A is for Architecture Podcast
Ambrose Gillick 204 episodes Nov 3, 2026
Explore the world of architecture with the A is for Architecture Podcast hosted by Ambrose Gillick. Through conversations with designers, scholars and practitioners, Ambrose unpacks the creative and theoretical dimensions of architecture. Whether you're a professional, student, or design enthusiast, the A is for Architecture Podcast offers the best insights into how buildings shape society and society shapes buildings.
Episodes
Duncan McDuie-Ra: Playing, seeing and sensing in the city.
The latest A is for Architecture Podcast episode is a conversation with Duncan McDuie-Ra, professor and head of school at Monash University, Malaysia campus, about his book, Insurgent Play: Social Worlds of Urban Disruption, published by Anthem Press in July 2025. Skateboarding is the basis for Duncan’s and my discussion, a form of skilled play that is minimally bounded by rules, equipment and beh
Beth Hughes: Education for another architecture.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast Beth Hughes, Head of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, London, spoke with me about, well, all sorts – but mainly how architecture is taught now, what sort of thinkers and doers this produces, and therefore what sort of urbanism and architecture we can expect to get from them. The financial and social barriers built into how archite
Witold Rybczynski: Coming to terms with architecture.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast architectural totem, Canadian American architect, professor and writer Witold Rybczynski, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke with me about his forthcoming book, What Architecture Is, published by Yale University Press on October 27th this year. Rather than the perhaps more expected question – what is architecture? – Wito
Cat Rossi and Charles Holland: Design as method and object.
This episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast features a brace of professors, Cat Rossi and Charles Holland, both of UCA and Charles, Founder director of Charles Holland Architects. We met in the English port town of Dover to discuss Harvest, from the summer to autumn 2025, and Harvest Moon, a round table made from waste harvested within a forty-mile radius of Canterbury, and coproduced since
Antony Wood: Tall buildings and sustainable vertical urbanism.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Professor Antony Wood PhD, Tall Building Expert, Professor of Sustainable Vertical Urbanism at the Illinois Institute of Technology, author, architect and former president and CEO of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, now the Council of Vertical Urbanism, discusses… very tall buildings.The Council of Vertical Urbanism is the body
Mabel O. Wilson: Spaces of liberation.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Mabel O. Wilson - architect, historian, and professor at Columbia University, director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies - speaks about Thinking from Black: A Lexicon, published by FSG Editions this September. Thinking from Black – a product of the Practicing Refusal Collective, a forum of artists and scholars dedicated
JL Williams: Architecture, dreams, metaphor & poetry.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, poet and Creative Projects Manager at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, JL Williams, spoke to me about her recent collection of poetry, Strange Architectures, her fifth book of such with Shearsman Books. In the poems, Jennifer presents visions of architectures dreamed and written, taking us the audience over thresholds and into spaces of her – a
Shumi Bose: Words relating to theory.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to Shumi Bose, about her work as a curator, chief editor of KoozArch, senior lecturer in architecture at Central Saint Martins in London and, I’d suggest, something like an activist-not-activist. Speaking here, Shumi makes a clear case for the role of critical distance as she has found it – and I’d suggest – used it in her various roles
Maximillian Sternberg: Hans Dollgast: Designing in history
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Professor Max Sternberg discuss the Bavarian architect Hans Döllgast, the subject of his latest book, Hans Döllgast: Reconstruction and Modernity, which is being published by Lund Humphries in late September this year. Born in 1891 and surviving all Germany’s many troubles to 1974, Döllgast is known chiefly for his postwar reconstruction work i
Ole Bouman: Bicycles, buildings and an ethic of care.
Architecture’s conscience – as building, buildings, materials and practices – is a bolt-on at best, but more often a semantic, sophistic trick. Architecture as a profession talks ethically but it’s very difficult to see where this manifests in real life. This is an agency problem but also a discipline problem – at a profession-level individualism resists collective action to solve broad social pro
Maria Fusco: Site writing, sensing, place.
As architects, the nature of buildings is as drawings. Even when on site, a building is read in terms of its relationship to the documents off its legal production, preeminent among which – after the contract - are the plan and elevation. As such, the buildings of architects are abstractions. To use Hayles and Gannon, 'design is a mode of practice that represents a reality, but is not the real
Gabriella Bennett: Other possible cities.
What would a failing city look like? Would one be able to tell if, for example, London or New York were a busted flush? What would be the markers? Social discord, unwalkable streets, cultivated inequality and polarization, declining mental and physical health might seem like some measures to test.Perhaps a better question is what would a growing city look like? This, as I read it, is the question
Timothy Soar: Images of architecture.
As George Berkeley almost almost said, if architecture is built in a city but no one takes its picture, does it make a sound? Photography is intrinsic to architecture, so much so that most of us only know buildings through the images made of them. What the photographer does then is to manifest architecture in the general imagination; arguably, it makes buildings architecture, elevating it beyond c
Irénée Scalbert: Earth City Architecture.
After the exhaustion of modernist functionalism and Koolhaasian bigness, architecture should be reconceived within the limits of the earth, as craft, stewardship, locality and bricolage. In short, architecture is just more complicated than that. So suggests Irénée Scalbert, architectural critic and historian, in his recent book, Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture, published by Park Books this
Jo Farb Hernández: Artists as architects.
For Immanuel Kant, an aesthetic experience required four conditions: disinterestedness, universality, purposiveness and necessity. Architecture, as such, has always struggled with this, because its appreciation is fundamentally tied to a sense of its utility – as shelter, symbol, status, want – and its designedness evidence of its adherent beauty relative to its purpose.Artist made architecture of
Winka Dubbeldam: Architecture and hybridity.
What if buildings could free themselves – or be freed by their architects – of the stricture of type, of discrete identity, of typology? What might happen if, for example, a school and a house - schoolness and houseness – were hybridized? What if building and non-building, even, were wedded? Might this, perhaps, offer a way to negotiate, heal even, the nature-architecture divide?This is not pompou
Paul Knox: London, heritage and capital.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with Paul Knox, University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, about his 2025 book, Lost London: From Crystal Palace to Heston Airport, a History in 25 Missing Buildings, published by Yale University Press in April this year.Lost London’s provocative move is to insist that ordinary buildings — a pub in Poplar, a roadhouse on a byp
Vanessa Grossman: Architecture and the communists.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to architect and historian, Vanessa Grossman, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, about her 2024 book, A Concrete Alliance: Communism and Modern Architecture in Postwar France, published by Yale University Press. Sampling only the most tantalizing soupçon of the book’s ideas
Asma Mehan: Architecture in the shadow of oil.
In the latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to architect and scholar, Asma Mehan, Assistant Professor at the Huckabee College of Architecture, Texas Tech University and director of the Architectural Humanities and Urbanism Lab (AHU_Lab), about her edited volume, After Oil: A Comparative Analysis of Oil Heritage, Urban Transformations, and Resilience Paradigms, published by
Leslie Kern: Resisting gentrification.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to scholar, activist, author and feminist totem, Leslie Kern, about Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies, which she published with Verso in 2022. In Leslie and my conversation we speak broadly about her work and approach, some themes from the book, and how resistance is not just necessary, but possible too.in 1964 Ruth Glass, in
Spyros Papapetros and Gerd Zillner: Kiesler: magic, metaphysics and home.
Frederick Kiesler was an Austrian-American architect, artist and theorist who, born at the tail end of the nineteenth century, bore witness to the irresistible rise of modernism in architecture and alongside it, the pyrrhic victory of amoral, individuated thinking, revealed so starkly in the mania of colonialism and the horrors of its implosion in the first half of the twentieth century.In this ep
Beatriz Colomina: Architecture as disease and cure.
Bellerophon, son of Poseidon and Eurynome, slew the Chimera and, full of hubris, believed he had a rightful place on Mount Olympus among the gods and set off there on his winged horse, Pegasus. Zeus did not like this and sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, which threw Bellerophon, who fell back to Earth and died. The story of modernism has maybe been a little tinged by hubris too. We have defeated all
Hilde Heynen & Lucía Pérez-Moreno: Feminist ecologies and architecture.
If one were to be the sort of inelegant person to point such things out, one might point out that despite all the egalitarian rhetoric, we still live in an architectural culture that cultivates dominance, not in the sense of dominion as rooted in domus, home, but in the dual senses of control and territory. The star architects we are assured we must look to, the big, bold, challenging buildings th
Stefan Al: Houses, forms, cultures.
Despite the fact that theorists probably live in one, homes are rather poorly theorized. Why is this so? Perhaps it is the ascent of the domestic in capitalist bourgeois culture – the world within a world – that makes them the seat of late modernity’s subjective turn which, in its turn, made home personal, and therefore ungeneralisable. Who knows.What I do know is that architect, writer and associ
Miriam Attwood & John Kinsley: Building community.
Nine out of ten architectural practices in Europe are involved in designing private housing, according to the Architects Council of Europe, with the work generating 54% of the average practice’s turnover. But according to RIBA, in 2018 in the UK only 6% of housing was designed by architects. So housing is incredibly important to the economy of a profession which is very marginal to the production
Tim Altenhof: Atmospheres and architecture.
Close study of singular aspects of building culture remains the mainstay of good architectural scholarship. Through detail, universals can be revealed. This is the case with Tim Altenhof’s Breathing Space: The Architecture of Pneumatic Beings, published by Zone Books in March this year (distributed by Princeton University Press), the subject of the latest A is for Architecture Podcast episode. Bre
Ed Wall: Architecture & war.
With warfare seemingly creeping up on us – because governments keep starting them – it seemed like a good idea to speak to Ed Wall, Professor of Cities and Landscapes at the University of Greenwich, about his book Architecture for Warfare: How Corporations Profit from Destruction and Reconstruction, published by Jovis in December last year.It’s difficult to know what to say about this, beyond what
Andreas Lechner: Forms and typologies.
In Episode 194 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, architect and writer and Andreas Lechner, Associate Professor of Design and Building Theory at TU Graz in Austria and founder of Studio Andreas Lechner, also based in Graz. We connected off the back of my previous conversation with Hans van der Heijden – with whom he had spoken on Drawing Matters last summer.Specifically, Andreas and I spoke abo
Lee Ivett: Blueprint for a new architecture.
In the 193rd episode of this here A is for Architecture Podcast, Lee Ivett joined me for a second time, 1591 days since his last appearance here. Now a Professor and Head of the London School of Architecture, and still an active architect, I wanted to speak to Lee to discuss architectural education and practice life. As architecture’s professional bodies push for recognition and reform, whilst gov
Itohan Osayimwese: Africa, ornament and architecture.
In Episode 192 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Itohan Osayimwese, Professor of the History of Art & Architecture and Urban Studies and Department Chair at Brown University, discusses small parts of her big book, Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage, published with Princeton University Press in October last year.In our conversation, Itohan argues
Ellen Braae & Thordis Arrhenius: Scandinavia and the architecture of welfare.
The A is for Architecture Podcast’s 191st episode is a conversation with two professors, Ellen Braae & Thordis Arrhenius, about their and Guttorm Ruud’s publication, Architecture and Welfare: Scandinavian Perspectives, which came out with Birkhäuser in 2025.To summarise the book is hard, composed as it is of twenty essays by different authors exploring aspects of postwar Scandinavian architect
Alexander Josephson: Practice life and the political.
For Episode 190 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Alexander Josephson, architect, lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, and in 2012, co-founder of PARTISANS, a Toronto-based collective of architects, designers and thinkers that, among other things, is currently collaborating on the renewal of the Hearn Generating Station, a massive decommissioned power plant
Frances Northrop and Amica Dall: Commons and cooperative practice.
For this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Amica Dall, co-founder of Assemble, writer and researcher, and Frances Northrop, head of community economic power at the New Economics Foundation and a director of Totnes Community Development Society discuss Common Treasures (Vol. 1 & 2), published by Little Toller Books in 2025.Common Treasures was founded in 2025 by members & collab
Nele De Raedt & Maarten Delbeke: Beauty, aesthetics.
For Episode 188 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Nele De Raedt and Maarten Delbeke discuss some small parts of the 2025 book, Beauty in Architecture: Perspectives from Theory and Practice, which they edited and published with Bloomsbury. Beauty in Architecture connects ideas from across practice and theory that consider how beauty might again become central to architectural discourse. Beauty
Fernando Lara: Alternative American architectures.
In Episode 187 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Fernando Lara, professor of architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, discusses his book, Spatial Theories for the Americas: Counterweights to Five Centuries of Eurocentrism, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2024.Spatial Theories for the Americas critiques the dominance of Eurocentric, cartesian
Francis Terry: New classical architecture.
In Episode 186 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, neoclassical architect Francis Terry, founder of Francis Terry and Associates, discusses his upbringing, education, drawing, work, practice and the imposed politics of it all.In our binary times, it seems strange to think of traditional classical design -still so popular among the public - as somehow controversial, and yet here we are. The insti
Fatina Abreek-Zubiedat: Making Gaza.
In the latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, recorded at the end of last year, Fatina Abreek-Zubiedat spoke to me about her new book, A Territory in Conflict: Eras of Development and Urban Architecture in Gaza, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.The Gaza Strip was formed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and served to accommodate fleeing refugees. Until 1967 Administered
Patrick Hutchison: Into the woods.
For the first episode of 2026 for the A is for Architecture Podcast, we’re starting slow and steady – but rather inspiringly I think - with Patrick Hutchison, a builder. Patrick’s very recent book, Cabin: Into the Woods with a Clueless Craftsman, which he published with Harper Collins in November 2025, tells the story of his journey from copywriter to carpenter and now, bestselling author and carp
Gili Merin: Jerusalem pilgrim city.
It’s Christmas, and just past Hanukkah, and in recognition of that, Episode 183 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, is a conversation with architect, photographer and writer Gili Merin, about her extraordinary and exquisite book, Analogous Jerusalem, which came out with Humboldt Books earlier this year. In Analogous Jerusalem, Gili explores how the sacred topography of the Jerusalem of the pilg
Andreea Mihalache: Modern architecture and boredom.
In the 182nd episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Andreea Mihalache joined me to discuss her new book, Boredom and the Architectural Imagination: Rudofsky, Venturi, Scott Brown, and Steinberg, which she published with the University of Virginia Press in 2024. Exploring the boundaries of boredom, Andreea and I discuss Bernard Rudofsky, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and Saul Steinb
Larissa Fassler: Mapping meaning in the city.
For Episode 181 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I was joined by the Berlin-based artist, Larissa Fassler whose work explores through imagery and sculpture - aesthetic, layered, ambiguous maps, models and interventions - the social and political spatialites of cities and their everyday encounter by people there. Larissa’s work has intrigued and delighted me for quite a long time, so it was a
Peter Stutchbury: Voices, sky, land and folk.
For Episode 180 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, the extraordinary Australian architect, Peter Stutchbury, joined me to speak about a little of his work, his origins, his purpose and his ethic. It’s an extraordinary story, beautifully told by a wonderful man, a worthy addition for this, a jubilee episode. Peter’s work is deeply rooted in the land and culture of his homeland, and all the compl
Shiben Banerji: Occult modernist urban visions.
Episode 179 of the A is for Architecture Podcast is a fascinating, expansive discussion with scholar, planner and architect, Dr Shiben Banerji, associate professor in the Department of the History of Art at UC Berkley, about some small parts of his sprawling and wonderful Lineages of the Global City: Occult Modernism and the Spiritualization of Democracy, which he published with the University of
Adam Sharr: Heidegger (ahem), building, senses.
In Episode 178 of this incessant podcast, Adam Sharr, Professor of Architecture at Newcastle University, discusses his 2007 book, Heidegger for Architects, published by Routledge.Heidegger’s ideas haunt architectural discourse, practice and education, which remain inwardly wedded to concepts like dwelling, place, authenticity, world and building, ideas that are rooted in his work. Arguably, his id
Alva Gotby: Other means of dwelling.
In this new episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, writer and organiser, Alva Gotby, discusses her recent latest book, Feeling at Home: Transforming the Politics of Housing, published by Verso in January this year.Feeling at Home is rooted in Marxist feminism, and approaches housing as more-than-shelter, but rather as a key site for reproducing labour power under capitalism, perpetuating al
Piers Taylor: Building in place.
The A is for Architecture Podcast’s latest episode is a discussion with the architect, writer, teacher and broadcaster, Piers Taylor. It is Piers’ second time on the show, but rather than his practice, this time we discuss his freshly minted book, Learning from the Local: Designing responsively for people, climate and culture, published by RIBA Publishing last month.In Learning from the Local, Pie
Jeana Ripple: Architecture, materials, technology and equity.
In the latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast Jeana Ripple, Chair and Vincent & Eleanor Shea Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, joined me to discuss her recent book, Type V City: Codifying Material Inequity in Urban America, published by the University of Texas Press in August this year. In Type V city, Jeana describes how building codes or regu
Patrick Lynn Rivers & Kai Wood Mah: Situated practices.
The A is for Architecture Podcast’s newest episode is a conversation with North American scholars, social scientist Patrick Lynn Rivers and design historian Kai Wood Mah, about their book, Situated Practices in Architecture and Politics, published by Dalhousie Architectural Press in 2024.In our conversation, Patrick and Kai speak of the importance of situated learning and practice, which involves
Hans van der Heijden: A rationalist architecture.
In the latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast Amsterdam-based architect Hans van der Heijden discuss themes of his design work and writing. Founder of Hans van der Heijden Architects, a practice which track context through deep research realised in, as I see it, a sort-of fitting architecture.Hans and I connected over a mutual interest in the pursuit of the/ a common city. Our convers
Peter Apps: Home making and unmaking.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast the journalist, writer and Deputy Editor at Inside Housing, Peter Apps discusses his very recent book, Homesick: How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It, published by One World Publications in September this year.Peter became something of a big noise when he won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2023 for his book, Show Me the Bodies:
Stefano Boeri: Architecture with nature.
In the A is for Architecture Podcast’s latest episode, Stefano Boeri - architect, urban planner, Professor of Urban Planning at Milan Polytechnic, President of the Future of the City Foundation and former editor of Domus (among some other things…) - joined to speak about his upbringing and education in Milan and Venice, his influences, mentors and inspirations, and the development of his design th
James Benedict Brown & Derek Jones: The design studio.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I got to speak to Derek Jones and James Benedict Brown, two of five scholars responsible for the very recently published Studio Properties: A Field Guide to Design Education, published by Bloomsbury this year and also available as an open access publication on the Bloomsbury website. Alongside Elizabeth Boling, James Corazzo, Colin M. Gra
Sir Charles Saumarez Smith: John Vanbrugh and building as theatre.
For the latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to architectural historian, writer and curator, Sir Charles Saumarez Smith CBE about his forthcoming book, John Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture, which is due out with Lund Humphries in November this year. Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) was an English dramatist turned architect, best known for designing Castle Howard and Blenhe
Anna Kostreva: Science fiction and architecture.
For this week’s episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to Berlin-based writer, architect and activist Anna Kostreva who, with Alex Head, leads Plural Studio, ‘a studio for critical inquiry, publishing and architectural design’. We met to talk about Anna’s novel, Seeing Fire | Seeing Meadows, which she published in 2023.Seeing Fire | Seeing Meadows uses architecture – and an architec
Holly Smith: High-rise housing in Britain.
In Episode 167 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Holly Smith, historian and Research Fellow at/ in St John’s College, University of Cambridge, discuss bits of her forthcoming book, Up in the Air: A History of High Rise Britain, which is out with Verso towards the end of October this year.In Up in the Air, Holly charts the story of Britain’s multistorey council housing—from the post-war constru
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes: Unmaking architecture.
In this new episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes spoke with me about her recent book, A Moratorium on New Construction, published by Sternberg Press in 2025 as part of their Critical Spatial Practices series.If a book starts with, ‘To build is to destroy’, things are liable to get pretty exciting (for an architecture fan). As the bumf puts it – and our chat ope
Wayne Hemingway: The housing crisis.
In this week’s release of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Wayne Hemingway MBE logged on to discuss one of his latest initiatives, The Housing Assembly, a growing movement seek paths out of the housing crisis by amplifying the voices of folk excluded from secure, affordable homes. Aiming to transform lived experiences into influential action and through grassroots initiatives The Housing Assembl
Marianna Charitonidou: Drawing, meaning and modernism.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to the architect, historian and theorist Dr Marianna Charitonidou about her fairly recent book, Architectural Drawings as Investigating Devices: Architecture’s Changing Scope in the 20th Century, which she published with Routledge in 2023. In the book, Marianna explores how evolving modes of architectural representation reflect ep
Michael Euade: Gaudi and the Catalan image.
For this summer’s latest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke to the writer Michael Euade to discuss his 2023 book, Antoni Gaudi, part of Reaktion Books’ Critical Lives series. Gaudi has recently been beatified by the Catholic Church, making him one step short of being declared a saint. But for what? Gaudi is unquestionably a monumental figure in the pantheon of named architects,
Piers Gough & Sophie Ryder: 50 years of CZWG.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I was joined by Piers Gough and Sophie Ryder, both of CZWG. Piers is the original G of CZWG and it is for that we speak, a firm he founded in 1975 with Nick Campbell, Rex Wilkinson and Roger Zogolovich. CZWG turned 50 years old this year, having become known for bold, characterful designs. Their work was at the vanguard of the postmodern
Géraldine Borio: Making space in the Asian city.
In Episode 161 of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Dr Géraldine Borio - Swiss architect and assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong - discusses her exquisite, enigmatic and hugely inspiring book, Looking for the Voids: Learning from Asia’s Liminal Urban Spaces as a Foundation to Expand an Architectural Practice, published by Park Books in 2023.Géraldi
Christian Schmid: Henri Lefebvre and the space of the city.
In this, the 160th episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I was joined by Professor Christian Schmid, geographer, sociologist, urban researcher and until recently Professor of Sociology in the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich. Christian’s scholarship is wide and deep and includes, among many other things, co-authoring the remarkable Switzerland. An Urban Portrait, with Jacques Herzo
Azza Aboualam: Food, culture, architecture.
In the this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Emirati architect and co-founder of Holesum Studio, Azza Aboualam discusses her curation of Pressure Cooker, the National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates' 2025 contribution to the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Pressure Cooker examines the UAE’s evolving relationship with food produc
Paul Chatterton: The social city.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Paul Chatterton, Professor of Urban Futures at the University of Leeds, discusses parts of his quite recent book Unlocking Sustainable Cities: A Manifesto for Real Change (2019), published by Pluto Press. In the book, Paul argues against the contemporary city as is, suggesting instead that whilst they are presented as ever-improving hybri
Scott Balmforth and Gerard Reinmuth: Territories of Architecture.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Gerard Reinmuth and Scot Balmforth, co-founders and directors of Terroir, speak about their practice in this, its 25th year of operation. Terroir are a collective of architects and urban designers based in Tasmania, Australia and Denmark, with a large portfolio of work that includes significant civic, recreation, health, education, housing and
Richard J Williams: Expressways and the urban imagination.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, the University of Edinburgh’s Richard J. Williams discusses The Expressway World, his brand new book with Polity Press. Richard is an old friend of the podcast, having recorded the first episode in the autumn of 2021. Back then, we spoke about Richard’s book on that bearded provocateur Reyner Banham who, among things, was known for his 1971 boo
Owen Hopkins: Home made manifestos.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, author, curator and currently director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University, Owen Hopkins discuss his recent book, The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture, published by Yale University Press two days ago. The Manifesto House explores the history of architecture through the lens of individual houses that h
Kenny Cupers: Empire, architecture and modern design.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Professor of Architectural History and Urban Studies at the University of Basel and urban theorist Kenny Cupers discusses his new book, The Earth That Modernism Built: Empire and the Rise of Planetary Design (University of Texas Press, 2024). Kenny talks about the imperial legacies of modern architecture and infrastructure, examining how coloni
Tom Spector: The architect as public servant.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, architect, scholar and author Tom Spector discusses his book, Architecture and the Public Good, first published by Anthem Press in 2021, and now out in paperback.Tom’s critical and philosophical exploration of the ethical foundation of the architecture profession and its role in serving the public, confronts the persistent tension within archit
Chris L Smith: Deleuze & Guattari & Architecture
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with Chris L. Smith, Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Sydney, to discuss his book, Architecture After Deleuze and Guattari (Bloomsbury 2023). We explore how the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari have influenced architectural thought and practice, and the possibilities that we’re all Deleuzo-Guattari
Stefan Al & Tom Verebes: Reading urban design
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with Associate Professor of Urban Planning at Hunter College, Stefan Al, and Professor at New York Institute of Technology, Tom Verebes, about their recent co-edited book, The Urbanism Reader: Design, Technology, Culture and the Future of Cities, published by Bloomsbury (2025). Orientated towards design in the contemporary city, The Urb
Justin O’Connor: Community, culture and the city.
In this – the 150th! - episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I was joined by cultural theorist Justin O'Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of South Australia to discuss his 2024 book, Culture is not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good, published by Manchester University Press.Unpacking and critiquing the concept of creative industries, Justi
Alistair Fair: New Towns, New Scotland.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, architectural historian at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, Dr Alistair Fair discusses his latest book, Building Modern Scotland: A Social and Architectural History of the New Towns, 1947–1997, which he co-authored with Lynn Abrams, Kat Breen, Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters and Valerie Wright, and published with Bloomsbu
John Boughton: Social histories of council housing.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with John Boughton, social historian, writer and blogger. John has written the hugely insightful and important blog, Municipal Dreams since 2013, on which he explores the history, impact, and legacy of social and council housing in Britain, highlighting its architectural, political, and social significance. In 2018, his first major book
Dinah Bornat: Play home city children.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, architect, urban designer and founder-director of ZCD Architects, Dinah Bornat, discusses her new book, All to Play For: How to Design Child-Friendly Housing (RIBA Books 2025). Drawing on research and real-world case studies, we discuss the crucial role of design in shaping inclusive, playful cities, and sustainable communities.Dinah describes
Shayan Adham: Critical practice and the cosmopolitan imagination.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Shayan Adham - architect, scholar and founder of Layers Studio, a design practice based in Iran, discusses his work and thinking. This is a detour from the podcast’s normal mode, but a happy one. Shayan presents work which I read as both deeply cultural and cosmopolitan, rooted in a critical engagement with the space he operates from, and the g
Stylianos Giamarelos: Critical Regionalism versus Postmodernism.
In this episode of A is for Architecture, architect, historian, and scholar Stylianos Giamarelos, speaks about his recent book, Resisting Postmodern Architecture: Critical Regionalism Before Globalisation, published by UCL press in 2022. Postmodernism reshaped architecture in the late 20th century. Stylianos discusses how in turn, critical regionalism emerged in resistance to postmodernity’s eclec
Robert G. Hollands: Culture and the Creative City.
In this episode of A is for Architecture, urban sociologist Robert G. Hollands discusses some themes of his book, Beyond the Neoliberal Creative City: Critique and Alternatives in the Urban Cultural Economy, published by Bristol University Press (2023). We discuss the nature and problems of the "creative city" model, its impact on gentrification and inequality, and alternative urban strategies tha
Chris Younès: Rethinking Architecture - Space, architects, ethics and ecology.
In the newest episode of A is for Architecture, Professor Chris Younès – philosopher, professor emerita at the National School of Architecture of Paris-La Villette and the École Spéciale d'Architecture, a Silver Medalist of the Academy of Architecture in 2005 and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2014 - discusses the 2024 edition of her book, Architec
Cameron McEwan: Aldo Rossi and the Analogical City.
In the latest episode of A is for Architecture,Dr. Cameron McEwan, Associate Professor of Architecture at Northumbria University discusses some few of the ideas behind his book, Analogical City (Punctum Books, 2024), including the relationship between architecture, urban form, and the ways we think about and design cities. Drawing on Aldo Rossi’s concept of the analogical city, Cameron challenges
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