Ideal Spaces Working Group

In this new episode on the Ideal Spaces Podcast, co-hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack the topic ‘placemaking for communities’. They discuss with architect Sam Olshin FAIA, how architecture can be used to support and bridge the gap between different cultures, help people find joy in the everyday and feel safe and well-integrated in the places they live. Clearly, in architecture, there is no cookie cutt...

Have we become too attuned to accepting throwaway, meaningless places and spaces that don’t really meet our needs? And have we been programmed to believe that a neat place is a good place, a tidy place is a healthy place, and a pristine clean surface is a sign of a well-designed building? Podcast hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack these complex questions with the help of Ian Boyd, an ecologist based on...

In this new episode – the first of our 2023 series – Flora interviews Andreas Hofer, the Artistic Director of the International Building Exhibition or IBA’27, a company based in Stuttgart, Germany that provides advice, project support and networking opportunities to those interested in transforming cities and open spaces of the 21st century. Drawing on his rich experience in cooperative and new fo...

In the fight against heat, drought, forest fires and heavy rain, every little green counts. In this brand-new podcast interview, Flora and Ulrich talk to German landscape architect and author Tim Kaysers about his vision of a world that is made up of green cities: human and climate-friendly spaces filled with plants and trees, and free from cars and concrete. With the irreversible effects of clima...

Flora and Ulrich talk to the acclaimed artist and master sculptor Romolo Del Deo about making art that stands the test of time. Taking a stand against the fast, momentary and disposable ‘now’ culture of the present, Romolo instead focuses on creating enduring, sustainable, ‘long art’ for the 21st century. He tells us how his sculpture is preoccupied with two major aesthetic sources of inspiration;...

Flora Loughridge speaks with Delhi-based architect, urban designer and educator Tapan Chakravarty about building with true community impact. Tapan describes how traditional, vernacular housing in rural India mirrors the characteristics of the local environment, climate and natural materials – and how the lifestyle of villagers and their ways of using domestic spaces have been culturally inherited...

In this brand-new episode, Flora and Ulrich speak to Ed Finn about the complex world of algorithms. Ed tells us about the ever-increasing role that computational systems play in the 21st century. We discuss the threat that our increasingly technology-focused lifestyle poses to imagination and creativity, and what the future might hold in a world where Apple and Google determine, and often dominate...

Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome artist-game designer Chris Solarski onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast in this brand-new episode on Experiencing Space. We explore how Chris’s sensory design approach  Interactive Empathy and Embodiment  ( IEE ) to interactive media heightens the player-audience’s physical experience of gameplay, making them feel totally immersed in the virtual gaming environ...

In this episode, Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome Manchester-based architect Jateen Lad onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast to explore how good, thoughtful design and ethical practice can be a force for social change. Jateen tells us how he set up his practice in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami – his experience helping those impacted by the disaster resulted in a dramatic caree...

In this episode, Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome San Francisco architect John Marx onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast to explore the importance of emotional meaning in architecture. We discuss the role that architects play in bringing poetry and beauty to our daily interactions with buildings and urban spaces – in giving form to ideas and emotions, rather than falling into the trap of desig...

In this episode, co-founder of Deep Blue Institute and expert in green, clean and smart cities Greg Delaune joins us on the Ideal Spaces Podcast to speak to us about the multi-scale regenerative marine infrastructure projects that Deep Blue Institute is leading in the Bayou region, Louisiana. Greg explains why the transition to a “blue economy” is so critical: he outlines the benefits of a more su...

In this episode, documentary and architecture photographer Filippo Romano joins podcast host Flora Loughridge to share his experiences capturing the devastating earthquake in Haiti for a photoreportage commissioned in 2010. He speaks of his ongoing interest in the relationship between architecture and communities, and the importance of trust when capturing the spirit and stories of people living i...

Podcast co-hosts Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann speak to Dr. Khalid Kadir, a Continuing Lecturer at UC Berkeley and recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s most prestigious honor for teaching. In this episode, we discuss the intersection of poverty, engineering expertise and politics, as well as the complex role that expertise plays in the politics of international d...

In Episode 3, the Ideal Spaces team is joined by Stan Allen, an architect and Professor of Architecture at Princeton. Stan holds degrees from Brown University, The Cooper Union and Princeton.  In 1991 he established an independent practice, and since that time, has pursued parallel careers as architect, educator and writer. He has taught at Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, and served as Dean of th...

Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann are joined by Andy Jones, Professor in Public Health at UEA’s Norwich Medical School. Andy’s primary research focus is on the environmental influences on population health. His core work explores the manner by which characteristics of the social and physical environments act to influence the health of the population.  This interview focuses on Andy’s recently pu...

In Episode 2 of the Ideal Spaces podcast, we are joined by Professor Kean Birch, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change as well as Graduate Program Director of the Science & Technology Studies Program at York University, Canada. Kean’s research focuses on the emergence of a specifically technoscientific capitalism, entailing the increasing entanglement of technosc...

Welcome to Episode 1 of the Ideal Spaces podcast. Flora Loughridge is joined by the founder of Ideal Spaces Working Group, Ulrich Gehmann, and Michael Johannson, who leads New Developments and Digital Design at Ideal Spaces to explore the question ‘What is Space?’. This episode is the first in a series of 10 ‘vignettes’, in which the Ideal Spaces team discusses the driving forces behind society as...