A is for Architecture

On Episode 132 of A is for Architecture I spoke with architect and architectural historian John Stewart, to discuss the intersections of art, architecture and society through his recent book, British Architectural Sculpture: 1851–1951, published by Lund Humphries earlier this year.   British Architectural Sculpture: 1851-1951 explores a century of architectural sculpture in the UK, highlighting its role in shaping the visual and cultural identity of British architecture, and providing insights into the aesthetic and functional dialogue between sculpture and architecture. It examines key figures, styles, and the integration of sculptural art into public and private buildings during this transformative era. The book focuses on the collaboration between architects and sculptors, emphasizing how these partnerships influenced architectural innovation and inflected design styles, from the Gothic Revival, Art Deco and interwar and postwar modernism. The book describes how sculptures enriched facades, interiors, and urban spaces, whilst examining the broader social, economic, and artistic contexts that framed the evolution of this unique art form. A lush book, and a podcast episode to match.  John can be found on his personal website and on LinkedIn. The book is linked above. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

For Episode 131 of A is for Architecture I was joined by Professor Sue Brownill, an expert in urban planning and the development of London Docklands to discuss her advocacy, research and writing. As the author of Developing London’s Docklands: Another Great Planning Disaster? (1990, SAGE Publications), Sue delves into the complex history of the Docklands' transformation and the socio-economic consequences of one of the UK’s most ambitious urban regeneration projects. Professor Brownill provides insightful analysis on the political and economic factors that shaped the area, challenges faced during the regeneration process, and the long-term impact on local communities. She describes how the Docklands evolved from a derelict industrial site into a global financial hub, the triumphs - and failures - of urban regeneration, the role of planning in shaping cities, and the legacy of the London Docklands Development Corporation. Did the LDDC’s rhetoric survive reality? And were the promises made in Docklands’ planning ever met?  A great episode with a fantastic scholar.  Listen and learn, no doubt. Sue can be found on the OB website above, and is on LinkedIn too. Her book is linked above. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

On Episode 130 of A is for Architecture, Tom Morton, architect and principal of Arc Architects, an architecture practice based in Fife, Scotland, discusses his and Becky Little’s innovative Earthbound Orkney project, a creative practice which seeks to redefine our connection to the natural world through art, design and community engagement in Orkney. In this episode, Tom shares his vision for Earthbound Orkney, which aims to highlight the rich cultural heritage and stunning landscapes of the Orkney Islands, and describes how his and Becky’s work can serve as a catalyst for environmental awareness and community connection. Whether you're an architecture or art enthusiast, a nature lover, or simply curious about innovative projects that make a difference, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to explore how Earthbound Orkney is cultivating a deeper appreciation for our planet and the stories that shape it. Tom is on Instagram, as is Becky. Earthbound Orkney features in the forthcoming exhibition, A Fragile Correspondence, taking place at V&A Dundee from 21 Nov 2024, Scotland’s submission for the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠On Episode 129 of A is for Architecture, Dr Beth Weinstein, Associate Professor of Architecture and at the University of Arizona, discusses her recent book, Architecture and Choreography: Collaborations in Dance, Space and Time, published by Routledge in March 2024. As Beth says, recounting her awareness of this subject, ‘I think that that encounter as a 20 something year old was the first moment when it became real for me to be able to imagine that one can bring architecture and choreography into really close proximity and have a very fertile exchange of knowledge, exchange of practice; to see how ideas from architecture can then become ideas that manifest in the way bodies move, occupy, interact in space, and to learn as an architect from this live unfolding event, and to begin to see space support event live. Like not “Here I am drawing on my drawing board and fantasizing about people, what people are going to do in my building five years from now, when it eventually gets built.” But I'm seeing this one-to-one prototype, if you will, and seeing how they are pushing the boundaries of what a body can do and be, in relationship to a space.’ Eloquently put. Beth is on LinkedIn too. The book is linked above. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In Episode 128 of the A is for Architecture podcast, architect, journalist and scholar Austin Williams discusses his work and practice, and his ongoing Future Cities Project, specifically the Five Critical Essays series.  Austin says ‘the idea behind [The Future Cities Project/ Five Critical Essays] was just to say that [architectural] debates are fairly stagnant, or unidirectional, or one track’. The project has tried, in the face of this, ‘to kind of open up some debates, have, like, live debates, face to face, panel discussions, writings, journalism, or what have you, just to kind of ask some questions effectively.’ It’s a good intention indeed. Austin is also course leader/senior lecturer, PG Dip Professional Practice in Architecture at Kingston School of Art and an honorary research fellow at XJTLU University in China. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Dr Tanzil Shafique discusses his forthcoming book, City of Desire: An Urban Biography of the Largest Slum in Bangladesh, on Episode 127 of A is for Architecture.  Published by Bloomsbury, and out in November, City of Desire describes ‘Karail, the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh [and] the production of informal urbanism through a brand-new approach rooted in deep ethnography and spatial mapping.’ There’s also, in a way a deep reading of a place as something more than just stuff. As Tanzil suggests, ‘following Latour's elegant actor network theory, there has been a lot of talk about how materials matter, but I want to take it up a notch and talk about [matter] at a settlement scale, and how, even within a city, how it [matter/ Korail] actively, you know, is an is an agent by itself.’ Now there’s an idea. Tanzil is Lecturer of Urban Design and Director of the Postgraduate Programmes at The University of Sheffield School of Architecture. He is there, on X and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In Episode 126 of A is for Architecture, Gabriel Esquivel, director of the T4T Lab, speaks about Design Technology and Digital Production: An Architecture Anthology, which he edited, and was published by Routledge in 2023. The book ‘engages and deploys a variety of discourses, topics, criteria, pedagogies, and technologies, including some of today’s most influential architects, practitioners, academics, and critics’ to present the story of ‘architecture’s disciplinary concerns in the last decade’, illustrating ‘the shift to an architectural world where we can learn with and from each other, develop a community of new technologies and embrace a design ecology that is inclusive, open, and visionary.’  That’s the blurb’s thing, anyway. Have a big wee listen and find out. Gabriel can be found on Instagram, LinkedIn, and via very many online resources, not least his T4T lab website. The book is linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Episode 125 of A is for Architecture is a conversation with historian Dr Jessica Kelly, Reader in Design and Architectural History at London Metropolitan University. We discuss her 2022 book, No More Giants: J.M. Richards, Modernism and The Architectural Review, published by Manchester University Press. It’s an interesting story, one that mirrors the development of the profession, and perhaps even produces it to some extent. As Jess says, ’I think Richards, although he would completely align himself, and he writes about being a modernist and seeing that as the future of architecture, he is also quite invested in the figure of the architect and the expertise of the architectural profession as a cultural elite, as a sort of guiding figure within society. And he wants to promote that the magazine is invested in promoting the profession, because as much as the Architectural Review is, as it's been described, a mouthpiece for modernism, and really does feature modernism a lot, it features a lot of other stuff as well. [there is] very much a plurality of conversations happening in [it]. […] I think for Richard and his circle and network of people, there is an overlap between [ideology and business and] the idea of whether someone's a consumer or a citizen blurs together in quite an interesting way. And for Richards and his contemporaries, their main objective is to get a public audience for what they understand to be the future of architecture.’ Jessica can be found on the London Met website, and the book is linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠On Episode 124 of A is for Architecture Graham Haughton and Iain White tell me about their excellent book, Why Plan? Theory for Practitioners, published by Lund Humphries in 2019. On the reason for theory for planning, Graham suggests: ‘ to a certain extent, theories sometimes can make reality. […] you could argue that some of Patsy Healy's work around collaborative and communicative planning, of new ways of trying to engage with communities in the planning process, by bringing them, giving them the knowledge to be able to debate with planners on an equal footing, really important in remaking planning. […] So at one level, in a way, we inadvertently, I think, have helped change practice by highlighting what was happening, trying to understanding it, not just as a separate theory, but through different theoretical lenses, using neoliberalism, using postpolitics and other kind of theoretical insights, to understand what this phenomenon that we were observing was.’  Iain is Professor of Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Graham is Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Manchester, UK Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Episode 123 of A is for Architecture is a discussion with Henrik Schoenefeldt, Professor of Sustainable Architecture at the School of Architecture, Design & Planning, University of Kent, about his research into the work and influence of the Scottish physician David Boswell Reid on the environmental design underpinning Barry and Pugin’s Palace of Westminster, London, UK. Initially an AHRC-funded scheme entitled ‘Between Heritage and Sustainability – Restoring the Palace of Westminster’s nineteenth-century ventilation system,’ and part of the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme, Henrik published Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament: David Boswell Reid and Disruptive Environmentalism with Routledge in 2020. On the significance of Boswell Reid’s work at Westminster, Henrik says ’I think what is radical about this idea was, is to integrate different ideas into one holistic strategy [and] integrated ways of climatic controlling the environment as one holistic design, and [then] applied to a building of such enormous scale and complexity. […] But the interesting thing is that […] when the building was completed, you would see it become a common practice for building to have extensive ventilation systems. So even in the buildings built in Whitehall, new public museums built in South Kensington, the Royal Albert Hall -all of those starting to incorporate these ideas, although they were not necessarily direct descendants of Reid's specific solutions in the Palace of Westminster, but they reflect a general shift towards more technologically complex buildings.’ All good? Yes, De La Soul, it is. And all curious, too. Henrik can be found on the University of Kent website, the book is linked above and the AHRC project is here. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In this episode of A is for Architecture, Dell Upton, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, UC Berkeley and Professor and Chair of Art History at UCLA, speaks about his book, American Architecture: A Thematic History, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. To the question, What is American architecture? Dell suggests ‘That is a very long and vexed question, not only with American architecture, but in American culture. And it really starts from at the time of the American Revolution. How are we different from Europe? But how are we also connected to the best aspects of Europe, so can we be refined in a European sense, but also distinctively American? […] Louis Sullivan […] influenced by the poet Walt Whitman, begins to talk about [American] architecture in a kind of rhapsodic way, as somehow tied to the character of democracy, the character of the land, to the … well, he would say spiritual.’  But is it though? Listen to every word of Dell’s to see. Dell has a Wikipedia page because he’s proper. You can also find him linked above, along with the book. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

The title of this year’s Design History Society Annual Conference is Border Control: Excursion, Incursion and Exclusion and for this episode of A is for Architecture, three of the conference’s convenors, Dr Jessica Kelly, Professor Victoria Kelley and Professor Cat Rossi, took a bit of time to talk about it with me.  The conference blurb states: ‘Whether geopolitical, human and non-human, or digital and physical, the solidification and liquification of borders raises questions around design's role in creating, undoing and negotiating divides.’  I don’t know very much, but I know what I like. And I very like the sound of this. The conference website is linked above. Jessica can be found at her London Met profile here, and Cat and Victoria can be found at UCA here and  here. The Design History Society can be found here. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Professor Nigel Cross is the podcasts' 120th guest, Emeritus Professor of Design Studies at the Open University, design researcher who played a pivotal role in establishing design as an academic discipline, Editor in Chief of the journal Design Studies between 1984-2017, developing the concept of design thinking along the way. We speak about the second edition of his book, Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work, published with Bloomsbury in 2023. On design, Nigel says: ‘the key thing for me is to see it as a […] form of skilled behaviour, not as a talent or a gift, you know, something which you just magically have or you don't have. It's a form of skill. It's a set of cognitive and practical procedures that designers do in the process of designing. So that, I think is the most important thing for me to come out of what I've been researching - is to see it as a skill. And if it's a skill, then it can be enhanced, it can be trained, it can be educated.’ This is a refreshing and for some I suspect, rather challenging suggestion. If it can be trained, perhaps we might ask, why isn’t it more?  Nigel is so big he has a Wikipedia page. I mentioned Nigel’s paper Design thinking: What just happened? published in Design Studies 86 (2023), and his earlier book, Design Participation (1972), which was the Proceedings of the Design Research Society International Conference, 1971: Design Participation. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Cultural historian Dr Robyne Calvert discusses her recent book, The Mack: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art in the 119th episode of A is for Architecture. Published by Yale University Press, the book is a detailed study of The Mackintosh Building, one of the great icons of modern architecture, and its reconstruction, engaging with a whole host of significant - and sometimes paradoxical - issues for design practice: conservation, reconstruction, authenticity, pastiche, social value. These are strange discussions, perhaps. As Robyne puts it: ‘my perspective of buildings is that there's this sense for some folk that they're these, […] fixed monuments. We think of buildings as these iconic things that don't change, and they're, they're symbols of, […] our cities and all of that kind of stuff, but actually, that's completely wrong. Buildings change almost more than anything. They change through our use. They change through our interaction. We damage them. We change, we alter them. We do all kinds of stuff. And they're meant to change. They're not fixed monuments at all. [...] no one would blink an eye at duplicating […] Macintosh chairs […] but you make a copy of a building, and it's like, what are you doing?’ A great book, the best subject, and a fantastic writer and speaker. Therefore, a top episode. Robyne was Mackintosh Research Fellow at Glasgow School of Art from 2015 to 2021. She can be found on X, LinkedIn and on her website. The Mack is linked above. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠In Episode 117 of A is for Architecture’s landscape architect Richard J Weller, discusses his beautiful book, To the Ends of the Earth: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century, published by Birkhauser this year.  The book develops the historical practice of the Grand Tour – ‘an intellectual, cultural undertaking that was sort of a finishing school and an education for the aristocracy’ where, by travelling to the great sites of Antiquity, they would ‘buy art and take ideas and influences back home with them to England and model their gardens and their villas and their follies and their salons on the things that they had purchased and been influenced by’. Richard’s selection of 120 places ‘are emblematic of the contemporary global, planetary cultural conditions, [with text and drawings that delivers a ‘clear-eyed account of what these places are as a form of empirical evidence as to what we as a species have become in the Anthropocene.’ It's a fascinating book that touches on issues of aestheticization, the touristic gaze, virtuality and, possibly, a revived moral wanderlust. Richard is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design and Co-Founder, The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

A is for Architecture’s 116th episode features the architect, writer, public speaker, TED-talker and all round polymath, Michael Pawlyn, discussing Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, which he co-wrote with urbanist, curator and writer, Sarah Ichioka and published with Triarchy Press in 2021. It’s a challenge, what Michael articulates: ‘What we suggest is that we - all of us - need to get better at distinguishing the maladapted frames and stories and metaphors, and articulate new, more regenerative ones. And I just want to caveat that ‘new’ in many cases, are newly appreciated worldviews, or mindsets, because many of these are examples of indigenous thinking that have endured for many 1000s of years, but were overlooked during the Industrial Age. And sometimes this is really quite uncomfortable, realizing that our existing worldviews are pretty seriously flawed.’  But it’s also an invitation, so have a listen and find out what. You can find Michael at his practice, Exploration and on Instagram. You can find the book at flourish-book.com, linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠Episode 115 of A is for Architecture is a conversation with Sofia Singler, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow and College Lecturer in Architecture at St John’s College, Cambridge. We discuss parts of her book, The Religious Architecture of Alvar, Aino and Elissa Aalto, which she published with Lund Humphries in 2023. Sofia says “my sense is that [Alvar Aalto] really valued religion and not just Lutheranism, and Finland, […] and specifically Christianity, as part of an unchanging European cultural tradition. And the attraction, the appeal, the value, the beauty of religion, and Christianity, in particular for him was that the message was always the same. And I suppose for that reason, the idea of renewing things and shaking things up and coming up with a new liturgy and a new building type felt a bit too radical for him, which is really interesting, given that, of course, he was quite radical himself as a designer. […] when it comes to religious projects, I think there was a degree of perhaps nervousness […] Out of a fear that perhaps these changes were too much and that they risked losing some of the cultural value of religion’. You can find Sofia on the Cambridge University website here, and the book is linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠In Episode 114 of A is for Architecture Jane Rendell, Professor in Critical Spatial Practice at The Bartlett, UCL, discusses some aspects of her recently republished book, The Architecture of Psychoanalysis: Spaces of Transition, which came out with Bloomsbury in the spring. Jane says ‘I think what I'm more interested in is how architecture can allow us to think psychoanalysis differently, as well as allow us to look for things in psychoanalytic theory. For example, the spatial drawings of different psychic concepts like conscious, pre-conscious, unconscious or ego, Id, super ego. Freud uses these incredible drawings of these phenomena. So there are all sorts of spatial diagrams that by thinking architecturally one looks at in a different way […]. Architecture helps you think about psychoanalytic drawings, about spatial metaphors. […] But I think also, what becomes interesting is how one can start to think about the […] most architectural part of psychoanalysis [which] is probably the setting, the physical place in which that psychoanalytic relationship takes place.’ You can find Jane at her website here, and on the UCL website here. She is multi-located across the internet through her various activities.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠Episode 113 of A is for Architecture’s is a conversation with Cécile Brisac, founder of Atelier Brisac, a practice based in London and Paris, with a body of work produced since Atelier Brisac's founding in 2019, and previously with Brisac Gonzalez, and that includes the Museum of World Cultures, Gothenburg, Pajol Sports Centre, Paris, the Performing Arts Center, Aurillac, France and more recently housing at Lot 04A in Batignolles, Paris and Allée du Parc, Massy, France. Describing her practice’s work, Cécile says ‘we're doing buildings that are uplifting, that have a certain amount of clarity, that are, you know, welcoming, and based around the users [and] designed with a sense of care. […]  in parallel to that is working at the scale of the city […] If you think of the word elegance in the engineering field […] the definition is something like ‘finding a solution to a range of problems that may not be connected to begin with’. […] that's what we're doing in a way.’ An elegant expression of complex things. You can find Atelier Brisac on Instagram, and at atelierbrisac.com.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

⁠A is for Architecture’s 112th episode is with the British architect, Tony Fretton. Previously founder and principal of Tony Fretton Architects, and more recently acting as a design consultant, and previously Chair of Architecture and Interiors at TU Delft, Tony’s work includes Westkaai, Residential Towers, Antwerp, The British Embassy, Warsaw, Art Museum, Fuglsang, Denmark, and the The Red House and the Camden Arts Centre, London. Speaking of his work on galleries, Tony says:  ‘I think it's much more subtle and much more interesting to make buildings which sometimes are impressive and visible, and sometimes […] very low visibility. That's much more interesting, much more intellectually satisfying. And how can you make somebody feel comfortable, without [them] even seeing you do it? That's the measure of a good host, a good person, that you let people see the work. […] In Furslang we made a series of rooms which are different in character: one is for temporary exhibitions, and the other for small scale works in gold frames, and then there was section on Danish Impressionism. But each of them shares a vocabulary but it's treated in slightly different ways so that as you go through the room, you see the art but in the periphery of your vision the room stimulates you’. Sums it up rather neatly. You can find Tony on Instagram, on at tonyfretton.com, too.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick