Architecturetalk

  “Isn’t this desire for objectivity a modernist sentiment?” - VP “Where does one enter, and where does one exit out of the modern?” - MJ   In today's episode, we engage in a far-ranging and open-ended discussion on the question of the global with my longtime collaborator Mark Jarzombek. Circulating around the question of the larger agenda of the global, discussion topics include the modernity and its critiques, the nation-state and its limits, autobiography and its pitfalls, and what are the ways in which global thinking (dis)connects with deconstruction.   2:31 Magdalenian culture and civilization: the caves. The Gravettians. 4:09 A Global History of Architecture textbook + GAHTC: what is this global project? 6:50 Modernism, Postmodernism, and the critical question of the “after the modern” 11:23 Modernism as dualism: the good and the bad in equal doses, continuously, vs a Hegelian dialectic (destruction at the end) 13:30 “How to develop a critique that doesn’t entrap you into being complicit in one side

This week, we discuss the work, the working style and legacy of the late Catalonian architect, Enric Miralles with our guest Ayad Rahmani. Ayad is a Professor of Architecture at Washington State University. Image: Floor Plan of Hostalets Civic Center, El Croquis Magazine, 1995

This week, we discuss global history in our conversation with Amit Srivastava, Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide, on post-postcolonial history and historiography in the Indian Ocean context. Discussion topics include: history of the modern architecture of India, globalization and contemporary South Asian architecture and infrastructural history versus 'big-name' architectural history.

Today we speculate about life, the purposes of life and architectural thinking with Danish architect Lene Tranberg, founding partner of Lundgaard & Tranberg in Copenhagen, Denmark. Discussion topics include: Phenomenology, the body in space, intuition as embedded knowledge, transcendence, doubt, translation, and striving to understand the interwoven character of material and place.

This week we discuss the GAHTC module on Climate and Global History with Daniel Barber,  Chair of the graduate Architecture group at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. discussion topics include: ecology in non-modernist cultures, tropical modernism, new narratives of ecological thinking, designing for discomfort, and architecture as the mediation between the infrastructural and the personal. Image: Victor and Aladar Olgyay at the Princeton Architectural Laboratory, c. 1955

  A great conversation with Seattle’s great conversation starter, John Boylan. We’ll discuss art and science, engineering, technology, industry and the potential of rigorous inquiry in both scientific and artistic explorations. John is a respected member of Seattle's technology community and instigator of interdisciplinary creative works such as 9e2 Seattle.

We discuss the value and challenges of conceptual architectural practice with Seattle based architect Rob Hutchison. Discussion topics include: death and memory, memory versus intuition, dedication, client relations and the emotional engines of design.  

In this conversation with Yomi Breaester, Professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Washington, we discuss the many ways in which cinema and new media practices intersection with architecture as aesthetic and political practices. Discussion topics include: the chronotype, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect, and Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love. 

THIS WEEK, we talk to Richard Williams about sex, Mad Men, James Bond and of course, architecture. Richard is a Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures at The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art where he heads the History of Art subject area. Don’t miss this candid discussion of all things sexy in the contemporary built world.  

For the premiere of ArchitectureTalk Season 2, we will be discussing the countours, ambitions and politics of World History, especially in terms of material culture, with University of Washington historian Anand Yang. While focussed on Anand's work on Indian Ocean trade and convict ship convoys that plied there during the colonial period. Our discussion covers connected topics such as subaltern studies, nationalism, the regional vs the global, convict labor and civil society, the Protestant work ethic and Big history. 

Announcing Season 2, starting September 12, 2018! Upcoming conversation topics include world history, Asian cinema, conceptual practice and sex and architecture. Stay tuned! We are reissuing one of our seminal conversations with Dominick LaCapra on Transference and Architecture to get you into the mood for our second round of conversations.

  In this SPECIAL EDITION we talk with Warren Etheredge, critic, screenwriter, teacher and charismatic co-founder with Tom Skerritt of The Film School. Warren is also the author of TheWarrenReport and host of the podcast, The High Bar. Over a meal in the University of Washington Faculty Club, we discuss his career, screenwriting and the importance of storytelling, emotional vulnerability and honesty in film. We explore the art, craft (and crap) of cinema and design and interrogate issues of practice, celebrity, consumer culture, profit, auteurship and aesthetics in filmmaking and architecture through the work of Kubrick, Tarkovsky and others.

SOURCE: Afroditi Psarra We talk to multidisciplinary artist, Afroditi Psarra (Professor of Digital Arts at the University of Washington) about her work with electronic textiles, "alienesque" aesthetics, soft circuits and our the new relationships that we have to establish between our bodies and responsive technologies. Discussion topics include: collaborative practice, DIY culture, parametic design, bio-feedback, open-source working and the uncanny. 

 DOA Exhibition Poster We discuss the "Death of Architecture" with designers Aniket Bhagwat and Riyaz Tayyibji. DOA, the title of their exhibition currently touring in India, examines the state of architectural thinking and practice in India today including grappling with ideas about cities, time, preservation and the public. Bhagwat, a landscape architect, and Tayyibji, an architect, are both based in Ahmedabad, India. Through a series of provocations and storytelling, they engage humor and critical thinking to assess the discourse of contemporary design.

Muqarnas Vault, Masjid-i Shah/Imam, Isfahan. Source: Daniel C. Waugh, Courtesy of Archnet.org   We talk with Architectural historian Christian Hedrick, currently working at the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT as a researcher, visiting lecturer at the School of Architecture at Northeastern University and GAHTC contributor, about the intersection of Islamic architecture with cultures in India, China, North Africa, and Europe. We explore ideas of global exchange, translation and transformation of Islamic forms and materials, such as the pointed arch, as well as brick, stucco, and ornamental ceramic tiles and techniques like haft-rangī. We touch on ideas of Orientalism, and the circulation and representation of Islamic visual material culture in the Abbasid empire and Ummayad dynasty.

Ken Oshima (left) with Arata Isozaki (right)   We discuss the complexities of practicing architecture and architectural history across cultures, nationalities, and aesthetic regimes with Ken T. Oshima, Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, Chair of the Japan Studies Program, and recent President of the Society for Architectural Historians. Topics include: the Edo period, Antonin Raymond,  Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan, the post-War modernists, Japanese global architects, as well as Professor Oshima's involvement in museum curation and architectural history. 

Hotel Condessa, Mexico City SOURCE JSa This week we talk with Javier Sánchez, developer, architect and founder of JSa architectural firm, with offices in Mexico City and in Peru. We interrogate the state of contemporary practice in Mexico, the role of Modernism, and the power of transformation in architecture. We discuss with Javier family legacy, time, and innovation as the son and grandson of architects and forging his own path in the design world. And we examine the role of personal change and the role of running in rethinking architectural practice. DEAR LISTENERS: You might notice some distortion in the second half of the interview. We had some interference on the recording but it improves.  

Camel with Gatling gun SOURCE Smithsonian Magazine 1872 Camels, ships, roads, railways, electricity.....This week we talk with Shundana Yusaf, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Utah, and discuss the concept and approach to her fascinating co-authored GAHTC module about architecture and the technologies of transportation and communication. Her research has looked at topics as rich and wide ranging as the BBC and Empire in the age of wireless communication as well as Sufi shrines and hyperconnectivity. 

Based on her recent book, Creating Urban Agricultural Systems: An Integrated Approach to Design, we discuss with University of Washington's Gundula Proksch the myriad implications of re-thinking our food culture. Conversation topics range from community gardens to hydroponics, edible school yards to Mars colonies, the slow-food movement to bio-engineered buildings.   

  View of kumbh mela. SOURCE Felipe Vera We discuss kinetic architecture and ephemeral urbanism with Rahul Mehrotra, Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Topics include events like the kumbh mela, and its implications about thinking about temporality in contemporary practice; designing for obsolescence; immigration and identity; and India in the 21st century. Rahul is also principal of RMA Architects, Mumbai.