An Architect's Perspective

In this final episode of the series, I sit down with architect, author, and educator Per Olaf Fjeld , a former student and close friend of Sverre Fehn . Our conversation explores not just Fehn’s work, but his worldview — his belief that architecture is a continuous negotiation between memory and modernity, material and metaphor. Per Olaf offers a rare first-hand insight into Fehn’s creative proces...

Today we’re in Hamar, Norway, to explore one of the most powerful architectural interventions of the last century: Sverre Fehn’s museum within the ruins of Storhamar Barn. To guide us through it, I’m joined by architect and writer Per Olaf Fjeld, who worked closely with Fehn and has written extensively on his legacy. Storhamar is not a restoration. It’s an architectural conversation across centuri...

Welcome back to An Architect’s Perspective . I’m James Hamilton, and in this episode, we explore Skywood House - a landmark of minimalist architecture by Graham Phillips, completed in 1999. Tucked into the English countryside, Skywood House is built entirely from glass, concrete, and steel. But its impact isn’t about materials. It’s about mood. This is minimalism as atmosphere: a house of light an...

I’m James Hamilton, and in this episode, we turn our attention to B. V. Doshi — one of India’s most revered architects, and the first from the country to win the Pritzker Prize. This conversation took place in 2018, at his home in Ahmedabad. What unfolded was more than a professional interview. It was a rare, personal insight into the philosophy and life story of a man who saw architecture not jus...

This is a conversation about more than just sports architecture. It’s about the intersection of land, politics, and public life. Correa’s stadium doesn’t dominate its site—it rests lightly on it, more pavilion than monument. It invites people in, rather than fencing them out. And it’s shaped as much by the climate as it is by the culture. We’re in Ahmedabad, at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium...

I’m James Hamilton, and in this episode, we explore a building that transcends architecture to touch on something far deeper: dignity, restraint, and national memory. We’re in Ahmedabad, India, at the Gandhi Ashram - designed by Charles Correa, one of the most influential figures in tropical modernism. And joining me is Nondita Mehrotra, an architect and academic whose life and work intersect clos...

In this episode, I sit down with Neelkanth Chhaya , architect and academic, to talk about the Gandhi Memorial Museum - and how Charles Correa embedded Gandhi’s values into its very form. We explore how the building reflects humility through materials, structure, and sequencing - and how it echoes the Indian tradition of open courtyards and sky as a central space. Neelkanth shares both personal ins...

I visit Ahmedabad to explore the life and work of Charles Correa , a pioneering voice in post-independence Indian architecture. We look at how Correa translated modernist ideas into a distinctly Indian language — rooted in climate, tradition, and civic purpose. From the Gandhi Memorial Museum to his urban design legacy, Correa’s work reveals how architecture can be both modern and deeply local. Th...

I sit down with Spanish architect and academic Carmen Espegel to explore the life and work of Eileen Gray , with a particular focus on the complexities of authorship, identity, and gender within architectural history. Carmen offers an incisive reading of Villa E-1027 not just as a physical space, but as an architectural manifesto — one where form, emotion, and politics are deeply intertwined. We d...

I’m joined by architectural historian Tim Benton for an in-depth look at Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027, and what her design says about modernism at its most intimate. Tim was one of the first scholars to seriously document and interpret Gray’s work, and he brings decades of insight to our conversation. We unpack how Villa E-1027 challenges the rationalist model of modernism, replacing rigidity with r...

In this episode, I visit Villa E-1027 , the seaside house designed by Eileen Gray and built in 1929 on the Côte d’Azur. Known for its sensuality and quiet radicalism, the house challenges many assumptions of early modernism — especially its relationship to the body, to comfort, and to intimacy. Unlike the “machines for living in” of her male contemporaries, Gray’s design is deeply personal, profou...

In this episode of An Architect’s Perspective , I’m joined by architect and designer Eva Jiřičná to revisit Villa Tugendhat , Mies van der Rohe’s 1930 masterwork in Brno. We explore how the house’s radical openness, material refinement, and structural precision helped shape the language of early modernism - and how its influence continues to ripple through contemporary architecture. Eva reflects o...

This episode of An Architect’s Perspective takes you directly inside Villa Tugendhat , Mies van der Rohe’s landmark of early modernism, completed in 1930 in Brno, Czech Republic. It’s a house that stripped away ornament and introduced a new kind of spatial order — radical in its time, and still breathtaking today. I walk the site, tracing how Mies used structure, material, and movement to create a...

In this episode, I sit down with Ab Rogers , designer and son of Richard Rogers , to revisit the house he grew up in - Wimbledon House , a prototype of high-tech modernism designed by his father in 1968. This conversation moves between memory and material. Ab shares what it was like to live inside a building that was also an architectural experiment - a modular steel frame dropped into a garden, w...

I visit Wimbledon House — a quiet prototype that helped define the high-tech modernist movement . Designed by Richard Rogers in 1968 as a home for his parents, this isn’t a flashy building. But it’s radical in its restraint. Steel frame, panelled infill, exposed systems — a house built like a kit-of-parts, dropped into a leafy London suburb. It’s modular, demountable, and endlessly adaptable. But...

I’m James Hamilton, and in this episode I’m joined by architect and writer John Pardey to revisit one of the quietest, most profound acts of modern architecture: Can Lis . Perched on a cliff in Mallorca, Jørn Utzon’s retreat is built entirely from local stone and light. It’s a project that came after personal and professional collapse — after Utzon walked away from the Sydney Opera House. But what...

What do you build after the Sydney Opera House? For Jørn Utzon, it was Can Lis - a quiet, elemental retreat on the cliffs of Mallorca that redefined modern architecture. In this episode, architect James Hamilton visits Utzon’s home to explore how vernacular materials, sunlight, and silence shaped one of the 20th century’s most poetic buildings. With a special interview from architect John Pardey —...

Ever wondered how 20th century modernist architecture shaped the world? From cliffside retreats to high-tech homes, the visual podcast “An Architect’s Perspective” is your front-row seat to the 20th century’s most influential architecture. Join architect James Hamilton as he travels the globe, unlocking the stories behind modernism’s most iconic buildings with the people who know them best. Walk t...