Beatriz Colomina: Architecture as disease and cure.
From A is for Architecture Podcast by Ambrose Gillick
May 7, 2026 · 56 min · Episode 200
About this episode
The episode features an interview with Beatriz Colomina discussing her book 'Sick Architecture' and the relationship between architecture and illness.
Bellerophon, son of Poseidon and Eurynome, slew the Chimera and, full of hubris, believed he had a rightful place on Mount Olympus among the gods and set off there on his winged horse, Pegasus. Zeus did not like this and sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, which threw Bellerophon, who fell back to Earth and died. The story of modernism has maybe been a little tinged by hubris too. We have defeated all the monsters, presented an architecture and urbanism which proclaims it will do away with social and pathological ills, if only we would let it, and thus deserves a place among the deities. But perhaps, as covid showed, modernism has somewhat over-played its hand. The monsters got amongst us again. In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast - the 200th - I spoke to the great architectural historian and theorist, Beatriz Colomina , Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture at Princeton University, about some small parts of the recently published book, Sick Architecture , which she edited with Nick Axel, Guillermo S. Arsuaga and e-flux Architecture and published with MIT Press. In the book, 35 essays from around the world present ways architecture has both…
People in this episode
Host: Ambrose Gillick
Guest: Beatriz Colomina
Topics covered
- modernism
- architecture
- sickness
- urbanism
- historical theory
- design
Keywords
- architecture
- modernism
- sickness
- urbanism
- Beatriz Colomina
- Sick Architecture
- design
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Princeton University, MIT Press
Books & works: Sick Architecture
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