In our first episode on Carlo Scarpa, we're trying something new! We've made a video to accompany the episode that you can find on our YouTube Channel, in which you can watch Luke and George discuss the enigmatic architecture of Carlo Scarpa, a

86 — Ian Nairn — 3/3 — Nairn on TV

Aug 17th, 2021 1h 16m

In the final episode in our series on Ian Nairn, we discussed the 1967 book 'Britain's Changing Towns' and the BBC television work that has granted Nairn a viral afterlife on YouTube.Here's the Nairn clip from the outro: https://www.youtube.co

85 — Ian Nairn — 2/3 — Nairn's London

Aug 3rd, 2021 1h 1m

In the second episode of our series on Ian Nairn, we talked about Nairn's London, the 1966 architectural guide to the city which was the critic's magnum opus. We discussed his inimitable prose style, his deep knowledge of the buildings of Londo

84 — Ian Nairn — 1/3 — Subtopia

Jul 12th, 2021 55m 24s

The first episode in our new series on the work of architectural critic Ian Nairn. In this first episode we discussed his breakout work for the Architectural Review, Outrage, which railed against 'subtopia', the suburban sprawl of concrete and

83 —Otto Wagner — 5/5 — Proto-Modernist

Jun 7th, 2021 1h 13m

Our final episode on Otto Wagner considers his relationship to modernism, asking whether Wagner was a predecessor to modernism. We discussed his most modern building, the Österreichische Postsparkasse or Austrian Postal Savings Bank, like so mu

82 — Otto Wagner — 4/5 — Secession

May 10th, 2021 1h

In the penultimate episode in our series on Otto Wagner, we discussed Wagner's most famous projects, the art nouveau works produced at the height of the Vienna Secession. We talked about the Majolikahaus, other art nouveau apartment blocks, the

*Preview* — 81.5 — Klimt

Apr 29th, 2021 6m 28s

This is a preview of our latest bonus episode on Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession, get access to the full episode on our Patreon.In this episode we discussed the work of the Vienna Secession beyond Otto Wagner, particularly the artist Gus

81 — Otto Wagner — 3/5 — On the Stadtbahn

Apr 18th, 2021 1h 9m

In this episode, we talked about the middle stage of Otto Wagner's career, primarily his work on the infrastructure of the city of Vienna. Visit our instagram and Twitter for pictures of the dams, railway stations and bridges that shaped Vienne

80 — Otto Wagner — 2/5 — The Style Question

Mar 31st, 2021 1h

In our second episode on Otto Wagner, we discussed a couple of Wagner's early buildings, specifically the Landerbank in Vienna and the Rumbach Street Synagogue in Budapest. Both are tantalising glimpses of the themes that would dominate his lat

79 — Otto Wagner — 1/5 — Ringstraße Rent Palaces

Mar 18th, 2021 44m 21s

This is the first episode in our new series on Otto Wagner. In it we discussed 19th century Vienna, an ancient city wracked by extremes of urbanisation and population boom; political radicalism and revolution. A crumbling ancient order and an e

*Preview* — 77.5 — Patrick Keiller Bonus Episode

Mar 10th, 2021 6m 40s

This is a preview of a bonus episode we published on Patreon as part of our series of WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz', subscribe to our Patreon to subscribe and get access to our back catalogue of bonus episodes.In this bonus episode we talked about

78 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 2/2 — Locked Rooms

Mar 4th, 2021 1h 7m

Our second episode on WG Sebald's 2001 novel 'Austerlitz', encountering strangely preserved rooms, nightmarish dream landscapes, gigantesque 19th century fantasies, and a mix of psychoanalysis, Perrault's Bibliothèque Nationale, Liverpool Stree

77 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 1/2 — In the Nocturama

Jan 31st, 2021 58m 9s

In our first episode of 2021 we discussed 'Austerlitz', the final novel by W.G. Sebald. It's the story, at the most basic level, of an architectural historian, Jacques Austerlitz, who in middle age begins to rediscover his own submerged history

*Preview* — 76.5 — Robert Moses Bonus Episode

Dec 28th, 2020 5m 13s

This is a preview from our latest Patreon Bonus Episode – subscribe to our Patreon for just $3 a month to listen to the whole episode! Thank you to everyone who supported the show this year, we couldn't have done it without you, and we can't wa

76 — Jane Jacobs — 2/2 — Unslumming and Gentrification

Dec 10th, 2020 1h 16m

Our second episode on Jane Jacobs' canonical work, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'. In this second half we further discuss her vision for the ideal city, based on her experiences in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. We focus on her

75 — Jane Jacobs — 1/2 — Eyes on the Street

Nov 25th, 2020

The first episode in a two-part series on Jane Jacobs, a profoundly influential writer, thinker and campaigner on issues of urbanism, whose magnum opus 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' (1961) forms the backbone of our discussion. I

74 — Monasteries — 3/3 — Fourier, Narkomfin, La Tourette

Oct 27th, 2020 1h 9m

The final episode in our series on the deep history of the monastery. Modernity has arrived and monasticism is living a strange afterlife. First, we discuss the early 19th century Utopian Socialism of Charles Fourier, whose Phalanstère take the

73 — Monasteries — 2/3 — The Apostolic Life

Sep 25th, 2020 1h 5m

In our second episode on Monasteries we're talking about Carthusians, millenarian religiosity, the co-option of radicalism by the mainstream, baroque splendour, Slow TV, retirement bungalows and whether Jesus owned the shirt on his back. In thi

72 — Monasteries — 1/3 — Cluniacs and Cistercians

Aug 19th, 2020 1h 20m

In this new 3 part series we’re trying something a little bit different, we’re going to try and think about the monastery from deep time up to the present day. The monastery is an almost unique architectural typology; in its continuity, the spe

71 — Christopher Alexander — 2/2 — Pattern Language

Jul 10th, 2020 1h 26m

In our second episode on Christopher Alexander, we discuss 'A Pattern Language', the book he wrote with Murray Silverstein and Sara Ishikawa, published in 1977. The text proposes a list of patterns, derived from experience, imagination and vern

70 — Christopher Alexander — 1/2 —Notes on the Synthesis of Form

Jun 17th, 2020 48m 56s

This is the first episode of a new series on Design Theorist, Architect, Mathematician and Computation Fan, Christopher Alexander. Alexander studied Mathematics at Cambridge University in the 1950s, then undertook the first ever PhD in Architec

69 — Zaha Hadid — 4/4 — The Parametric Years

May 17th, 2020 1h 39m

In this final episode on Zaha Hadid we discuss a small fraction of the huge number of projects that ZHA produced from the early noughties up to Zaha's untimely death in 2016. We attempt to reflect on Zaha's legacy as a designer, try to understa

68 — Zaha Hadid — 3/4 — Vitra to Cardiff

May 3rd, 2020 1h 23m

The third part of our ongoing series on Zaha Hadid! In this episode we discuss the early buildings of the practice, including IBA housing in Berlin, Vitra Fire Station, Spittelau Viaduct Housing, and the unbuilt competition winning design for t

Bonus Unlocked — 48.5 — OMA — Bigness

Apr 22nd, 2020 34m 51s

UNLOCKED PATREON BONUSThis unlocked bonus episode comes from our Patreon feed, where we post extra content and bonus discussions with every episode of the podcast. This bonus follows on from Episode 48, discussing the early projects of OMA an

67 — Zaha Hadid — 2/4 — The Peak

Apr 14th, 2020 1h 4m

In our second episode on Zaha Hadid, we're covering the rest of the 1980s, from the competition to design the Peak Leisure Centre in Hong Kong, to the Deconstructivism exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The episode also include