A is for Architecture

⁠For this episode of A is for Architecture I spoke with Dr Franca Trubiano, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania about her book, Building Theories: Architecture as the Art of Building, published by Routledge in 2022. Building Theories presents an historical evolution of architectural theory, tracing how ideas about building have been shaped by cultural, technological, and material advancements. It highlights the interplay between theory and practice, emphasizing that construction is not merely a technical endeavour but a critical component of architectural expression. Franca underscores the importance of materials and their performative qualities, examining how they inform design and enrich architectural meaning. Franca can be found on her personal website, on the UPenn website, on Instagram and LinkedIn. The book is linked above. + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

For the first episode of A is for Architecture’s 2025 offer, I was very lucky to be joined by the great architect, writer, theorist and educator, Bernard Tschumi. We discuss, among other things, his most recent book, Event-Cities 5: Poetics (MIT Press 2024). Globally celebrated for his innovative contributions to contemporary architecture and urbanism, Professor Tschumi has gained international acclaim through both his theoretical works, like The Manhattan Transcripts (1976-1981) and Architecture and Disjunction (1994), as well as iconic projects like the Parc de la Villette in Paris (1982-1998). Tschumi’s designs challenge traditional notions of form and function, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between space, movement, and event. A former Dean of the GSAPP at Columbia University, he has authored several influential books, including the Event-Cities series (1994-2024), cementing his status as a leading voice in architectural thought. This was a really special recording for me, and a bit of a dream really. Bernard Tschumi! Unreal. Tschumi Architects can be found here are on Instagram here. The book is linked above. + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

For Episode 136 of A is for Architecture, I was joined by Guillaume Couche, the co-founder with Richard Shackleton of Oh Hi Tomorrow—a cutting-edge design practice redefining interface and interaction design - and the co-author of the recent book, Interface Design: Creating Interactions that Drive Successful Product Adoption (BIS Publications 2024), which he wrote with Richard Shackleton, co-founder and director of Oh Hi Tomorrow. We explore the art and science of designing intuitive interfaces, the principles behind building products people use, want and, well… love, and how Guillaume and Richard’s unique approach is paving the way for better, more impactful digital experiences. We turn to architecture too, and what that practice might learn from interface design approaches. If you want to elevate your design game, listen. Buy the book too. Guillaume, who also directs Wolf in Motion, can be found on LinkedIn and Instagram. The book is linked above. + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In Episode 135 of A is for Architecture, Assistant Professor in Architectural History and Theory in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, Dr Fiona Smyth, discusses her book, Pistols in St Paul's: Science, music, and architecture in the twentieth century (Manchester University Press, 2024) ‘a ground-breaking account of the scientists and architects who pioneered acoustics in twentieth-century Britain’. As the publisher’s blurb elegantly puts it, ‘On a winter's night in 1951, shortly after Evensong, the interior of St Paul's Cathedral echoed with gunfire. This was no act of violence but a scientific demonstration of new techniques in acoustic measurement. It aimed to address a surprising question: could a building be a musical instrument? […] the scientists, architects and musicians who set out to answer this question […] would come to define the field of 'architectural acoustics'. Fiona can be found on the Cambridge University website, and on her research website too. The book is linked above + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In A is for Architecture’s 134th episode, the writer, publisher, former editor of Country Life and visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, Clive Aslet, discusses his book, Sir Edwin Lutyens: Britain's Greatest Architect? (Triglyph Books 2024) which describes the life, work and enduring importance of Edwin Lutyens, including the impact of Gertude Jekyll on his design imagination and Lutyens’ pivotal role in both illustrating the British imperial project, and memorializing it’s fallen. Lutyens (1869–1944) was a renowned British architect celebrated for his enormous body of work which straddled the Victorian and early modern period, and incorporated country houses, war memorials, and monumental projects like New Delhi's Rashtrapati Bhavan, Castle Drogo in Devon, the Cenotaph in London and the Midland Bank in Manchester. Known for good nature, and his prodigious work rate, there is a case to be made – and Clive makes it well – for Edwin Lutyens to claim the crown of Britain’s greatest architect. Lutyens' work exemplifies timeless elegance and architectural ingenuity. Beyond the binary of modern or not, ethical or not, Lutyens work stands alone, more than an emblem of its time. Have a listen and find out why. Clive can be found on his personal website and on Instagram. The book is linked above. + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

In Episode 133 of A is for Architecture, I speak with architect, academic, and writer Lorens Holm. We explore the fascinating intersection of architecture, psychoanalysis, and the public realm, themes Lorens addresses in his book, Reading Architecture with Freud and Lacan: Shadowing the Public Realm, (Routledge 2023) where Holm examines how Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory can illuminate the way we design, inhabit, and interpret spaces. Reading Architecture with Freud and Lacan presents an argument for how architecture shapes—and is shaped by—our unconscious desires, cultural narratives, and societal structures. Lorens also sheds light on the public realm and how the unconscious both informs it but is in particular ways also part of it. From this, we discuss what it means to read architecture not just as physical space but as a layered text of human experience. Lorens can be found on his University of Dundee website, on LinkedIn and even Instagram. The book is linked above, and you can also find his 2010 book Brunelleschi, Lacan, Le Corbusier: Architecture, Space and the Construction of Subjectivity on the Routledge website. Are you an architect? A psychoanalytic thinker? Or just curious about the deeper meanings of the spaces we live in? This one’s for you. + Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

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