38. Adam Nathaniel Furman

In this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Adam Nathaniel Furman. Adam is a British artist and designer of Argentine and Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam's atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia.

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As an activist, vocal defender of workers rights, particularly those of interns, and as an articulate speaker on and about architecture and design, there were many reasons to talk to Adam but it was the arrival of the book Queer Spaces edited by Adam and Joshua Mardel, and designed by Alex Synge, that finally prompted the talk.

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A book that is long overdue, it provides an accessible atlas or canon in Adam’s words - of queer spaces, in part for queer students of architecture and design needing a frame of reference and references to support their work. But discussing the book also lead to conversations about Adam’s own work, his experience as a queer designer, the challenges he has faced in practice, what he witnessed and reacted to in his architectural education, and what now might his new, true passion.

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When in Dublin, Adam gave a dense, intelligent, lucid and often funny lecture at the invitation of the Architectural Association of Ireland and the conversation begins discussing his first visit to Dublin and if humour was always part of his lecture repetoire. A trigger warning though, Adam does discuss forms of bullying in education and at times is deeply honest about his own experiences. 

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ABOUT ADAM

Adam is a British artist and designer of Argentine & Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam's atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia.

Adam's work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Milan, Melbourne, Rome, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Vienna & Basel, amongst other places, is held in the collections of the Design Museum, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association, and has been published widely.

The atelier has completed, and ongoing projects both internationally (Europe, the US, S America, the Middle East, East Asia) and in the UK. Adam has lectured at the RIBA, Harvard GSD, UC Berkeley, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Vitra Design Museum & the Casa dell’Architettura Rome, amongst others, has taught courses at several universities as well as having been Studio Master of Productive Exuberance at Central St Martins in London, is co-director of Saturated Space at the AA (an influential research group on colour in Urbanism and Architecture), is a published author, a vocal advocate for diversity and representation in architecture, urbanism and design, and has been a judge for the Dezeen and FRAME awards, amongst others.

ABOUT THE PODCAST

What. Buildings Do is part of Story, Building, the independent platform for the critical discussion of architecture, based in Ireland. Foreign Exchange: Conversations on Architecture Here and Now is the first publication, available here.