About Buildings + Cities

SMLXL (1995) was the brainchild of Rem Koolhaas, principal of OMA, rhetorically and stylistically a rejection of the norms of architectural monographs, this 1400 page silver brick was one of the most iconic art books of the 1990s. It is a strange piece of architectural publishing, and very 90s, a mixture of post-modern literary sensibilities, greasy full bleed photography and polemic against Koolh...

In our last episode of 2024 we thought we would do something a little bit different, and talk about where we think architectural culture is at right now, an archaeology of the present, a dissection of the Now. We took some suggestions and requests from our Patrons, and followed them from recent discoveries at the National Gallery to Kengo Kuma and the Las Vegas Sphere. Some of the stories we talke...

In this episode we discussed The Study of Architectural Design (1926) by John F. Harbeson, a remarkable guide to the Beaux-Arts method of architectural education, with its many idiosyncratic terms of art and the astonishing drawings produced as part of its relentless programme of competition exercises. Do you know your Parti from your Poché? Do you know your way around a Class A? Does Mosaic leave...

In the final episode of our series on Sir John Soane we discussed his house and museum on Lincoln's Inn Fields in the centre of London, where the museum kindly allowed us to record this episode. We also talked about Pitzhanger, his country house in Ealing, and the development of his unique collecting practice. To follow along with the images we discussed and see clips from our visit, check out thi...

This is a cilp from our latest Patreon bonus episode, a discussion of Soane's contemporary reputation, particularly satirical and critical writing in the periodical press, not least by his estranged son George! You can listen to this episode in full on our Patreon feed: https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for...

In the sixth part of our series on John Soane, we discussed some major monumental buildings in and around London. We began with Dulwich Picture Gallery, perhaps the first purpose-built public art gallery in the world. Then we discussed his church buildings in Marylebone, Southwark and Bethnal Green respectively. Watch on YouTube to see the images as we discuss them: https://youtu.be/8IFQjALMaW8 Ed...

In the fifth part of our series on John Soane, we discussed his designs for speculative housing developments in central London, another building in the middle of the city for the Bank of England's National Debt Redemption Office, and his various hypothetical schemes for transforming the city with a thick encrustation of Corinthian columns. We also discussed his work for the Royal Hospital Chelsea,...

In this fourth episode of our miniseries on John Soane, we discussed his projects conducted over many years in and around Westminster. This is a tale of confusing canceled schemes, designs by committee, thwarted architectural vision and some of the most electrifying lost interiors of 19th-century London. As always, you get get a better sense of the images we discuss by having a look at this episod...

In the third episode of our ongoing series on John Soane, we discussed his magnum opus, and one of the most entrancing lost buildings ever: The Bank of England. This vast administrative complex signalled the transformation of London into the capital of a modern imperial state, but by the 1930s, after just a century of its existence, the bank had outgrown Soane's intricate and weighty toplit classi...

In episode 2 of our series on John Soane, we discussed the projects he worked on after returning from his Grand Tour of Italy, but before he got his career-defining job as surveyor to the Bank of England. These include several built and unbuilt schemes for country houses, a proposal for a pair of enormous prisons in strict geometrical manner, and several rural outbuildings in a rustic classicism t...

We're back!! In this first episode of our new series on John Soane (1753–1837) we discuss his origins: the child prodigy draughtsman, son of a bricklayer, apprentice of George Dance, winner of a studentship at the Royal Academy, and later with his Design for a Triumphal Bridge, winner of the Royal Academy and a travelling scholarship to Italy, enabling him to join the aristocratic young men of Bri...

The final part of our series on 'Delirious New York'! We discussed the culture clash between European high modernism and Manhattanism. We also discussed the Appendix at the end of the book, a set of speculative, wry, ironic and beautiful visions of where next for the retroactive manifesto, featuring the work of Madelon Vriesendorp, Zoe Zenghelis, Elia Zenghelis and Richard Perlmutter. Hope you enj...

In our second episode on Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York, we covered his discussion of three heroic skyscrapers of Manhattanism's golden age: The Empire State Building, The New York Athletic Club and The Rockefeller Centre. We also tried to further explain Koolhaas's unique way of thinking about history, and the particular emphases of his project. For images, follow along on YouTube : https://yo...

In this episode, the first of a 3-parter, we began our discussion of 'Delirious New York' (1978) by Rem Koolhaas, a 'retroactive manifesto' for Manhattan. In this first part we discussed Rem's reputation, his style and his vision of the historical origins of the skyscraper and its formal qualities, a key part of the book's thesis. This takes us from the tabloid sensibilities of the Coney Island fu...

This is an unlocked Patreon bonus episode from last year. To get access to all our bonus content and support the show, please subscribe for just £3 a month: https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings In this bonus episode we discussed Neom, the sci-fi project of the Saudi Arabian government to totally reshape the north-west of the country, including a 170km linear city in the desert. We talked a litt...

In this one-off summer episode we discussed 'How Buildings Learn' (1994) by Stewart Brand. The book is concerned with the whole lifespan of buildings, and "What Happens After They're Built?" This is a valuable and necessary agenda in architecture, however Brand's methodology is sometimes a little slapdash, often to comical effect. Come for the timeless wisdom of the Duchess of Devonshire...

In the final episode of our Antoni Gaudí series, we discussed his magnum opus, one of the most famous buildings in the world: La Sagrada Familia. However, as is always the case, not everything is as it seems. We discuss the complex origins of this remarkable building, Gaudí's work on it over decades, the tragic circumstances of his death, and the life of the building after his death. In the next c...

In this episode of our ongoing series on Antoni Gaudí we discussed the unsolved mystery of the Colonia Güell Church. Perhaps the most enigmatic of Gaudí's projects, and the apotheosis of his method and principles, wholly unrestrained. Only the crypt of this vast proposed church was actually built, in a language of burnt bricks, reclaimed stones and baffling geometries. All that survives to us of h...

In this penultimate episode of our series on Antoni Gaudí, we dicussed projects he developed in his later career for Eusebi Güell. We talked about the Bodegas Güell, a complex of wineries and agricultural buildings in the countryside to the south of Barcelona. This project takes cyclopean masonry, a vast A-frame, gravity-defying stone pillars to create a building that calls back and forwards in ti...

In the fourth episode of our series on Antoni Gaudí, we discussed two of his large projects in Barcelona. Casa Calvet was built 1898–1900, in many ways a conventional Spanish townhouse with references to the family's textile business into the scheme, and the rear facade with its bay windows and balconies has much of the horizontal boldness of early 20th-century proto-modernism. Casa Battló was bui...

In our third episode on Antoni Gaudí we discussed some of his work that draws on traditions of Gothic, catholic and medieval architecture. Specifically we discussed his Teresian College of Barcelona, a female residential educational institution built in the rural Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, absorbed into Barcelona in the 20th century. We also discussed the bizarre Episcopal Palace at Astorga, one of...

In the second episode of our series on Gaudí we discussed the remarkable Güell Palace, Barcelona, a work of total design with an unlimited budget built 1886–8. We talked about the mixture of cosmopolitan historical references, ornate detailing, and sophisticated urban party house that make up this unique work. We discussed the patron, Eusebi Güell, an industrialist and aristocrat with a reputation...

In the first episode of our new series on Antoni Gaudí, we attempt to place him in the history of 19th-century Spain: a time of civil war, booming industry, declining empire and rapid urbanisation. We talked about the complex politics of the time, and movements for devolution and regional autonomy in his native Catalonia. We also discussed the myth of Gaudí, his status as one of the most famous ar...

In this episode we discussed 'Ubik' (1969) by Philip K. Dick, a piece of iconic science-fiction set in a world of psychic corporate espionage and dead relatives suspended in perpetual "halflife". Throughout the novel Gnostic and Platonic philosophy exude through perpetually inventive interpretations of advertising culture, psychotic mental states and satire of domestic mod cons. We talked about Di...

In this episode we discussed the idea of 'The Primitive Hut' in 18th and 19th century architectural theory. A vision of the first building was used by texts dating back to Vitruvius to imagine architecture's origins. We started with Marc-Antoine Laugier, author of Essai sur l'architecture (1753), which used the image of the Primitive Hut to call for a return to austere and structurally declarative...