A is for Architecture Podcast

Episode 26 of A is for Architecture ’s second season is a conversation with architect, urbbanist and writer Reinier de Graaf, partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), about his recent book, architect, verb: The New Language of Building , published by Verso in February this year. In ten chapters, architect, verb covers much ground, from sustainability and beauty, to starchitecture...

In Episode 25/2 of A is for Architecture I spoke with Head of School and Chief Executive of the London School of Architecture , Neal Shasore and Jessica Kelly, Reader in Architectural & Design History at University of the Creative Arts (UCA) and (also) teacher at London Metropolitan University, about their edited anthology, Reconstruction: Architecture, Society and the Aftermath of the First W...

A is for Architecture’s Episode 24, Season 2, is a conversation with Patrick Lynch, founder and director of Lynch Architects , writer, scholar and guv’nor (with Claudia Lynch) of Canalside Press .  We spoke about a few of Patrick’s written works, and some of Lynch Architect’s recent built projects too, focusing the discussion around Patrick’s discussions of the ground of architecture.   Being-With...

In episode 23, Season 2 of A is for Architecture, I spoke with UC San Diego professors, Fonna Forman and Teddy Cruz about their two recent books, Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks and Socializing Architecture: Top-Down / Bottom-Up , published by MIT Press in August 2022 and March 2023 respectively. Fonna and Teddy run Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman , a ‘a research-based political and archit...

Season Two’s twenty-second episode features Kim Dovey , Professor and Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, Melbourne School of Design , University of Melbourne , speaking about his very wonderful body of work on informality, informal urbanism, place and placemaking. We discuss his forthcoming Atlas of Informal Settlement : Understanding Self-Organized Urban Design (Bloomsbury 2023, with, Matthi...

In Episode 21, Season 2 of A is for Architecture I spoke with Maurice Mitchell and Bo Tang, respectively Professor and Reader of/ in Architecture, within the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University , and together directors of Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources [ A R C S R ], an ‘an emergent, studio based, teaching and research area within the practic...

In Episode 20, Season 2 of A is for Architecture’s I spoke with Flora Samuel, Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge , holding the professorial chair and until recently, professor at and founding member of Reading School of Architecture , University of Reading about Housing for Hope and Wellbeing , published by Routledge this year which, Flora said , is ‘the best one I ever wrote...

Episode Nineteen of A is for Architecture ’s second season is a conversation with Mae’s founding director, Alex Ely , talking about his practice’s recent book, Towards a Resilient Architecture , published by Quart in 2022. Mae’s work has an increasing focus on sustainability integrated into the whole life of the scheme. As Alex put it when we spoke, ‘I suppose reflecting on 21 years of practice, I...

In episode 18, season 2 of A is for Architecture , I met (on Zoom…) with Ed Parham , Director of Design & innovation at Space Syntax , to talk about its origins, objectives, methods and motivations. Space Syntax, the brainchild of Bill Hiller, formed as the Space Syntax Laboratory at The Bartlett, University College London, and now led by Tim Stonor , is ubiquitous in architectural thinking, a...

In this the seventeenth episode of A is for Architecture ’s second series , I speak with Sally Stone , Reader and Programme Leader for the MA Architecture and Adaptive Reuse programme and Director of the Continuity in Architecture Atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture . Among other things, Sally writes a lot, and we spoke about one recent book of hers , Inside Information: The Defining...

In Episode 16 of Season 2 of A is for Architecture , I speak with Gevork Hartoonian , Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Canberra, Australia, about his 2012 book, Architecture and Spectacle: A Critique , published by Routledge . The issue of the architectural spectacle has perhaps been the dominant idea in urban and architectural thinking for the last two or t...

In Season 2, Episode 15 A is for Architecture , I speak with architect and writer, Jonathan Hale , Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Nottingham, about his 2017 book, Merleau-Ponty for Architects , published by Routledge as part of their Thinkers for Architects series . Merleau-Ponty was a leading phenomenologist, whose work ‘has influenced the design work of architects as dive...

In Episode 14 of the second season of A is for Architecture , I speak with architect and scholar (and personal hero), Henry Sanoff , professor emeritus at the North Carolina State University. Henry has a remarkable story to tell, starting in the office of Frank Lloyd Wright (on the Guggenheim!) and then on to Edward Durrell Stone , before heading off to Jamaica to test his mettle as an architect a...

In Episode 13 of Season 2 of A is for Architecture , I speak with architect, writer, teacher and television presenter, Piers Taylor about his journey to architecture, and the development of his practice, Invisible Studio . We speak about the way he works, his approach to design-as-making and making-as-design, the problems of professionalism, and touch on his 2020 doctoral thesis, Developing a Fram...

In the 12th episode of the 2nd season of A is for Architecture , I speak with architect, curator, scholar and teacher, Dr Ruth Lang, about her recent book, Building for Change: The Architecture of Creative Reuse , published by gestalten in August this year. Ruth wears many hats, working for Mae as a writer, editor and researcher, at the Design Museum as Research Lead for the Future Observatory , a...

In episode 11 of A is for Architecture ’s second season, I speak with architect, scholar, teacher and activist, Dr. Jos Boys, about her long term project, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project . Jos was a founding member of the ground-breaking feminist architecture practice, Matrix , a ‘radical, […] women-led platform […] integrating new interdisciplinary and intersectional ways of working across t...

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...

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-...

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 dea...

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...

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,...

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 a...

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 netw...

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...

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...