Scaffold

Interviews with architects, artists and designers. Produced by the Architecture Foundation and hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Crit: Venice Biennale with Emily Conklin, Fabrizio Gallanti & Phin Harper

    20 JUN

    Crit: Venice Biennale with Emily Conklin, Fabrizio Gallanti & Phin Harper

    A month after the opening of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, we've invited three critics to come on the show to help make sense of what was arguably one of the most content overloaded, and curitorially ambiguous biennales in recent memory. Since its inception in 1980, The Venice architecture biennale has set the tone for global discourse on contemporary design and urbanism, and yet the agenda of this year’s exhibition, curated by the MIT professor and recent guest of this podcast, Carlo Ratti, seemed surprisingly muted and anodyne, calling for architects to marshal the quote intelligence of the natural, artificial and collective” Still there are more complex although perhaps unintended themes to the biennale this year, including the emerging relationship between unaccountable technologies and authoritarianism, quantatitve expansion as a proxy for genuine inclusivity, and perhaps most importantly, the exchange of an independent curatorial vision for an apparent new ideal of algorithmically determined experience.  Furter reading: Emily Conklin: We Will Rest: Seeking Resistance and Recovery During Carlo Ratti’s Venice Biennale in the Brooklyn RailFabrizio Gallanti: "Fakery and deception is everywhere at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025" in DezeenPhin Harper: Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Review: A Tech Bro Fever Dream in Art Review and La Biennale Architettura: A Beginner’s Guide on The Fence. Emily Conklin is the former managing editor of the Architect's Newspaper and is an editor and critic based in New York City. She is trained as a historic preservationist and is the founder of Tiny Cutlery studio.  Fabrizio Gallanti is an architect, writer and curator, and directs Arc en Rêve, an architectural center in Bordeaux. Phin Harper is a critic, curator, and sculptor and former Chief Executive of Open City. Correction: the list of Swiss Pavilion curators mentioned in this episode mistakenly omitted Myriam Uzor, who led the project alongside Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins amd Axelle Stiefel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 22m
  2. Michael Meredith

    1 MAY

    Michael Meredith

    Michael Meredith is a co-founder with Hilary Sample of MOS, an architecture practice based in New York. MOS is an acronym derived from Meredith and Sample, with the "O" serving as an abstract, connective element. The name, much like the practice itself and the cultural moment it emerged from in the early 2000s, captures a playful tension between irony and sincerity. It's a subtle nod toward global architectural giants like SOM or OMA, while genuinely embodying Michael and Hilary's playful and collaborative spirit. A hallmark of Meredith and Sample’s work is their ability to balance intentional imperfection with technical precision. They've described their practice as embracing a philosophy that's "horizontal and fuzzy," deliberately moving away from the conventional "tall and shiny" image typically associated with architecture firms. It's a metaphor reflecting their preference for an architecture that's smaller, less bureaucratic, more experimental, and ultimately more alive. Michael's podcast Building with Writing Stan Allen: https://open.spotify.com/show/7CUtD3SnpyKxWUmsNnDmSw Michael's 2025 Princeton Syllabus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aU1IqdLYJmcldMAzgnxrwOczO1TIrTtCejEziyxZ4-U/edit?tab=t.0 Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield.  Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Become an Architecture Foundation Patreon member and be a part of a growing coalition of architects and built environment professionals supporting our vital and independent work.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 49m

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Interviews with architects, artists and designers. Produced by the Architecture Foundation and hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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