A is for Architecture

Ambrose Gillick
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A is for Architecture

A podcast about architecture, buildings, urban culture and space with Ambrose Gillick, discussing ideas, artefacts and people with scholars, designers, artists, teachers and architects. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts/ iTunes, Youtube Music and Amazon Music. Contact Ambrose on a.gillick@kent.ac.uk i. @ais4architecture x. @AisArchitecture f. @aisforarchitecture

  1. Beth Weinstein: Architecture and dance.

    5 DAYS AGO

    Beth Weinstein: Architecture and dance.

    ⁠On Episode 129 of A is for Architecture, Dr Beth Weinstein, Associate Professor of Architecture and at the University of Arizona, discusses her recent book, Architecture and Choreography: Collaborations in Dance, Space and Time, published by Routledge in March 2024. As Beth says, recounting her awareness of this subject, ‘I think that that encounter as a 20 something year old was the first moment when it became real for me to be able to imagine that one can bring architecture and choreography into really close proximity and have a very fertile exchange of knowledge, exchange of practice; to see how ideas from architecture can then become ideas that manifest in the way bodies move, occupy, interact in space, and to learn as an architect from this live unfolding event, and to begin to see space support event live. Like not “Here I am drawing on my drawing board and fantasizing about people, what people are going to do in my building five years from now, when it eventually gets built.” But I'm seeing this one-to-one prototype, if you will, and seeing how they are pushing the boundaries of what a body can do and be, in relationship to a space.’ Eloquently put. Beth is on LinkedIn too. The book is linked above. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    53 min
  2. Austin Williams: Architecture and critique.

    OCT 23

    Austin Williams: Architecture and critique.

    In Episode 128 of the A is for Architecture podcast, architect, journalist and scholar Austin Williams discusses his work and practice, and his ongoing Future Cities Project, specifically the Five Critical Essays series.  Austin says ‘the idea behind [The Future Cities Project/ Five Critical Essays] was just to say that [architectural] debates are fairly stagnant, or unidirectional, or one track’. The project has tried, in the face of this, ‘to kind of open up some debates, have, like, live debates, face to face, panel discussions, writings, journalism, or what have you, just to kind of ask some questions effectively.’ It’s a good intention indeed. Austin is also course leader/senior lecturer, PG Dip Professional Practice in Architecture at Kingston School of Art and an honorary research fellow at XJTLU University in China. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    56 min
  3. Tanzil Shafique: Informal architecture.

    OCT 16

    Tanzil Shafique: Informal architecture.

    Dr Tanzil Shafique discusses his forthcoming book, City of Desire: An Urban Biography of the Largest Slum in Bangladesh, on Episode 127 of A is for Architecture.  Published by Bloomsbury, and out in November, City of Desire describes ‘Karail, the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh [and] the production of informal urbanism through a brand-new approach rooted in deep ethnography and spatial mapping.’ There’s also, in a way a deep reading of a place as something more than just stuff. As Tanzil suggests, ‘following Latour's elegant actor network theory, there has been a lot of talk about how materials matter, but I want to take it up a notch and talk about [matter] at a settlement scale, and how, even within a city, how it [matter/ Korail] actively, you know, is an is an agent by itself.’ Now there’s an idea. Tanzil is Lecturer of Urban Design and Director of the Postgraduate Programmes at The University of Sheffield School of Architecture. He is there, on X and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    1h 8m
  4. Gabriel Esquivel: Making, architecture, digital.

    OCT 9

    Gabriel Esquivel: Making, architecture, digital.

    In Episode 126 of A is for Architecture, Gabriel Esquivel, director of the T4T Lab, speaks about Design Technology and Digital Production: An Architecture Anthology, which he edited, and was published by Routledge in 2023. The book ‘engages and deploys a variety of discourses, topics, criteria, pedagogies, and technologies, including some of today’s most influential architects, practitioners, academics, and critics’ to present the story of ‘architecture’s disciplinary concerns in the last decade’, illustrating ‘the shift to an architectural world where we can learn with and from each other, develop a community of new technologies and embrace a design ecology that is inclusive, open, and visionary.’  That’s the blurb’s thing, anyway. Have a big wee listen and find out. Gabriel can be found on Instagram, LinkedIn, and via very many online resources, not least his T4T lab website. The book is linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    49 min
  5. Jessica Kelly: The architect and the architectural press.

    OCT 2

    Jessica Kelly: The architect and the architectural press.

    Episode 125 of A is for Architecture is a conversation with historian Dr Jessica Kelly, Reader in Design and Architectural History at London Metropolitan University. We discuss her 2022 book, No More Giants: J.M. Richards, Modernism and The Architectural Review, published by Manchester University Press. It’s an interesting story, one that mirrors the development of the profession, and perhaps even produces it to some extent. As Jess says, ’I think Richards, although he would completely align himself, and he writes about being a modernist and seeing that as the future of architecture, he is also quite invested in the figure of the architect and the expertise of the architectural profession as a cultural elite, as a sort of guiding figure within society. And he wants to promote that the magazine is invested in promoting the profession, because as much as the Architectural Review is, as it's been described, a mouthpiece for modernism, and really does feature modernism a lot, it features a lot of other stuff as well. [there is] very much a plurality of conversations happening in [it]. […] I think for Richard and his circle and network of people, there is an overlap between [ideology and business and] the idea of whether someone's a consumer or a citizen blurs together in quite an interesting way. And for Richards and his contemporaries, their main objective is to get a public audience for what they understand to be the future of architecture.’ Jessica can be found on the London Met website, and the book is linked above.   Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    53 min
  6. Graham Haughton and Iain White: Theories of Planning.

    SEP 25

    Graham Haughton and Iain White: Theories of Planning.

    ⁠On Episode 124 of A is for Architecture Graham Haughton and Iain White tell me about their excellent book, Why Plan? Theory for Practitioners, published by Lund Humphries in 2019. On the reason for theory for planning, Graham suggests: ‘ to a certain extent, theories sometimes can make reality. […] you could argue that some of Patsy Healy's work around collaborative and communicative planning, of new ways of trying to engage with communities in the planning process, by bringing them, giving them the knowledge to be able to debate with planners on an equal footing, really important in remaking planning. […] So at one level, in a way, we inadvertently, I think, have helped change practice by highlighting what was happening, trying to understanding it, not just as a separate theory, but through different theoretical lenses, using neoliberalism, using postpolitics and other kind of theoretical insights, to understand what this phenomenon that we were observing was.’  Iain is Professor of Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Graham is Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Manchester, UK Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    1h 4m
  7. Henrik Schoenefeldt: Environmental design and the Houses of Parliament.

    SEP 18

    Henrik Schoenefeldt: Environmental design and the Houses of Parliament.

    Episode 123 of A is for Architecture is a discussion with Henrik Schoenefeldt, Professor of Sustainable Architecture at the School of Architecture, Design & Planning, University of Kent, about his research into the work and influence of the Scottish physician David Boswell Reid on the environmental design underpinning Barry and Pugin’s Palace of Westminster, London, UK. Initially an AHRC-funded scheme entitled ‘Between Heritage and Sustainability – Restoring the Palace of Westminster’s nineteenth-century ventilation system,’ and part of the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme, Henrik published Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament: David Boswell Reid and Disruptive Environmentalism with Routledge in 2020. On the significance of Boswell Reid’s work at Westminster, Henrik says ’I think what is radical about this idea was, is to integrate different ideas into one holistic strategy [and] integrated ways of climatic controlling the environment as one holistic design, and [then] applied to a building of such enormous scale and complexity. […] But the interesting thing is that […] when the building was completed, you would see it become a common practice for building to have extensive ventilation systems. So even in the buildings built in Whitehall, new public museums built in South Kensington, the Royal Albert Hall -all of those starting to incorporate these ideas, although they were not necessarily direct descendants of Reid's specific solutions in the Palace of Westminster, but they reflect a general shift towards more technologically complex buildings.’ All good? Yes, De La Soul, it is. And all curious, too. Henrik can be found on the University of Kent website, the book is linked above and the AHRC project is here. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    52 min
  8. Dell Upton: American architecture.

    SEP 11

    Dell Upton: American architecture.

    In this episode of A is for Architecture, Dell Upton, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, UC Berkeley and Professor and Chair of Art History at UCLA, speaks about his book, American Architecture: A Thematic History, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. To the question, What is American architecture? Dell suggests ‘That is a very long and vexed question, not only with American architecture, but in American culture. And it really starts from at the time of the American Revolution. How are we different from Europe? But how are we also connected to the best aspects of Europe, so can we be refined in a European sense, but also distinctively American? […] Louis Sullivan […] influenced by the poet Walt Whitman, begins to talk about [American] architecture in a kind of rhapsodic way, as somehow tied to the character of democracy, the character of the land, to the … well, he would say spiritual.’  But is it though? Listen to every word of Dell’s to see. Dell has a Wikipedia page because he’s proper. You can also find him linked above, along with the book. Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

    52 min
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Ratings & Reviews

3.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

A podcast about architecture, buildings, urban culture and space with Ambrose Gillick, discussing ideas, artefacts and people with scholars, designers, artists, teachers and architects. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts/ iTunes, Youtube Music and Amazon Music. Contact Ambrose on a.gillick@kent.ac.uk i. @ais4architecture x. @AisArchitecture f. @aisforarchitecture

Information

  • Creator
    Ambrose Gillick
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    129
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Ambrose Gillick
  • Show Website
    A is for Architecture

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