What Buildings Do:An architecture podcast.

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Ben Channon about mental health in architecture in education, practice and the wider construction industry. The conversation also engages with wider design principles for "healthy buildings" and post-occupancy evaluation. About Ben Channon: Ben Channon is an architect, author, TEDx speaker and mental wellbeing advocate, and is well known in the industry as a...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Eoin Ó Broin about architecture, planning, participation and the public value of architecture. And a little about housing too. About: Eoin Ó Broin: Eoin Ó Broin is a Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid West and the party’s spokesperson for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. He has been a Sinn Féin activist for 22 years in Belfast and Dublin, was elected to Belf...

In this episode, recorded on zoom from Dublin, Kerry, Berlin and Limerick, Emmett Scanlon speaks to Noreille Breen , Tom O Brien , Jennifer O Donnell and Andrew O Murchu . The conversation begins with the notion of architects being asked or expected to "take a position", with each architect in turn outlining how they begin a project but also their reaction to that notion of position-taking means i...

This is the fourth and final episode of the End of Year Show. The End of Year Show is a look back on some of the things that happened and were discussed in architecture and built environment in 2020. Previous episodes covered housing, towns and culture and this episode focuses on the city. Emmett Scanlon is joined by Philip Lawton, urban geographer and researched at Trinity College Dublin. The top...

This is a special edition of the podcast commissioned by the National Gallery of Ireland on the occasion of their Mondrian exhibition. In the podcast host Emmett Scanlon recalls his first encounters with Mondrian and then speaks to Professor Michael White from the University of York. Michael has researched, published and curated the work of Piet Mondrian. The podcast focuses on the role of the stu...

It is the End Of the Year Show 2020, Part 3, a look back at some key moments in architecture and design and the world in which they operate in Ireland in 2020. In this third episode Emmett talks to Michael Hayes about architecture culture in 2020. Having to move online had an impact on the way architecture is produced, discussed, taught and experienced. Nevertheless last year saw new forms of comm...

It is the End Of the Year Show 2020, Part 2, a look back at some key moments in architecture and design and the world in which they operate in Ireland in 2020. In the second of four short episodes Emmett Scanlon talks to Miriam Delaney, architect and lecturer at TUD, Dublin. Miriam identifies some key initiatives, programs and events that took place in Ireland in 2020 that related to the town in I...

It is the End Of the Year Show 2020, a look back at some key moments in architecture and design and the world in which they operate in Ireland in 2020. In the first of four short episodes Emmett Scanlon talks to Dr. Lorcan Sirr, Senior Lecturer in Housing at TUD, Dublin. Lorcan identifies some key events that took place in housing in Ireland in 2020,  from the formation of a new Government, t...

This week host Emmett Scanlon talks to Neasa Hourigan . Neasa is the Green Party TD for Dublin Central.  Neasa is Green Party Finance & Health Spokesperson and Chair of Policy Council for the party.. Neasa also studied architecture at TUD Dublin, did a Masters by research in University College Dublin , worked in practice in Dublin, and then went to Queens University in Belfast where she d...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Conor Sreenan. Conor is the Director of Strategy & Design at Grangegorman Development Agency . Conor's work involves being involved with a dizzying array of design and building projects across this part of Dublin. The Grangegorman Development area is a significant part of Dublin - it stretches from the Phoenix park in the West, to Dorset Street in the we...

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon talks to Sheila O Donnell, one of Ireland’s most celebrated architects. With John Tuomey, Sheila has been running their practice O Donnell+Tuomey in Dublin for over 30 years. The practice have designed and built theatres, cinemans, primary schools, university buildings, libraries, student centres, bridges, art galleries - It is impossible to summarise there thei...

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon talk to Sean Finegan, a comedian who is one part of the very successful and very funny comedy trio Foil Arms and Hogg . Now together for 12 years, the men found each other and began working together in the concrete bowels of the Belfield campus in University College Dublin. At the time Sean was studying architecture but on the Richview campus, a twenty minute wa...

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Hari Phillips in London. Hari tells his side of the story about one housing project he and his architecture practice completed in 2018 on the Kipling Estate in London. It is a fascinating story of community initiative, ambition, local authority support and clear commitment and dedication by the architects and all involved to make solid, sustainable housing t...

In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Jeanette Lowe. Jeanette is a photographer based in Dublin. The conversation is about architecture, housing and the people that live in it, specifically Pearse House,  a housing scheme designed by Herbert Simms and built between 1935-40 in Dublin. Jeanette begins by talking about her work as part of RTE Illuminations, in which she photographed what she...

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon , talks to architecture critic Shane O' Toole . 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 (Grafton Architects), John Tuomey and Sheila O Donnell, Mc Cullou...

This is a bonus edition of the podcast What Do Buildings Do All Day ? In this second bonus episode you will hear a text written by host Emmett Scanlon following a visit to the Elbephilarmonie in Hamburg, in June 2018. "What's It All About Elphie?" is read by actor Ste Murray.  Building Me, Building You is the title of this occasional bonus edition of the main long-form podcast. New writings o...

In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Eamonn Hall and Cormac Murray about their new publication COSMOFORM. This is a 'zine on the Met Eireann Building in Glasnevin, Dublin 9 by architect Liam McCormick. During the conversation, we hear some of the history of this building and how the architect was influenced by the work of  Swiss architect, Justus Dahinden. This leads to a conversation on...

This is a bonus edition of the podcast What Do Buildings Do All Day ? In this first bonus episode you will hear a text by Conor Sreenan, read by actor Ste Murray. Building Me, Building You is the title of this occasional bonus edition of the main long-form podcast. New writings on encounters with or stories of living in or with buildings will be read by the authors themselves or by others on their...

Adrian Duncan is an artist and award-winning writer based in Ireland and Berlin. In this podcast, a recorded conversation between Dublin and Berlin, Adrian talks to Emmett Scanlon about bungalows, building sites, books and Berlin. Two excerpts from his debut novel are read by actor Ste Murray . Adrian's debut novel Love Notes from a German Building Site was published by The Lilliput Press and Head...

In this episode, host Emmett Scanlon speaks to Valerie Mulvin and Ruth O Herlihy of McCullough Mulvin Architects based in Dublin, Ireland. The pair, together with Niall Mc Cullough and Corán O’Connor, lead the team for the Thapar University Project , in the Punjab, India. The final project, completed in late 2019, is a series of buildings, and a total of almost 1 million square feet of rooms, arra...

In this concluding episode of a three part podcast introduction on collaboration in architecture, design and space making, host Emmett Scanlon talks to Rosie Lynch, the Creative Director of Callan Workhouse Union . They speak at length about one project, Nimble Spaces - New Cultures of Housing. This is an ongoing housing project being made in Callan for and in collaboration with the Camphill Commu...

Laurence Lord and Jeffrey Bolhuis together run AP+E , (Architecture, Practice and Experimentation), an architecture office based in Ireland and The Netherlands. The office has a strong interest in the social and cultural value of architecture and has gained a reputation for working internationally on a wide range of cultural, educational, residential projects as well as completing innovative urban...

Molly O Cathain is a Swedish-Irish Set and Costume designer based in London and a co-founder of MALAPROP Theatre. In this episode, recorded in lockdown, Molly discusses with host Emmett Scanlon , her new realationship to home emerging in lockdown and through over fifty days of creative collaboration with her parents, recreating works of art and sharing them with audiences around the world online....

Buildings are everywhere and right now we have never been more aware of the built world around us. But what are the stories of our buildings – who designs them, who pays for them, who uses them – why do some buildings survive and other buildings die and why do some buildings become sites of protest or others get attached to our very identities? In this new podcast host Emmett Scanlon is going to b...