A is for Architecture Podcast

In episode 6/ 3 of A is for Architecture, architect, writer, teacher and researcher, Charlotte Skene Catling talks about her practice Skene Cailtling de la Peña, which she founded in 2003 with Jaime de la Peña. The practice’s work has been widely published and to considerable critical acclaim, blending as it does context, occupation/ use, earth, soil, sedimentation and historic records, in a process they term geoarchaeology. The term has academic connotations, and how this is actualized in Skene Catling de la Peña’s practice is worth hearing told. It particularly fascinating where it touches on Aino and Alvar Aalto’s Toppila silo in Oulu, Finland, which they are turning into a regenerative/ cultural space with the Factum Foundation. You can find Charlotte all over the internet. She wrote a column for the Architectural Review, Domus and The Burlington Magazine, teaches at the London School of Architecture, Instagrams and LinkedIns. There’s a lovely article at Drawing Matter on The Dairy House, excerpted from Françoise Astorg Bollack’s Material Transfers: Metaphor, Craft, and Place in Contemporary Architecture, published by  Monacelli Press in 2020. Have a look at Flint House, which was the RIBA House of the Year 2015, and is covered most stylishly in this Architectural Review vid. Deep stuff. Subterranean, even... Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In episode 5/ 3 of A is for Architecture, Liz Postlethwaite talks about her practice as a participatory artist, permaculture designer and Director of Small Things Creative Projects, a social enterprise with a focus on regenerative culture through designing and writing scaled interventions in public. Permaculture is mimetic, promoting the management of land and habitats by paralleling and replicating natural ecologies. (It’s also more than this, as Liz explains.) It has direct relevance for architecture and practice, reframing the relationship of designers and sites/ context towards greener, more holistic, ethical and slower ways. It also offers a number of simple motifs for understanding the integrated and rhizomatic nature of environments, people, stuff, action and intention. Believe, it’s a good thing, even if you’re not a hippy. You can find Liz online at the Small Things Creative Projects website, and also on Liz’s personal website. Liz runs training and mentoring workshops which you can read about on the Permaculture Association website. Liz is on Instagram as @mudandculture, and can be found on LinkedIn here. Liz writes a Substack, Mud and Culture, which you might want to subscribe to. Listen to the podcast, slowly, repeatedly and thinkily. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In episode 4/ 3 of A is for Architecture, Stuart Vokes and Aaron Peters speak about their practice, Vokes & Peters, and their elegant domestic and civic buildings in the heart and hinterlands of Brisbane. Our discussion sprung from their recent book, Migrations from Memory, a collection of essays by Stuart Vokes and Aaron Peters reflecting upon twenty years of practice, published by Canalside Press in 2023. Vokes & Peters’ domestic work is particularly wonderful, and rightly acclaimed, embodying a civility and civicness that is distinct and significant. There is much online about it. A quote from Stuart from the book’s opening illustrates something of their approach: ‘One can be poetic about a house and describe it as a city in miniature – just like the city, one can find a range of rooms, enabling a range of events and behaviours that satisfy the spectrum of human emotions. But I am equally satisfied with the idea that a house might be considered a room of the city – a room where we feel at home, the one place left in the city where we might find real reverie and contentment. A house needn’t be another public place, at least not always.’ Vokes and Peter are all over the internet, but for one, there’s a decent video on their Auchenflower House (pictured on the podcast image) in Brisbane from 2020 on the Architecture AU website, and you might also have a sticky at their recent Blok Stafford Heights, winner of this year’s New House Under 200 Square Metres in the Houses Awards, and covered in the Guardian. Their own website features an excellent selection of written work too. Both Stuart and Aaron are on Instagram. Migrations from Memory is available on the Canalside Press website and everywhere else that's decent⁠. Listen to the podcast, and work something out. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In A is for Architecture’s third episode of the series, Monica Degen and Gillian Rose speak about their 2022 book, The New Urban Aesthetic: Digital Experiences of Urban Change. The book ‘explores how cities worldwide are being transformed and reconfigured by the twin forces of digital technologies and 'urban branding' [generating] ‘sensory bodily experiences [which] this book terms the new urban aesthetic.’ Documenting this shift through global examples, the book helps us understand the how and why of the experience of contemporary urban space.   Gillian is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford, and Monica is Professor in Urban Cultural Sociology at Brunel University London. Gillian can be found on X, Monica is also on X and LinkedIn, as well as on the Timescapes of Urban Change website, where you can see her speak about other interests and research.  The New Urban Aesthetic is on the Bloomsbury website, where you can – probably should – buy it. Listen, learn, share, go on now. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In Episode 2, Season (or series) 3 of A is for Architecture, Simon Henley talks about his work as a designer, researcher, maker and teacher, and the work of Henley Halebrown, the practice he founded in 1995. Initially we had agreed to explore a notion Simon suggested of ‘beneficial building’. We never go there precisely, but perhaps in spirit. Henley Halebrown are increasingly significant players in the production of new urban housing, particularly in London, where their work has grown in stature and reputation. This year, their Taylor & Chatto Courts and Wilmott Court, Frampton Park Estate has been shortlisted for the RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing, and the Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road won the International Architecture Award 2023. Previous work  includes a litany of acclaimed schemes, including Chadwick Hall student housing in Roehampton which was nominated for the Stirling Prize in 2018. A great conversation, for sure. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In the first episode of A is for Architecture’s third series, the effervescent Denise Scott Brown talks about her journey to and through architecture, as a designer, writer, planner, urbanist, theorist and teacher. It is a wonderful, remarkable story, told with great eloquence and elegance, and one which deserves continued attention. Denise’s work with her practice Venturi Scott Brown has inspired a great many people, with buildings including Franklin Court, Philadelphia (1976), the Children's Museum, Houston, Texas (1992), the Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, London (1991), the Seattle Art Museum (1991) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (1996). Her and Robert Venturi’s written work has been hugely impactful too, and includes the totemic Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, (1972, with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour), Architecture as Signs and Systems: for a Mannerist Time (2004, with Robert Venturi), the significant essay Room at the top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture (1989), and Studio, Architecture’s offering to academe (2016). Threaded through it all is a genuine belief in the value of ordinary and everyday ways of being and doing the built environment. There is a huge amount of material online, in libraries (in real books!), in magazines and journals, and to listen to about or featuring Denise. Go find a book, and think about it all. As she said, ‘People have learnt from Las Vegas, but they haven’t learnt the half of it yet’. It was an extraordinary sensation speaking with Denise, like swimming in very deep waters. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

Episode 37/2 of A is for Architecture is a conversation with Alan Dickson,  co-founder and director of Rural Design, an acclaimed and innovative architecture practice based on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Rural Design’s work is characterised by a reappropriation of vernacular forms and construction traditions, which is both contemporary and contextually embedded. Have a listen and a look around. Rural Design’s website is a good one, and they are on Twitter and Instagram. You can see their work on Dezeen, ArchDaily, in the AJ, and a lot of other places too.  The Rural House scheme we spoke about can be found here. I first met Alan in 2012 when he came to the Glasgow School of Art to give a lecture, which you can watch on Vimeo here. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In Episode 36, Season 2 of A is for Architecture, Eleanor Jolliffe and Paul Crosby speak about their book, Architect: The Evolving Story of a Profession, published by RIBA Publishing in March this year. Eleanor is an architect with Allies and Morrison and writes regularly for the architectural press, including a column for Building Design. Paul, also an architect, now leads the professional practice/ Part 3 course at the Architectural Association. Thematically a chronology of the emergence of a very particular discipline, Architect looks at ‘the key questions of where the architectural profession originated in the Western tradition, why it is, how it is today and where it might be going next [and] postulate that architects' ability to adapt and reinvent themselves in the past will stand them in good stead for the uncertainties of the future.’ We shall see, shan’t we? In the meantime, listen to these two fine folk, and find out. Eleanor is professionally here, at BD here, on LinkedIn here and tweets here. Paul’s AA profile is here, and LinkedIn-able here. The book is on the RIBA website here, where you can buy it. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

Episode 35/2 of A is for Architecture features Charles Holland, principal of Charles Holland Architects, and Professor of Architecture at the University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury. We speak about Charles’ work and research, focusing on his 2022 Davidson Prize-winning proposal, Co-Living in the Countryside, ‘a proposal for new rural housing […] developed as a collaboration with artist  Verity-Jane Keefe, urban designer Joseph Zeal-Henry and the Quality of Life Foundation. ‘Co-living in the Countryside responds to the brief for co-living and proposes a new rural housing typology [allowing for] shared spaces, flexible and adaptable house types and an approach based on mutual, cooperative governance’ on a site in Sussex. There’s much online about Charles’ work, both recent and in his previous iteration as founder-director of FAT, a design practice with a remarkable body of work that challenged the pieties of much late modern architecture. You can have a look at it here. You can find Charles on Twitter, Insta and LinkedIn. Co-Living has been covered in Dezeen, Architecture Today and the AJ (£), among others. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In Episode 34/2 of A is for Architecture, Andrew Beharrell and Rory Olcayto talk about their book, The Deck Access Housing Design Guide: A Return to Streets in the Sky, published by Routledge this year. Andrew is a Senior Advisor for the London-based architects, Pollard Thomas Edwards, where he was formerly director and senior partner. Rory is  writer and critic at PTE, and formerly  editor of the Architects’ Journal and chief executive of Open City.   ‘Despite a chequered history that saw it linked with urban decay and social malaise in the 1970s and 80s, deck access housing […] is fast becoming the default solution for mid-rise housing in the UK, and London in particular. This is in part down to architects’ renewed interest in post-war Modernist typologies, but also due to specific planning standards that favour the qualities – dual-aspect plans, ‘public’ front doors – of deck access design.’ It features work from architects such as AHMM, DO Architecture, Henley Halebrown, Mæ, Maison Edouard François and Waechter + Waechter, among others. The book has been covered in the press, including on Dezeen, the Architects’ Journal and Architecture Today. Then head to the Routledge website, where you might consider buying it. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk