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 opens out - Charlotte’s provocation for a moratorium is in pursuit of a reimagined productive building culture: ‘To pause new construction—even if momentarily, creates a radical thinking framework for alternatives to the current regime of space production and its suspect growth imperative.’
Sound good?
Yes. It does.
Charlotte has a personal website, as well as space at EPFL. She’s on Instagram too.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 Assembly is building from the bottom up a collective platform to demand well-built, affordable homes in good places.
For those who don’t know, Wayne is a renowned British designer, co-founder with his wife Gerardine Hemingway of the iconic fashion label Red or Dead which delivered affordable, socially conscious design in the 1980s and 1990s. Wayne and Gerardine later establishing HemingwayDesign, a multi-disciplinary design team dedicated to creating positive social impact through culture-led regeneration, urban design, placemaking, branding, and community collaboration.
In short Wayne is something like a national treasure, but edgier and more purposeful. An icon of mine since I first encountered his work – and bought a pair of Red or Dead shoes to go on a date - this was a genuine privilege to record.
HemingwayDesign can be found here and on Instagram, The Housing Assembly is linked above and is on Instagram and all over SM. Wayne can be found on LinkedIn.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 epistemological shifts in architecture and urbanism in the modern period. Treating them as something like texts, Marianna analyses drawings’ (and their architects’) roles in mediating relationships between architects, observers and the inhabitants of built spaces. Touching on the work of all the biggies – from Corb and Mies to Rem and Zaha, Rossi, Tschumi, Eisenman, Hejduk and even (my fave) Ungers, the book argues that these transformations reveal ruptures in architecture's imagination, and its shift from modernist universality to PoMo multiplicity.
Marianna has her own website, she’s on Instagram and LinkedIn. The book is linked above.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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, but saintly? That’s a bit different.
Antoni Gaudí, a revered Art Nouveau architect whose visionary designs reshaped Barcelona’s skyline, was a man of what some see as contrasts—devoutly religious, politically conservative, and boldly innovative. Michael and I discuss this in the context of Gaudi’s home in Catalonia and through his large body of work - including the iconic Sagrada Família - which blended Gothic, Baroque, and Orientalist elements with great sensitivity and style.
From humble beginnings in Reus through transformations in Barcelona, Gaudi’s life was marked by personal trial and artistic evolution and Michael’s book – and our conversation - opens up the architect in new ways: as political, social, cultural and spiritual figure.
Michael can be found on his personal website here, and the book is on the Reaktion website, linked above.
Visca Catalunya lliure!
Well, maybe…
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 movement in the UK, with notable projects in the 1980 and 1990s instrumental in the urban regeneration game in that period, as public taste moved on from a-historical modernism towards a sort-of playful contextualism, not least at London Docklands, where they played their part in redefining the city’s east including China Wharf and The Circle in Bermondsey, and Cascades on the Isle of Dogs, and where four of their buildings have now been listed for their postmodern significance.
More recent work has built on this legacy, and the practice continues to deliver large scale urban and urbane projects that look back as they go on. We discuss all this, in a hybrid sort of way: Piers and Sophie bookend the practice. But as we know, difference makes for lovely conversation.
CZWG is at work here, on Insta here and LinkedIn here.
Tune in, tune up, tune on.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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.
Géraldine’s book explores architectural and urban interventions in residual and liminal spaces across Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul, emphasizing what she reads and presents as a philosophy of frugality and spatial economy that is productive, hybrid and amorphous, but definable too. We discuss parts of the five key principles presented —Defining the Void, Interlocking Gaps, Expanding Boundaries, Overlapping Functions, and Being Frugal—consider their meaning and speculate a bit on their wider application in other places.
Geraldine can be found at work here. She is on LinkedIn and Instagram. The book is linked above and is well worth a look: an artefact in its own right.
Happy listening, then happy reading.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 Herzog and Pierre de Meuron among others whilst researcher at ETH Studio Basel in 2006. We met thought to speak about the recent publication in translation of his wonderful book Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space which came out in English with Verso in 2023.
In our discussion, Christian describes his engagement with Henri Lefebvre, the great theorist of everyday life, starting with his own activism – an urban revolt, no less – as a student in Zurich in the 1980s. From this, as he tells, ‘Lefebvre was really this kind of philosopher and theorist that really matched somehow our own experiences on the streets, in the struggles [and] became, then a starting point for our collective theory building, and [and] collective research.’
We go from that through Lefebvre’s concept of urbanization, the production of space and its commodification in modern societies, and the role of the architect in that – either as agent or resistance. We turn in the end to the present and future: where are we now and where should we aim to go.
This is a very excellent episode, believe, because Christian is wonderfully funny, grounded, expert and honest. Pay attention.
Christian can be found at ETH Zurich and on a lot of the internet. The book is linked above.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 production, focusing on how architectural interventions that synthesize indigenous and contemporary knowledges can address food security in one of the world’s most arid regions. Azza frames the exhibition as a response to the UAE’s unique environmental, cultural and social challenges, whilst responding to the specific, situated realities of everyday life in the UAE. But, might well you ask, if the spatiality of food is global, should not Pressure Cooker speak beyond borders? Well, spoiler alert, it does.
Azza can be found at work here and on LinkedIn here. The exhibition is linked above.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 hybrid spaces of choice and identity, of the authentic self, lived independently of the strictures of family, tradition, culture and obligation – after all, aren’t we all moving there now? –in fact foster individualism, status anxiety and an erosion of compassion.
In contrast to this, Paul proposes a transformative approach to urban sustainability through four key city systems—transport, energy, nature, and community—framed by five themes: compassion, imagination, experimentation, co-production and transformation. These counter-measures, Paul suggests, will get us closer to the sustainable, social city.
Paul can be found at work and on LinkedIn. The book is linked above.
#UnlockingSustainableCities #PaulChatterton #UrbanFutures #SustainableCities #RealUrbanChange #JustTransition #EcoUrbanism #RightToTheCity #PostCapitalistCity #ArchitecturePodcast #AisforArchitecture
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 commercial work, such as the Penguin Parade, Philip Island, Victoria, the extension to the World Maritime University, in Malmö, Sweden (with Kim Utzon) and the Bernie Maker’s Workshop in Tasmania, among many award-winning schemes.
Gerard and Scott ably describe parts of Terroir’s particular, situated and global approach to architecture, urban design and research, guided by four core principles: Contextual Engagement, Civic Generosity, Material and Spatial Experimentation and Collaborative Practice. These they articulate not only in their built work, but luckily for us, in a series of three books – Instruments (2019), Third Spaces (2019) and Territories (forthcoming 2025), all published with Uro Publications.
Terroir is a terrific practice and Scott and Gerard are the best ambassadors for it, of course, but more generally for a new type of design practice rooted in place, conscious of people, time, ethics and obligation, wrestling with the significant problems of being a Good Architect in the uneven terrain of contemporary society.
Have a sticky and find out how.
There’s a link to Terroir above. Otherwise, they can be found on Instagram, and on LinkedIn. The books can be found here.
#AustralianArchitecture #TERROIRArchitects #GerardReinmuth #ScottBamforth #ContemporaryArchitecture #PlaceBasedDesign #CreativePractice #ArchitecturePodcast #AisforArchitecture
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 book, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. I guess Expressway World naturally springs from this…
While often associated with destruction, severance and car-centric modernity, urban expressways are complex, multifaceted spaces, not merely engineering structures. Richard argues that we would be better served to read expressways as cultural, political, and social landscapes shaped by their design, use and resistance. And rather than demolition of what are increasingly moribund artefacts of a bygone age, he advocates for a nuanced approach to living with these infrastructures. Drawing on global case studies in cities as diverse as New York, London, São Paulo, Madrid, Seoul and Glasgow (and of course, LA), Richard demonstrates how communities, activists and planners have creatively repurposed expressways into public spaces, parks, or cultural hubs.
Another banger from a great scholar. Listen, then drive out to buy his book.
Richard can be found here at work, on Instagram and on his personal website. The book is linked above.
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 have acted as manifestos for new ideas, movements and ways of living.
Looking at twenty-one houses from the 16th through to the 21st century, the book presents a compelling narrative of how individual homes can influence architecture's evolution, and perhaps even answer some of the challenges we're faced with in the built environment today.
Owen is also currently one fifth of the team who have curated this year's British Pavilion exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia 2025, which can be read about here. Owen can be found on Instagram and LinkedIn and the book is linked above.
Listen, think, click, buy, read. Wow!
#ArchitecturePodcast #ManifestoHouse #OwenHopkins #FarrellCentre #BuildingsThatMatter #ArchitecturalHistory #RadicalHomes #BiennaleArchitettura2025 #ArchitectureAndSociety #DesigningTheFuture #AisforArchitecturePodcast
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, Professor of 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 colonial and postcolonial systems of planning, construction and environmental control shaped a global vision of design in the 20th century, tracing how modernism’s ambitions extended far beyond buildings to encompass a planetary project—one grounded in power, governance and the management of land and life across continents.
In this episode, we touch on some of the key themes from the book, including the reciprocal relationship between empire and modernist design, the circulation of architectural knowledge between colony and colonizer, and the entangled histories of development, technology and spatial control.
In a way, unsettling stuff, almost scary. But now we know, what do we do?
Book, Kenny, all linked above. Kenny is nowhere on my social media, but you can see a bit on koozarch.
#KennyCupers #TheEarthThatModernismBuilt #PlanetaryDesign #ModernArchitecture #ArchitecturalHistory #EmpireAndArchitecture #ColonialInfrastructure #UrbanStudies #GlobalModernism #AisforArchitecturePodcast
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 architecture between artistry and public service, arguing that this dual identity often undermines the profession’s ability to clearly articulate and fulfil its moral obligations. Arguing that the discipline holds on to an inaccurate concept of the public, arguing that the term is too often treated as a monolithic, abstract concept, Tom urges a deeper understanding of publicness, one that accounts for pluralism, participation, and the political nature of public space and infrastructure.
It is a proper decent book, and whilst fundamentally a critique, Tom’s presentation is one of hope and possibility. This is what we need, believe. Linked above is the book. Tom’s back catalogue can be found on PhilPapers here.
#ArchitectureAndEthics #TomSpector #ArchitectureAndThePublicGood #DesignPhilosophy #ArchitecturalEthics #EthicalDesign #ArchitecturePodcast #TheEthicalArchitect
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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-Guattarian architects now…
Deleuze and Guattari’s significance for architectural theory and design practice lies in their radical rethinking of concepts like form, process and relationality, which have profoundly influenced how architects conceptualize and create space in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Their collaborative works offer a philosophical framework that rejects fixed hierarchies, linear causality and static structures, instead emphasizing multiplicity, fluidity, and dynamic systems, shifting architectural discourse away from traditional modernist principles of order and function towards experimental, process-oriented, and politically engaged practices.
🔗 Learn more about the book via the link above. Chris can be found at work, on Instagram and LinkedIn.
# ArchitectureTheory #DeleuzeAndGuattari #PhilosophyOfArchitecture #ArchitecturalBooks #CriticalTheory #DesignPhilosophy #ChrisLSmith #ModernArchitecture #ArchitecturalDiscourse #ArchitectureAndPhilosophy #Podcast #AisforArchitecture
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 Urbanism Reader gathers together key texts that explore urban theory, planning and development pertinent to the city as we find it now – a messy, networked and highly technological state which inflects, if not forms, the modern citizen and their social world . Bringing together influential writings from scholars and practitioners, including greats like Venturi and Scott Brown, Tschumi, Frampton, Kwinter, Eisenman, Koolhaas and Maas, but also introducing new voices and accents, including Anne Whiston Spirn, Anaya Roy, Walter Hood and Andrea Moneta among many others, the book presents a good overview of key themes, like virtuality, computationality, informality, equity, ecology, density and connectivity.
To stand back from all this thinking and just look is thrilling really. Have a listen and find out why you should. Tom and Stefan are great to hear.
Stefan also leads his own practice, Stefan Al Architects and Tom is founder and Creative Director of OCEAN CN. Both gentlemen can be found on LinkedIn and Instagram. The book is linked above.
#Urbanism #CityPlanning #UrbanDesign #TheUrbanismReader #SustainableCities #UrbanTheory #SmartCities #StefanAlAndTomVerebes #ArchitetcurePodcast #AisforArchitecturePodcast
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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, Justin describes the historical transformation of urban space through local cultural initiatives and grassroots movements of makers, doers and thinkers, and contrasts this with the current dominance of large development companies and platform capitalism, re-packaged by governmental sleight of hand. The effects of this is another form of gentrification through which makers of actual culture are sidelined (again). Justin goes beyond this critique, however, advocating for an alternative economy based on an holistic approach to culture viewed as a social good, which might allow us to foster flourishing societies beyond the death-grip of economic metrics.
It's a good, sharp episode, and Justin’s argument is well worth your time. Have a sticky, find out.
Justin can be found on his personal website, on LinkedIn and at his place of work. The book is linked above.
#CulturalIndistries #CreativeIndustries #JustinOConnor #CulturalPolicy #UrbanDevelopment #UrbanPolicy #CreativeCommons #ReclaimCulture #PublicGood #CreativityEconomy
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 Bloomsbury in February this year.
Scotland’s new towns—Glenrothes, Cumbernauld, Livingston, Irvine, and East Kilbride—were bold experiments in urban planning, designed to provide modern, thriving communities in the wake of the Second World War. We discuss the why and how of New Townism, and beyond the concrete and masterplans, reflect on what these places meant and how they shaped the daily life of the people who lived in them. In the end, as always, did they work? And what do they suggest about the contemporary and future of urban growth?
Alistair & Co’s) extensive research and storytelling uncovers the vision, politics, and lived experiences behind these remarkable developments. Have a good listen – Alistair is a wonderful communicator – and find out.
Alistair is on Instagram, and above at work. The book is linked above.
#ArchitecturePodcast #BuildingModernScotland #newtowns #ScottishNewTowns #UrbanPlanning #ArchitectureHistory #ModernistArchitecture #ScottishHistory #PostWarDesign #AlistairFair
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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, Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing, was published by Verso, followed in 2022 by A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates, published with RIBA Publishing.
John’s work traces the history of council housing and council estate architecture in Britain, from its origins in the c19 and early 20th century as a response to poor living conditions, to its peak in the post-war era, when UK social housing policy provided millions with high-quality, state-funded homes. We discuss this and how shifting political and economic priorities, concretized in the Right to Buy policy UK under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, led to the widespread privatization of council housing, reducing public housing stock and contributing to today’s housing crisis.
Well-planned social housing remains crucial in addressing the global housing permacrisis. John’s work is a perfect resource for showing us how it has been, and could be done again. So, listen to John then read his blog and books,
Start here.
John can be found on his blogs, linked above, as are his books.
# ArchitecturePodcast #MunicipalDreams #JohnBoughton #CouncilHousing #SocialHousing #AisforArchitecture
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
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 why child-friendly housing that makes spaces for imaginative, creative play – essentially urban design for children - benefits everyone, the impact of car-free communities, and how policymakers, architects, and residents can work together to prioritize children’s – and therefore everyone’s - needs in housing and public spaces.
How can we create cities where children can truly thrive? By making family-friendly architecture, of course. What other option is there?
🎧 Listen to Dinah, find out.
Dinah/ ZCD can be found on Instagram, LinkedIn and on her ZCD Architect’s website, above. The book is linked above too.
# ArchitecturePodcast #ChildFriendlyCities #UrbanDesign #Placemaking #CityPlanning #SustainableLiving #PlayfulArchitecture #AisforArchitecture
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Music credits: Bruno Gillick
