A is for Architecture Podcast

In episode ten of season two of A is for Architecture, I speak with Beatriz Colomina and Evangelos Kotsioris, about their book Radical Pedagogies, co-edited with Ignacio G. Galán and Anna-Maria Meister and published by MIT Press in 2022. Beatriz is Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture at Princeton University and Evangelos Kotsioris, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Radical Pedagogies documents and analyses the long history of experimental architecture education programs that ‘sought to upend disciplinary foundations and conventional assumptions about the nature of architecture […] challenged modernist and colonial norms, decentered building, imagined new roles for the architect, and envisioned participatory forms of practice’ in favour of greater diversity, insight, democratic voice and justice, and away from top-down educational - and practice -models. You can get the book via MIT Press’ website here; it’s certainly worth a look. You can also find out more about Beatriz Colomina here,  and listen to her lecture on similar themes to the book for the Strelka Institute here, in a lecture she gave in 2019, entitled Radical Pedagogies. Evangelos can be found at MoMA here, on Instagram here, on LinkedIn here and watched speaking about the façade of the UN Secretariat Building as part of MoMA’s ArtSpeaks program here. As any of us in it, or who’ve gone through it might attest, architectural education seems to trend to the centre, and its base form remains remarkably resilient to change, even in the face of the great technical, social and cultural shifts that have transformed the contemporary world. Radical Pedagogies documents the visions – hopes, I suppose – of folk who tried, and in many cases succeeded, in testing new forms of learning practice in the face of this shifting landscape. Happy 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 ninth episode of A is for Architecture’s second season, I speak with Paul Dobraszczyk, architectural writer, teacher, photographer and artist, about his book Architecture and Anarchism: Building Without Authority, published by Paul Holberton in 2021. The book documents sixty examples of what it defines as anarchist projects, which ‘key into a libertarian ethos and desire for diverse self-organised ways of building […] that embrace the core values of traditional anarchist political theory since its divergence from the mainstream of socialist politics in the 19th century.’ You can get the book via Paul Homberton’s website here. You can also find out more about Paul Dobraszczyk on his personal website, including his portfolio of photography, writing and art, as well as an ace blog and links to his socials (under construction…). His Instagram is here, anyway, and his Twitter is here. I’ve always been intrigued by the possibilities of anarchism, although I’ve been too disorganised to sign up to any particular group. Paul does a decent job at explaining it, and its role and potential in and for the contemporary city. Happy 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 eight episode of this year’s A is for Architecture’s, I speak with Professor Erika Doss of the University of Notre Dame’s Department of American Studies, Indiana. We discuss her book Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010 which describes and analyses the ‘thousands of new memorials to executed witches, victims of terrorism, and dead astronauts, along with those that pay tribute to civil rights, organ donors, and the end of Communism [which] have dotted the American landscape’ as well as those ‘spontaneous offerings of flowers and candles that materialize at sites of tragic and traumatic death.’ Pitched around the sticky territory of history versus memory and the rights the them, the podcast reflects on the role of memory culture as a cultural, spatial and material instrument in urban culture. You can get the book via The University of Chicago Press’ website here. You can also hear Erika talk on The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at The University of Texas at Dallas’ podcast here, and also give a talk – Public Art, Public Feelings: Creativity and Controversy in Public Culture Today- at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in 2010. You can watch Erika speak at the Minneapolis Institute of Art here, with a talk entitled Monumental Troubles: Reckoning with Problematic Public Art in America. The tension between history and memory for architects is a significant one, and the rise of memory-culture is a huge cultural shift off which architecture increasingly depends, so Erika’s insights are meaningful and valuable. Happy 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 seventh episode in 2022/3's offer, I speak with Professor Gwendolyn Wright of Colombia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation (GSAPP), New York and presenter of PBS’ History Detectives. We met on Zoom to talk about her 2008 book, USA, part of Reaktion Book’s Modern Architectures in History series, a book which ‘traces a history that spans from early skyscrapers and suburbs in the aftermath of the American Civil War up to the museums, schools and ‘green architecture’ of today [describing] diverse interests that affected design, ranging from politicians and developers to ambitious immigrants and middle-class citizens […] Wright reframes the history of American architecture as one of constantly evolving and volatile sensibilities, engaged with commerce, attuned to new media, exploring multiple concepts of freedom.’ You can get the book via The University of Chicago Press’ website here. You can also hear Gwen talk at GSAPP with Michael Kimmelman about architecture’s public, in a presentation entitled Who's Listening? Also, here she is speaking when accepting the Society of Architectural Historian’s Award for Excellence in Architectural Media in 2012, and here  about History Detectives as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Gwen’s website is here; her LinkedIn is here. Gwen is an amazing communicator, a seriously insightful analyser of modern architecture and a delightful person to listen to. The book is marvellous, of course, as you shall hear… Happy listening! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com

In the sixth episode of 2022/3's A is for Architecture series, I speak with Sarah Wigglesworth, director and founder of Sarah Wigglesworth Architects. Sarah is a writer and educator, as well as one of Britain’s most celebrated architects, with a body of work stretching back over two decades encompassing participation, community and public buildings, housing, masterplanning and urban design work, all of which is (as I read it) shot-through with a conscientiousness about the social potential and obligation of architecture as a discipline and practice, in favour of social, ecological and spatial margins. We speak about Sarah’s practice, her background in practice and education, and some of the myriad motivations which underpin her work, including her recent renovations to her home, 9-10 Stock Orchard Street, school design schemes and [a few threads of] the rich tapestry of influences that inform her approach to design. Sarah Wigglesworth Architects can be gotten to here; you can hear Sarah speak about the scheme here for Dezeen, and with New London Architecture here. There’s info on Stock Orchard Steet here, as part of the Open House Festival. There’s a good essay in AR on her dining table here. SWA’s Twitter is good too, as is their Instagram. There’s lots more online, not least SWA’s own online repository, which contains many articles by and on her and her practice’s work. Happy listening! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com

In Episode 5 of 2022/23 #aisforarchitecture, I speak with architect-scholars Sofie Pelsmakers and Elizabeth Donovan, about their book Designing for the Climate Emergency: A Guide for Architecture Students, co-written with Urszula Kozminska and Aidan Hoggard, and published by RIBA Books this year.  Sofie is associate professor at Tampere University, Finland and Liz is associate professor at Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark. We speak about #ecology and #sustainability and the ways students of architecture can (and must) begin to reimagine how we #design, outlining the book’s strategies for formulating new approaches to #practice, #space, #materials, #technology and #climate. Designing for the Climate Emergency: A Guide for Architecture Students, can be found on RIBA Books here. Sofie’s professional profile can be found here, and here personal webpage is here. Liz’s professional profile can be found here. Sofie’s Twitter is here, and her Instagram is here; she co-founded Architecture for Change with Stephen Choi, and has published other very decent books: The Environmental Design Pocketbook, published by RIBA (2012) and edited (with Nick Newman),  Design Studio Vol. 1: Everything Needs to Change - Architecture and the Climate Emergency, again with RIBA Publishing in 2021.  Iloista kuuntelua! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + w. aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: podcasters.amazon.com

In Episode 4 of 2022/23 A is for Architecture, I speak with Christian Parreno, writer, academic and architect, about his book Boredom, Architecture, and Spatial Experience, published by Bloomsbury this year. Christian is assistant professor of history and theory of architecture at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador and part of the International Society of Boredom Studies research network. Christian and I speak about some of the themes of his book, not least the condition of boredom as a inherent characteristic of modern urban life, and the ways that modern architecture and cities have established ennui and tedium as characteristics of everyday life. The book, Boredom, Architecture, and Spatial Experience, can be found here. Christian’s professional profile can be found here and his Instagram profile here. Christian’s talk, Boredom, Suicide and the Architecture of 1 Poultry Street, London can be watched on YouTube here. Bonne écoute. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: podcasters.amazon.com

In the third episode of 2022/3's A is for Architecture series, I speak with Professor Juliet Davis, Head of the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Juliet is a scholar, architect, writer and educator. We speak about her recent book The Caring City: Ethics of Urban Design, published this year by Bristol University Press. We talk about Juliet’s motivations for the book, guided by her approach to architecture born of her years in practice and education, and the underlying notion of an ethics of care (and carelessness) on which the book is founded, care as it is encountered in urban fabric, and how such an approach might be better embedded in urban design practices. The Caring City is a great book and you should buy it (link above). You can watch Juliet speak around some of its subjects on the Pakhuis de Zwijger YouTube channel, as part of its (their?) Designing Cities for All series, in an episode called Creating Cultures of Care: The Caring City. Juliet was previously an RIBA external examiner on the undergraduate programme at the Kent School of Architecture & Planning, University of Kent, which is where I first met her. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com

In the second episode of 2022/3's A is for Architecture offer, I speak with architect, writer and educator, Pierre d'Avoine, about his book Dwelling on the Future: Architecture of the Seaside, Middle England and the Metropolis, published by UCL Press in 2020. We talk about Pierre's background and his route into architecture, the focus of his work over the years and the motivations and insights of the book. Pierre is principal of Pierre d’Avoine Architects, and teaches at the Architectural Association, running Unit 14 with the architect Pereen d'Avoine, principal of Russian for Fish. Dwelling on the Future is available as a free download from the UCL Press website, and Pierre can be watched speaking about it at the London Met open lecture series here. Pierre is on LinkedIn here. I have known of Pierre's work for as long as I have been involved in architecture, so this conversation was a real treat. I hope you enjoy it.  + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com

In the first episode of Year Two (or Season 2?) of A is for Architecture, I speak with Dr Torange Khonsari, course leader for the Design for Cultural Commons courses at London Metropolitan University, and founder and director of Public Works, a London-based architecture, art and urbanism design practice, which focuses on participatory and performative art, architecture, anthropology and politics. We discuss the idea of commons, at once very ancient spatial, political, social and knowledge spaces, but with current pressures to communal resources, are perhaps of even greater value, even as they disappear. Torange talks about how architecture and designerlypractices can make commons, or make them more likely to occur, and how designers can operate through cultural commoning practices to build communities, enrich space[s] and resist social erasure through the articulation of common values. Torange’s work has been exhibited widely, and includes  The Ministry of Common Land within the The Garden of Privatised Delights, the British Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale, curated by Manijeh Verghese and Madeleine Kessler, and which you can see her speak about here. You can watch Torange give an excellent TEDx talk, Harnessing The Power Of The Civic Commons, in 2019.  Enjoy! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com .