The Architectural Review Podcast

In this episode, architectural historian, writer and educator Huda Tayob takes us to the now destroyed Sophiatown in Johannesburg, South Africa, through recordings of the neighbourhood found in the 1959 film Come Back Africa. This AR Bookshelf episode is part of a collaboration between The Architectural Review and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) around the book Fugitive Archives: A Sourcebook for Centring Africa in Histories of Architecture, published following the CCA’s Centring Africa research project. In each episode of this short series, a researcher from the publication tells the story of a place based on sources traditionally overlooked by western archives. Forming a fugitive archive itself, the episodes study both the places themselves and the media – better suited to podcast than paper – that document and describe them. Fugitive Archives is edited by Claire Lubell and Rafico Ruiz, and co-published with Jap Sam Books (October 2023).

The Architectural Review is joined in this episode of the AR Ecologies by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, as we follow the research of CCA's ‘How to: do no harm’ residency, curated by Lev Bratishenko and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. AR host Ellen Peirson looks at the harm that architects do to land, cities, materials and workers. Stories from Sahar Shah, Guujaaw, Sename Koffi Agbodjinou and Jess Myers weave together an honest argument about how harmful it is to exist in this ecological age. Once we acknowledge that we can’t create without extracting, we can start transforming our ways of working to make them regenerative. From the oil pipelines snaking through Canada, the search for an architectural identity in the globalising cities in Togo, the labour organising happening in classrooms and workplaces and the unceded lands of the Haida Nation in British Columbia, these truths hurt. Architects want to find new ways to practise architecture on this scarred planet. To do no harm. But is this possible? AR Ecologies, a podcast by the Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions which launch each chapter. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. This episode is an audio counterpart to our October 2022 issue on Energy, while the first season revolved around trees, an audio counterpart to our October 2021 issue on Trees. The publication that was produced during the ‘How to do no harm residency’ in September can be found here, and the transcript for this podcast can be found here.

Completing the tree-filled trilogy, the AR turns to focus on timber, our fundamental link between trees and architecture. Timber, especially mass timber - is seen to be one of the most ecologically sustainable building materials and an obvious alternative in construction. But when a virtuous material is used to replicate capitalist models, the result can exacerbate, rather than counter the climate catastrophe. Scientist Suzanne Simard, architecture historian Erin Putalik and engineer Maria Smith share their projects, voices and perspectives on how we see, build and ultimately grow trees to operate in the same world that preserves and produces this essential building block of our existence. Hosted by Sabrina Syed. AR Ecologies, a podcast by The Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. The first series revolves around trees, an audio counterpart to the AR October 2021 issue, available now.

In the first episode of the AR Ecologies series, the ecological silver bullet of planting trees is put under scrutiny. From Amazonia to London, planting and its colonial history is unravelled by different voices, including photographer Sebastião Salgado, scientist Suzanne Simard, research director at human rights organisation Survival International Fiona Watson, architect Paulo Tavares and engineer Maria Smith. Hosted by Sabrina Syed. AR Ecologies, a podcast by The Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. The first series revolves around trees, an audio counterpart to the AR October 2021 issue, available now.

This episode features a piece by Peter Buchanan which asks whether early acclaim for an architect can be a handicap – or even the kiss of death? We’re revisiting this piece now as our July/August issue features the work of Enric Miralles (1955 - 2000) in our Reputations column, who, as a believer in designing through making, left a vast archive of drawings and models. This essay looks at the architects once heralded as rising stars who have seen their work descend into caricature and recycled motifs. The original piece can be read here: https://www.architectural-review.com/architects/emerging-architects/can-early-acclaim-for-an-architect-be-a-handicap-even-the-kiss-of-death

This episode features an essay by Carlos Quintáns called Make do and mend, published in AR December 2019/January 2020 issue on Preservation. The essay looks at how practices of persistent upkeep in Burkina Faso are themselves a piece of heritage that must be maintained. We’re revisiting this piece now as we publish our June issue on Waste where we confront the life cycles of materials, objects and spaces.

Published in AR November 2016, Housing the dead, by Ken Warpole is about the environmental, economic and cultural factors that have shaped funerary architecture throughout the ages. Following on from the publication of our April 2021 issue on the underground, this piece burrows into the underground as not something that is hollow and empty – infinitely filled and extracted from, but a site full of stories, meaning and imaginaries. In the AR underground issue, Phineas Harper explore alternative funerary practices at Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire, accompanied with poetry by Merlin Fulcher. The following piece looks at how we make space for the dead and the architectural legacy of the grave.

Havana’s unique agricultural infrastructure emerged from punishing trade sanctions following the fall of the USSR but today provides an exemplary precedent that could be applied worldwide. This episode of AR Reads features Cuba’s urban farming revolution: how to create self-sufficient cities by Carey Clouse, published in AR March 2014. AR Reads is a podcast by The Architectural Review, bringing you a piece from our vast archive, read out loud for you to enjoy.

In the third chapter of the AR Bookshelf, Owen Hatherley reveals Southampton’s secrets, how to solve the housing crisis and why Brutalism mania has gone too far. Join us on a journey from Southampton to Moscow, via Los Angeles, London and Warsaw, all without leaving home. The AR Bookshelf, a podcast by The Architectural Review, invites the most interesting and influential names in architecture to put books on an imaginary bookshelf and tell us their story.

Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats take The Architectural Review around their bookshelf, from Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier to TS Eliot and Georges Perec. On the way, we discuss the death of drawing, books that hold memory, and bringing buildings back to life. The AR Bookshelf, a podcast by The Architectural Review, invites the most interesting and influential names in architecture to put books on an imaginary bookshelf and tell us their story.