit in their environment and are embraced by local residents and their new inhabitants alike. She is chair of INTBAU Nederland and has been a member of the exam committee of the Dutch architecture registry. Furthermore, Mieke was visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and teacher at the Engelsberg architecture summerschool. In this episode, we talk about a wide range of topics, ranging from her vision on architecture in general, education, the housing shortage to the history of housing projects in the Netherlands.  Visit https://scala-architecten.nl/ for more information on Mieke's firm and their beautiful projects in the Netherlands.