
115 episodes

About Buildings + Cities Luke Jones & George Gingell Discuss Architecture, History and Culture
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4.7 • 225 Ratings
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A podcast about architecture, buildings and cities, from the distant past to the present day. Plus detours into technology, film, fiction, comics, drawings, and the dimly imagined future.
With Luke Jones and George Gingell.
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104 — Antoni Gaudí 5 —Güell Projects
In this penultimate episode of our series on Antoni Gaudí, we dicussed projects he developed in his later career for Eusebi Güell. We talked about the Bodegas Güell, a complex of wineries and agricultural buildings in the countryside to the south of Barcelona. This project takes cyclopean masonry, a vast A-frame, gravity-defying stone pillars to create a building that calls back and forwards in time. Then we discussed the Park Güell, a consciously anglophile proposal for a garden city on the edge of Barcelona, where the housing never got built, and out of which Gaudí created a vast piece of land art, one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city. Lastly we discussed the recently renovated Chalet of Catllaràs, another curious masonry A-frame, like something out of a fairy tale with expressive dormers and spiral staircase, built as a shelter for coal miners.
Images for this episode can be found on the YouTube video version of the show: https://youtu.be/vWtYFwhvmW0
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org -
103 — Antoni Gaudí 4 — Casas Calvet, Batlló & Milà
In the fourth episode of our series on Antoni Gaudí, we discussed two of his large projects in Barcelona. Casa Calvet was built 1898–1900, in many ways a conventional Spanish townhouse with references to the family's textile business into the scheme, and the rear facade with its bay windows and balconies has much of the horizontal boldness of early 20th-century proto-modernism. Casa Battló was built in 1904 on one of Barcelona's most iconic thoroughfares, with some of Gaudí's most radical use of biomorphic stone forms and a fantastical roofscape. Lastly, Casa Milà was built 1906–1912, an iconic apartment building on one of Barcelona's busiest thoroughfares. Its undulating stone facade, billowing wrought iron balconies and unconventional, organic plan made it a cause célèbre; we discussed some of the caricatures it inspired in the contemporary press at the end of this episode.
All of the images for this episode are available for the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZIrTub-2f6w
Or you can view them on our pinned Instagram Story 'Gaudí 4'
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook
We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org -
102 — Antoni Gaudí 3 — Going Gothic
In our third episode on Antoni Gaudí we discussed some of his work that draws on traditions of Gothic, catholic and medieval architecture. Specifically we discussed his Teresian College of Barcelona, a female residential educational institution built in the rural Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, absorbed into Barcelona in the 20th century. We also discussed the bizarre Episcopal Palace at Astorga, one of Gaudí's strangest works, which we find fairly unsuccessful. We also discussed an unbuilt and sci-fi proposal for a monastery in Tangier and the Bellesguard House.
All of the images for this episode are available in the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iPCrxmud9RI
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook
We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org -
101 — Antoni Gaudí 2 — Palau Güell
In the second episode of our series on Gaudí we discussed the remarkable Güell Palace, Barcelona, a work of total design with an unlimited budget built 1886–8. We talked about the mixture of cosmopolitan historical references, ornate detailing, and sophisticated urban party house that make up this unique work. We discussed the patron, Eusebi Güell, an industrialist and aristocrat with a reputation as a dandy and a supporter of wayward artists. Lastly we tried to make sense of the house, and some of the totally bizarre design choices which Gaudí made in the process.
You can see all the images we discussed in this episode in the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/KW3LkgzVYh0
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook
We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org -
100 — Antoni Gaudí 1 — Bad at School
In the first episode of our new series on Antoni Gaudí, we attempt to place him in the history of 19th-century Spain: a time of civil war, booming industry, declining empire and rapid urbanisation. We talked about the complex politics of the time, and movements for devolution and regional autonomy in his native Catalonia. We also discussed the myth of Gaudí, his status as one of the most famous architects in the world, but also the fact that he is considered deeply uncool amongst architects today. We discussed Barcelona's famous urban grid, and the uneven and contested process of urban growth that shaped it. Lastly we talked about some of Gaudí's earliest projects: streetlights for the city of Barcelona, a set of buildings for the Worker's Cooperative of Mataró, Casa Vicens in Barcelona, El Capricho in Comillas and the Güell Pavilions in Barcelona.
Thank you to everyone for following us as far as our 100th episode!
If you want to see images for all the buildings discussed, you can watch this episode on Youtube.
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook
We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org -
99 — Philip K. Dick's Ubik — Gnostic Paranoia
In this episode we discussed 'Ubik' (1969) by Philip K. Dick, a piece of iconic science-fiction set in a world of psychic corporate espionage and dead relatives suspended in perpetual "halflife". Throughout the novel Gnostic and Platonic philosophy exude through perpetually inventive interpretations of advertising culture, psychotic mental states and satire of domestic mod cons. We talked about Dick's fixation on material culture as it appears in his other stories 'The Man in the High Castle' (1962) and 'Pay for the Printer' (1956).
Join us for an About Buildings and Cities Social this Saturday 3rd December from 5pm–late at The Kings Arms pub in Bethnal Green London.
Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.
Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.
Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!
Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook // tiktok
We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org
Customer Reviews
Wonderful
This is a wonderful podcast. I am an architecture student whose curriculum is extremely design focused. This podcast is my self-assigned historical and theoretical supplement to that training and it succeeds completely. I imagine I would like it very much even if I were not a student, but probably not very much if I were not interested in buildings and cities. Lends itself to the curious, the armchair historian, and would be a splendid travel guide on a trip through Europe. Quality stuff. Thanks gents.
Appreciation
I am a March student in Chicago and have been listening for some time now. Highly recommend for enjoyable content, review of topics, and relevant insights. Their enthusiasm for architecture helps when you feel burnt out.
Heavily Researched and Entertaining
Excellent podcast that is a fun listen. The guys are wildly informed and exceptional in identifying aspects of architecture in which even a non-architect could be interested.