What Buildings Do:An architecture podcast.

This special episode is a live recording made at IAF House, Dublin on June 10th, 2024.As part of conversation series, Books Donwstairs , on books and architecture, architect and writer John Tuomey and author and visual artist Adrian Duncan discussed their books, writing, memory, growing up with engineers and knowing your place. The event was chaired by architect and academic Miriam Delaney. . Firs...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon speaks to Aisling Rusk (Studio Idir, Belfast) and Anthony Engi Meacock (Assemble, London) on their recent collaboration as part of the Reimagining Elderhood project, produced by Self Organised Architecture, (SOA, Dublin).

This is the first of three episodes made in response to a project called Reimagining `Elderhood. Initiated by a group called SOA, or Self-Organised Architecture - a group already in conversation on episode 26 of the podcast - Reimaging Elderhood is an architecture-led project that explores the future housing needs of people in mid-life in Ireland. First up in this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to...

In this podcast, Emmett Scanlon talks to Luke McManus ,  a documentary film maker based in Dublin. Luke's debut feature documentary as a director, North Circular , had its International Premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2022 and won awards at Dublin IFF, Louth IFF and IndieCork Film Festival. It recently won a prestigious Grand Prix at France’s biggest documentary festival, FIPADOC in Biarrit...

In this episode we talk to Valerie Mulvin. The podcast is part of the Temple Bar 30 Series, an ongoing recording project with members of Group 91. Back in the 1980s a group of young and eager architects began working together in a loose collective, anxious to make things happen in Dublin city. By 1991, this group formalised as Group 91 and contained among others, Shelley McNamra, Yvonne Farrell (G...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Adam Nathaniel Furman . Adam is a British artist and designer of Argentine and Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam's atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia. _ As an...

This is a bonus episode of the podcast. It is a review of and a reflection on i see Earth, building and ground 1991-2021 an exhibition by Tom de Paor. The recording of this text was first broadcast at an event in VISUAL Carlow, on May 1st 2022, at an event called MAYDAY, a 108 minute orbit around the earth, curated by Nathalie Weadick and Hugh Campbell. The text read here will also be published on...

In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Ellen Rowley, architectural and cultural historian. The podcast covers Ellen's discovery of buildings and architecture through the close noticing of the world around her, the role and value of history in architecture, when history starts and, what buildings do. ABOUT ELLEN ROWLEY Ellen Rowley is Assistant Professor in Modern Irish Architecture at the School...

In this short episode Emmett Scanlon describes the origins and purpose of the new platform Story, Building . The podcast, What Buildings Do, is now part of that platform. Story, Building is a new platform for the critical discussion of architecture in Ireland. The podcast also shares information on how to submit work for publication in print or online. Full details are on the website. Music is by...

This is a the second in a series of conversations about Temple Bar with the architects of Group 91, initiated on the 30th anniversary of that project. Part reflection and projection, in this episode architect Derek Tynan talks about arriving back to Dublin the 1980s, then, he calls, a city of decay He recalls how then a new culture of confidence of architecture took hold in Ireland; Group 91 got g...

In this episode we discuss two new books on architecture, buildings and Ireland's capital city, Dublin. The books are The Dublin Architecture Guide 1937-2021, by Paul Kelly, Cormac Murray and Brendan Spierin, published by the Lilliput Press and designed by Eamonn Hall. The second book is The Dignity of Everyday Life: Celebrating Michael Scott’s Busaras, with text by Eoin O' Broin and photographs b...

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon speaks to Zoë Berman of Studio Berman. Zoë is an architect and a university lecturer. She has lectured on design and equity, and written for the RIBA Journal, Blueprint magazine and Architecture Today. Zoë is also one of the founding members of the Part W Collective, which describes itself as “a collective of engaged and proactive women working in design educati...

In the podcast Emmett Scanlon talks to James Albert Martin and Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh, who together with Anne Dorthe Vester and Maria Bruun are Soil Lab . In September 2021, Soil Lab unveiled their installation on a vacant lot in Chicago as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.  In the podcast the pair discuss  the project from the initial idea which, after an open call from the Dan...

In 2021 Ryan Kennihan was Highly Commended for a house in north Dublin, in the 'New Into Old' awards, by the Architectural Review . This house is another in a series of lauded house projects undertaken by Ryan and his team in RKA over the last 15 years of practice. In the podcast we begin with that house, exploring how to work with fragments of existing buildings, returning them to a family for us...

The last years have seen a growing consideration of the terms and conditions of employment for architects. In this episode Emmett Scanlon speaks to Charlie Edmonds who cofounded in 2021 the Future Architects Front , a group founded to end "the exploitative practices" of workers in architecture. Charlie outlines the reasons he and Priti Mohandas founded the group, their engagement with the Royal In...

In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Emma Geoghegan about the currently vacant BRAUN factory building in Carlow, Ireland. Carlow is a town with a combined urban and rural population of about 25,000 people. Back in 1974 BRAUN, the German company, set up a new factory in Carlow, which, at its peak employed 1,400 people most of whom were women. Details of the Braun Archive can be found on the VIS...

In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Will Hurst, the Managing Editor of The Architects’ Journal, based in London. Will has been leading the RetroFirst campaign at the Architect's Journal since late 2019. The podcast covers the origins and ambitions of this campaign, at the heart of which is the idea that "the greenest building is the one that already exists". The conversation touches on t...

The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale open-end at the end of May, a year later than intended, due to Covid restrictions and cancellations. This year the Irish pavilion, at what is one of the largest exhibitions of architecture in the world, was commissioned and curated by an interdisciplinary group of architects, artists and researchers, together known as ANNEX . The pavilion is called, Entangleme...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Padraig Flynn and Tom O Donnell of SOA (Self Organised Housing). In the podcast the pair outline the origins of the group and the social, spatial and architectural potential of community-led housing. The pair present a realistic but optimistic way of understanding and providing housing in Ireland.  - About SOA  SOA SOA is a not-for-profit action re...

In 2020 EU President Ursula von der Leyen launched the New European Bauhaus , an initiative intending to address climate by and through design. In this episode architect Orla Murphy outlines the values and workings of this initiative and talks about its potential impacts on architecture, on Ireland and on our shared futures on the planet. The conversation also engages with matters of civic and pub...

Northern Ireland is 100 years old on May 3rd 2021. In this podcast Emmett Scanlon speaks to four people working in and through architecture in Norther Ireland. Aidan McGrath is a director of McGonigal McGrath architects. Jane Larmour leads ArighoLarmourWheeler architect based in Dublin and Belfast. Aisling Rusk is founder of Studio Idir and Ciaran Fox is the Director of the RSUA (Royal Society of...

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Emmett Scanlon laments the continued closure of rooms for art. He recalls from memory, time spent in the Crawford Gallery in Cork. In the end, these recollections provide some clues as to what it is that buildings do all day. __ Music is by Sinead Finegan, played by the Delmaine String Quartet (Philip Dodd, leader). The podcast was recorded on Zoom in April 20...

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon meets Nathalie Weadick. Nathalie is the director of the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF). The IAF is an independent organisation dedicated to the promotion of architecture as culture. In a wide ranging conversation, Nathalie recalls her early career in Visual Arts and as Director of the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny and how she moved into architecture. The conve...

In this bonus episode of the podcast Emmett Scanlon offers some thoughts on the popular television show Home of the Year. Far from being passive entertainment, or a how-to-do-it program about making better homes, home-based lifestyle television shows become occasions for viewers to gain an understanding of what might be their shared national domestic identity. These tv shows thrive in societies wh...

In this podcast host Emmett Scanlon talks to property developer Derek Poppinga of Mm Capital. In 2015 Mm Capital purchased the Phibsborough Shopping Centre site. In 2020 Mm Capital lodged an application to amend their previously approved project for student housing, proposing instead to include co-living units on the site. The podcast covers several aspects of development in Ireland, including cos...