About Buildings + Cities
Episodes
46 — Robert Venturi's 'Complexity & Contradiction' — Valid Banalities
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the first AB+C of 2019 we’re tackling one of the seminal texts of the 1960s, and an iconic moment in the stylistic overthrow of the postwar mode...
Bonus Unlocked — 44.5 — Italian Architecture Under Fascism
04 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're a bit late with the first episode of the new year, so I'm releasing our bonus conversation on Italian fascist architecture to tide you over unti...
45 — John Ruskin & the 19th century — Living Too Late
16 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We finally get onto the last book of Stones of Venice, and its reverberations through the long second half of the 19th century. Young Ruskinians, EL ...
44 — Giovanni Michelucci — Late Style
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Giovanni Michelucci was born in 1891, and lived through nine-tenths of the 20th century, through all its terrifying and perplexing twists and dislocat...
Shoetopia! — by Stories from the Eastern West
22 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A collaboration between About Buildings + Cities and Stories from the Eastern West (@sftewpodcast) — a cool podcast telling little-known stories fro...
Conversation 2.2 — Adam Caruso — Second Thoughts
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is the audio from our ‘In Conversation’ with Adam Caruso, held at Nottingham Contemporary on October the 4th. You can (and probably should, ...
Conversation 2.1 — Adam Caruso — On the night
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is the audio from our ‘In Conversation’ with Adam Caruso, held at Nottingham Contemporary on October the 4th. You can (and probably should, ...
43 — John Ruskin's 'Stones of Venice' — Shafts!
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We discuss the first two volumes of 'Stones of Venice' — the interminable first and dream-like second. Shafts, archivolts, more shafts, rotten and ...
42 — John Ruskin — Rock Lover
30 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Ruskin’s ‘Stones of Venice’ is one of the monuments of architectural theory in the 19th century. But it’s a hard book to get through, or ...
Conversation 1 — Fred Scharmen — Zero-G Carnival
16 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A short post-script to the Space Age episodes — we talked to Fred Scharmen about the mid 1970s NASA Space Settlements design study. You can read h...
41 — '2001 – A Space Odyssey' 2/2 — Live on BBC 12
23 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of our discussion of '2001 — A Space Odyssey'. At a certain point quite early on we started referring to the Monolith as 'the Obel...
40 — '2001 – A Space Odyssey' 1/2 — Pink Upholstery in Cartesian Space
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001 a space odyssey is the iconic depiction of space travel, channeling the optimism and excitement of radical advances...
39 — Catastrophe Curves — Early 90s Computer Architecture
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The 1990s were when computers really entered the mainstream of architecture. The rise of personal computing, with wider access to inexpensive machines...
38 — Le Corbusier — 9 — Villa Stein & Villa Savoye
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We now have a Patreon — you can subscribe to get additional content for every episode. Projects like the Villa Stein and Villa Savoye are icons of ...
37 — Le Corbusier — 8 — Five Points Towards a New Architecture
01 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We now have a Patreon — you can subscribe to get additional content for every episode. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanerret's 'Five Points' (1926) wer...
36 — Bernard Rudofsky & 'Architecture Without Architects'
13 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re launching a Patreon — you can subscribe to get additional content for every episode. Bernard Rudofsky’s exhibition Architecture Without A...
35 — 'Playtime' & 'Mon Oncle' — Modern life in Tativille
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jacques Tati's 'Mon Oncle' (1957) and 'Playtime' (1967) playfully dramatise the clash between old and new in the fast-changing cities of post-war Fran...
34 — Adolf Loos's 'Ornament and Crime' — Bathroom Kink
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Adolf Loos’s essay ‘Ornament and Crime’ (1910) is considered the classic modernist polemic against the frills and folderols of the established a...
33 — Le Corbusier — 7 — Early Mass Housing
25 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we explore in two early schemes for mass housing, at Pessac and in Stuttgart. Among many other things, we talked about — Bournev...
32 — Le Corbusier – 6 – Urbanism — Let's Demolish Paris (Again)
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The concluding part of our discussion of ‘Urbanism’ (1925) — we look at the proposals for a Contemporary City for Three Million (1923), and the...
31 – Le Corbusier – 5 – Urbanism – Of Men & Asses
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The first of a two part episode exploring Le Corbusier’s infamous and much-derided urban proposals, exhibited in the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion in 1925...
30 – Franz Kafka's America
14 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Franz Kafka’s first, and least-finished, novel is an imaginary journey around the USA (a country he never visited). Written in 1912, it’s a fantas...
29 – Le Corbusier – 4 – At Home He Feels Like A Purist
23 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For our Christmas episode, we're discussing the early Purist villas! Knowing the right people, and a relentless programme of self-publicity yielded a...
28 – Le Corbusier – 3 – Towards a New Architecture
13 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A new epoch has begun! Le Corbusier’s ‘discovery’ is that the style of future architecture is to be found new inventions of the machine age — ...
27 – Le Corbusier – 2 – Oyster and Breezeblock Years
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We’re in Paris, 1917, where Charles-Edouard Jeanneret is making friends, thinking about sex (and writing enormous letters about it), designing the o...
26 – Le Corbusier – 1 – Have Formwork, Will Travel
13 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taking on the origin story of (for better or worse) the most important architect of the 20th century — Charles-Edouard Jeanneret aka Le Corb...
25 – Palace of the Soviets – Wedding Cake Stalinism
30 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
First announced in 1931, the project for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow evolved into a staggeringly vast and bizarre proposal which stalled durin...
24.5 – Blade Runner 2049
23 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t listen if you haven’t seen the movie yet! We discuss Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. It’s pretty formless and we forgot the names...
24 – Blade Runner – Do You Like Our Owl?
16 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As a postscript to our discussion of Cyberpunk in episodes 20-21, and vaguely looking ahead to the release of the upcoming sequel, we talked about Ri...
23 – Chicago Tribune – 2 of 2 – Honourable Mentions
02 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We conclude our discussion of the 1922 Chicago Tribune competition, going through a few of the less favoured entries, and discussing how it’s been s...
22 – Chicago Tribune – 1 of 2 – World's Most Beautiful Office Building
10 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 1922, to coincide with its 75th birthday, the Chicago Tribune set out to endow the city with ‘the world’s most beautiful office building’. Th...
21 – William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' – 2 of 2 – A Haunted House in Space
14 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Leaving the waste-strewn Earth behind, we follow the team on their run all the way to its conclusion in orbit. On the way, we cast our eyes over the w...
20 – William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' – 1 of 2 – Foam Mattress, No Sheets
23 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back in dystopia, soaking up the glamour, danger and decadence of the cyberpunk city. We’re reading William Gibson’s seminal science ficti...
19 – Jean Renaudie – French Concrete Utopia
04 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During the 1960s and 70s, the French architect Jean Renaudie designed and built a series of projects in which he attempted to upend the staid and for...
18 – Junkspace – Rem Koolhaas & the End of Architecture
17 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A fuzzy empire of blur, a low grade purgatory, a perpetual Jacuzzi with millions of your best friends… We're discussing Junkspace (2001), Rem Koolha...
17 – Michelangelo – 3 of 3 – St Peters, Last Judgement, and Late Style
06 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Michelangelo’s incredibly long career meant that he was old for a very long time, and the idea of death, and of what comes afterwards, hang over man...
16 – Michelangelo – 2 of 3 – Laurentine Library and Campidoglio
15 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We continue our discussion of the architecture of Michelangelo Buonarotti with an exploration of two of his most important projects – the Laurentine...
15 – Michelangelo – 1 of 3 – David and the Sistine & Medici Chapels
06 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The first of a three-parter in which we try to understand the work, and myth, of Michelangelo Buonarroti, referred to by followers as ‘the Divine’...
14 – Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' – 2 of 2
13 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of your discussion of Ayn Rand's extremely long fantasy about the 'ideal man' and the buildings he makes. The book gets weirder and mo...
13 – Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' – 1 of 2
30 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This isn't one of those book reviews where you're expected to read the book first – we did it so you don't have to. Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' ...
12 – Aldo Rossi's Buildings – Part 2 of 2 – Venice Theatre to Disney HQ
22 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The second half of Aldo Rossi's career. We discuss his role on the ushering in of the age of po-mo, a few selected monstrosties, and do listener corre...
11 – Aldo Rossi's Buildings – Part 1 of 2 – from the Partisans to the Cemetery
24 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Aldo Rossi’s strange and elegiac early buildings – from the tiny Monument to the Partisans, to the vast, unfinished cemetery at Modena – set him...
10 – Aldo Rossi's 'The Architecture of the City' – Interrupted Destiny
06 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A valiant attempt to understand Aldo Rossi's 1966 'L'Architettura della Citta', a book which both Luke & George have owned for years, but which ne...
09 – The Glass Paradise – 3 of 3 – The Crystal Chain
31 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The collapse of the Imperial German state after WW1 seemed an opportunity for Taut and his fellow visionaries to become architect-leaders themselves, ...
08 – The Glass Paradise – 2 of 3 – Bruno Taut dissolves the Cities
24 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Scheerbart is dead, and Europe has dissolved into conflict, but the Glass Dream continues. Luke & George explore Bruno Taut's manifestos, the...
07 – The Glass Paradise – 1 of 3 – Coloured Glass Destroys Hatred!
27 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We begin a three-part exploration of the Glass Paradise – an early 20th vision of a better world – starting off with Bruno Taut’s extraordinary ...
06 – Tate Modern – Herzog & de Meuron Before and After
19 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Luke & George visit and discuss Switch House, the new extension to Tate Modern – and the architects of both it, and the original museum, Herzog ...
05 - Living The Roman Good Life – Pliny's Letters on the Villas
05 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Luke & George read and discuss Pliny the Younger’s two luxurious (but still so modest!) villas, as described in his letters. The box hedges have...
04 – Barbican Estate – Establishment Brutalism
29 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Exploring the history and architecture of the inimitable Barbican Estate, the joys of brutalism, concrete, late modernist planning, concealed historic...
03 – How To Run An Efficient Dystopia – Taylorism and Science Fiction Cities
24 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
George & Luke survey three dystopian cities; the glass perfection of Yvegny Zamyatin’s ‘We’, the consumer World State of Aldous Huxley’s ‘...
02 – Strawberry Hill – Horace Walpole's Gothic Fantasies
24 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
An exploration of Horace Walpole’s mid 18th c. Gothic fantasy villa at Strawberry Hill, purple cushions and all. Contains readings from his highly i...
01 – 'The English House' by Hermann Muthesius – A German Spy in the Inglenook
24 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The first episode of a new podcast! Luke and George read Hermann Muthesius's early 20th c. epic 'The English House'. Learn about the English, their ...