About Buildings + Cities

By Luke Jones & George Gingell Discuss Architecture, History and Culture

What's About Buildings + Cities about?

A podcast about architecture, buildings and cities, from the distant past to the present day. Plus detours into technology, film, fiction, comics, drawings, and the dimly imagined future.

With Luke Jones and George Gingell.

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About Buildings + Cities episodes:

12.09.2021
90 — Carlo Scarpa — 4/4 — All I Want Is A Pharoah
We round off our series on Carlo Scarpa with two projects for Italian consumer electronics dynasties — the Olivetti corporation, for whom he designed a famous shop in Piazza San Marco, and the Brion-Vega family for whom he designed an...
11.10.2021
89 — Carlo Scarpa — 3/4 — Castelvecchio, Invented History
The Castelvecchio Museum (1959-73) in Verona is an elaborate spatial narrative, weaving together historic structures and ingenious design elements to create a fragmentary and multi-layered story about the site, the city, and the objects contained in it. The project was...
10.14.2021
88 — Carlo Scarpa — 2/4 — Querini Stampalia, Venetian Sci-Fi
We talked about Carlo Scarpa's work at the Querini Stampalia foundation (1959-63), a palazzo-museum in Venice. Scarpa's interventions are focussed on the ground floor spaces, including a new entrance bridge, galleries and courtyard garden. There's a very distinctive mixture of...
09.15.2021
87 — Carlo Scarpa — 1/4 — Not Every Architect is an Artist
In our first episode on Carlo Scarpa, we're trying something new! We've made a video to accompany the episode that you can find on our YouTube Channel, in which you can watch Luke and George discuss the enigmatic architecture of...
08.17.2021
86 — Ian Nairn — 3/3 — Nairn on TV
In the final episode in our series on Ian Nairn, we discussed the 1967 book 'Britain's Changing Towns' and the BBC television work that has granted Nairn a viral afterlife on YouTube. Here's the Nairn clip from the outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K-53widcdY You...
08.03.2021
85 — Ian Nairn — 2/3 — Nairn's London
In the second episode of our series on Ian Nairn, we talked about Nairn's London, the 1966 architectural guide to the city which was the critic's magnum opus. We discussed his inimitable prose style, his deep knowledge of the buildings...
07.12.2021
84 — Ian Nairn — 1/3 — Subtopia
The first episode in our new series on the work of architectural critic Ian Nairn. In this first episode we discussed his breakout work for the Architectural Review, Outrage, which railed against 'subtopia', the suburban sprawl of concrete and fencing...
06.07.2021
83 —Otto Wagner — 5/5 — Proto-Modernist
Our final episode on Otto Wagner considers his relationship to modernism, asking whether Wagner was a predecessor to modernism. We discussed his most modern building, the Österreichische Postsparkasse or Austrian Postal Savings Bank, like so much in Vienna at this...
05.10.2021
82 — Otto Wagner — 4/5 — Secession
In the penultimate episode in our series on Otto Wagner, we discussed Wagner's most famous projects, the art nouveau works produced at the height of the Vienna Secession. We talked about the Majolikahaus, other art nouveau apartment blocks, the Karlsplatz...
04.29.2021
*Preview* — 81.5 — Klimt
This is a preview of our latest bonus episode on Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession, get access to the full episode on our Patreon. In this episode we discussed the work of the Vienna Secession beyond Otto Wagner, particularly the...
04.18.2021
81 — Otto Wagner — 3/5 — On the Stadtbahn
In this episode, we talked about the middle stage of Otto Wagner's career, primarily his work on the infrastructure of the city of Vienna. Visit our instagram and Twitter for pictures of the dams, railway stations and bridges that shaped...
03.31.2021
80 — Otto Wagner — 2/5 — The Style Question
In our second episode on Otto Wagner, we discussed a couple of Wagner's early buildings, specifically the Landerbank in Vienna and the Rumbach Street Synagogue in Budapest. Both are tantalising glimpses of the themes that would dominate his later, most...
03.18.2021
79 — Otto Wagner — 1/5 — Ringstraße Rent Palaces
This is the first episode in our new series on Otto Wagner. In it we discussed 19th century Vienna, an ancient city wracked by extremes of urbanisation and population boom; political radicalism and revolution. A crumbling ancient order and an...
03.10.2021
*Preview* — 77.5 — Patrick Keiller Bonus Episode
This is a preview of a bonus episode we published on Patreon as part of our series of WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz', subscribe to our Patreon to subscribe and get access to our back catalogue of bonus episodes. In this bonus episode...
03.04.2021
78 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 2/2 — Locked Rooms
Our second episode on WG Sebald's 2001 novel 'Austerlitz', encountering strangely preserved rooms, nightmarish dream landscapes, gigantesque 19th century fantasies, and a mix of psychoanalysis, Perrault's Bibliothèque Nationale, Liverpool Street Station and Casanova. Watch Sebald giving a reading of Austerlitz and...
01.31.2021
77 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 1/2 — In the Nocturama
In our first episode of 2021 we discussed 'Austerlitz', the final novel by W.G. Sebald. It's the story, at the most basic level, of an architectural historian, Jacques Austerlitz, who in middle age begins to rediscover his own submerged history....
12.28.2020
*Preview* — 76.5 — Robert Moses Bonus Episode
This is a preview from our latest Patreon Bonus Episode – subscribe to our Patreon for just $3 a month to listen to the whole episode! Thank you to everyone who supported the show this year, we couldn't have done...
12.10.2020
76 — Jane Jacobs — 2/2 — Unslumming and Gentrification
Our second episode on Jane Jacobs' canonical work, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'. In this second half we further discuss her vision for the ideal city, based on her experiences in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. We...
11.25.2020
75 — Jane Jacobs — 1/2 — Eyes on the Street
The first episode in a two-part series on Jane Jacobs, a profoundly influential writer, thinker and campaigner on issues of urbanism, whose magnum opus 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' (1961) forms the backbone of our discussion. In...
10.27.2020
74 — Monasteries — 3/3 — Fourier, Narkomfin, La Tourette
The final episode in our series on the deep history of the monastery. Modernity has arrived and monasticism is living a strange afterlife. First, we discuss the early 19th century Utopian Socialism of Charles Fourier, whose Phalanstère take the framework...
09.25.2020
73 — Monasteries — 2/3 — The Apostolic Life
In our second episode on Monasteries we're talking about Carthusians, millenarian religiosity, the co-option of radicalism by the mainstream, baroque splendour, Slow TV, retirement bungalows and whether Jesus owned the shirt on his back. In this episode we attempt to...
08.19.2020
72 — Monasteries — 1/3 — Cluniacs and Cistercians
In this new 3 part series we’re trying something a little bit different, we’re going to try and think about the monastery from deep time up to the present day. The monastery is an almost unique architectural typology; in its...
07.10.2020
71 — Christopher Alexander — 2/2 — Pattern Language
In our second episode on Christopher Alexander, we discuss 'A Pattern Language', the book he wrote with Murray Silverstein and Sara Ishikawa, published in 1977. The text proposes a list of patterns, derived from experience, imagination and vernacular traditions, from...
06.17.2020
70 — Christopher Alexander — 1/2 —Notes on the Synthesis of Form
This is the first episode of a new series on Design Theorist, Architect, Mathematician and Computation Fan, Christopher Alexander. Alexander studied Mathematics at Cambridge University in the 1950s, then undertook the first ever PhD in Architecture at Harvard, where he...
05.17.2020
69 — Zaha Hadid — 4/4 — The Parametric Years
In this final episode on Zaha Hadid we discuss a small fraction of the huge number of projects that ZHA produced from the early noughties up to Zaha's untimely death in 2016. We attempt to reflect on Zaha's legacy as...
05.03.2020
68 — Zaha Hadid — 3/4 — Vitra to Cardiff
The third part of our ongoing series on Zaha Hadid! In this episode we discuss the early buildings of the practice, including IBA housing in Berlin, Vitra Fire Station, Spittelau Viaduct Housing, and the unbuilt competition winning design for the...
04.22.2020
Bonus Unlocked — 48.5 — OMA — Bigness
UNLOCKED PATREON BONUS This unlocked bonus episode comes from our Patreon feed, where we post extra content and bonus discussions with every episode of the podcast. This bonus follows on from Episode 48, discussing the early projects of OMA and the...
04.14.2020
67 — Zaha Hadid — 2/4 — The Peak
In our second episode on Zaha Hadid, we're covering the rest of the 1980s, from the competition to design the Peak Leisure Centre in Hong Kong, to the Deconstructivism exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The...
04.08.2020
66 — Zaha Hadid — 1/4 — AA Days
In our first episode on Zaha Hadid, we dive into the spell-binding work of one of the most famous, controversial and interesting architects of her generation. We begin by imagining the unique atmosphere of the Architectural Association in the 1970s,...
03.17.2020
65 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 3/3 — Nostalghia and The Sacrifice
In our final episode on Andrei Tarkovsky, we discuss the two films he directed after leaving the Soviet Union: Nostalghia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986). Both films see a continued intensification of the directorial moves that Tarkovsky had been developing...
02.28.2020
64 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 2/3 — Stalker
In our second episode on Soviet director and auteur Andrei Tarkovsky we discuss his most well known film and possibly his magnum opus, Stalker (1979). The last film that Tarkovsky made whilst living in the Soviet Union, Stalker is loosely...
02.03.2020
63 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 1/3 — Setting the Stage
In this first part of our new series on legendary Russian director Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky we discuss his early films: Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972) and Mirror (1975). We will also be releasing a Patreon bonus very...
12.09.2019
62 — Leon Battista Alberti — 2/2 — Building the Quattrocento
62 — Leon Battista Alberti — 2/2 — Building the Quattrocento Having discussed his magnum opus, 'De Re Aedificatoria' in the last episode, here we discuss the curious collection of buildings that Alberti designed across Italy over the course of his...
11.05.2019
61 — Leon Battista Alberti — 1/2 — De Re Aedificatoria
In this first episode of a two parter, we tackle the original big beautiful bouncing boy of the High Italian Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti, and his 1485 blockbuster publication, On the Art of Building in Ten Books. After Vitruvius' original...
10.10.2019
60 — Reyner Banham — 2/2 — Design By Choice
In our second and final episode on Reyner Banham, we discuss his pivot to Los Angeles, his love affair with Archigram, his theories of Megastructure, and his later projects on American industrial vernacular ('Concrete Atlantis') and his unpublished book about...
09.22.2019
59 — Reyner Banham — 1/2 — Science for Kicks
As requested by the listeners, part one of a two parter on Reyner Banham! Banham was an architectural critic, historian, scenester and prophet of the future, with a flair for iconoclastic and pugilistic writing. In this first episode we discuss his...
08.19.2019
58 — The Reactionaries — 3/3 — The Empire Strikes Back
In our final episode on Reactionaries, we explore the politics and theory that underpinned the reactionary rejection of Modernism in the 70s and 80s. We discuss Prince Charles' architectural interventions and the theories of our future king's favourite architect, Leon...
08.01.2019
57 — The Reactionaries — 2/3 — Caesar's Palace without the Fun
In our second episode on Reactionaries, we explore the rejection of modernism by traditionalist architects and theorists in England after the Second World War. Modernism became the hegemonic architectural and urbanist mode in England during this period, and we examine...
07.27.2019
Conversation 3 — Dulwich Picture Gallery — Soane in The Colour Palace
This is the audio from our live panel discussion at Dulwich Picture Gallery, where we were joined by the gallery's assistant curator, Helen Hillyard, and Neba Sere, founder of WUH Architecture and co-director of Black Females in Architecture. The discussion...
06.17.2019
56 — The Reactionaries — 1/3 — Interwar Anxieties
Come and see us record a live episode at Dulwich Picture Gallery on the 26th June! We'd love to meet you! Modernist Architecture has always had more than its fair share of critics. In this episode, the first of a two...
05.30.2019
55 — Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira' — 3/3 — Good for Health, Bad for Education
In this concluding part of our discussion, we interview Anna Mill, artist of ‘Square Eyes’ about Akira from the point of view of an illustrator, and also discuss the feature length Akira anime (1988), and the wonderful soundtrack by Geinoh...
05.15.2019
54 — Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira — 2/3 — Exploding Neo-Tokyo Twice
In the second part of our discussion, we talk through the whole, incredibly epic six-volume manga 'Akira' from start to finish. Music is from the soundtrack to the film 'Akira' by Geinoh Yamashirogumi. This episode is sponsored by the Article Trade...
05.01.2019
53 — Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira — 1/3 — Radio School
Katsuhiro Otomo’s vast magnum opus ‘Akira’ (1982-90) is one of the landmarks of late 20th century science fiction — a story of psychic battles, youth counterculture and technology run out of control — all set in Neo-Tokyo, a vast megastructure...
04.15.2019
52 — Nicholas Hawksmoor's Churches — 2/2
We conclude our discussion of the churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor in London, featuring discussion of church politics, 'the primitive church of the early Christians' and wet and windy site recordings from St George in the East, Shadwell (1714-29), Christ Church...
03.25.2019
51 — Nicholas Hawksmoor's Churches — 1/2
Nicholas Hawksmoor, born in 1661, built six churches in London between 1711 and his death in 1736. Vast, white, monumental and enigmatically detailed, the Hawksmoor churches are a looming and mysterious presence in the architectural consciousness and mythic history of...
03.11.2019
50 — 19th c Machine Utopias — 2/2 — Looking Backwards
The second part of our discussion of the utopias and dystopias of the late 19th century 'machine age'. Including a discussion of Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backwards: 2000-1887' (once incredibly famous and now almost unknown), William Morris's 'News From Nowhere:...
02.26.2019
49 — 19th c. Machine Utopias 1/2 — Darwin Among the Machines
We start a two-part discussion of the utopias and dystopias of the late 19th century 'machine age,' when new technology seemed to be remaking the world, and society along with it. What sort of world would the machines bring? In this...
02.11.2019
48 — OMA 1989 — Going Big
Rem Koolhaas and the firm he founded with three partners in 1975 — Office of Metropolitan Architects, OMA — are fascinating, critical and provocative presence within the architectural culture of the 1970s and 1980s, riding the wave of the crisis of...
01.28.2019
47 — Venturi Scott-Brown & Learning From Las Vegas
We continue our discussion of the theoretical works of Robert Venturi with this episode on ‘Learning from Las Vegas — The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form’ — researched and written with Denise Scott-Brown and Steven Izenour, and published in 1972....
01.14.2019
46 — Robert Venturi's 'Complexity & Contradiction' — Valid Banalities
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 modernist order — Robert Venturi’s ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’ (1966). It’s a...

What's About Buildings + Cities about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

About Buildings + Cities episodes:

90 — Carlo Scarpa — 4/4 — All I Want Is A Pharoah

89 — Carlo Scarpa — 3/4 — Castelvecchio, Invented History

88 — Carlo Scarpa — 2/4 — Querini Stampalia, Venetian Sci-Fi

87 — Carlo Scarpa — 1/4 — Not Every Architect is an Artist

86 — Ian Nairn — 3/3 — Nairn on TV

85 — Ian Nairn — 2/3 — Nairn's London

84 — Ian Nairn — 1/3 — Subtopia

83 —Otto Wagner — 5/5 — Proto-Modernist

82 — Otto Wagner — 4/5 — Secession

*Preview* — 81.5 — Klimt

81 — Otto Wagner — 3/5 — On the Stadtbahn

80 — Otto Wagner — 2/5 — The Style Question

79 — Otto Wagner — 1/5 — Ringstraße Rent Palaces

*Preview* — 77.5 — Patrick Keiller Bonus Episode

78 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 2/2 — Locked Rooms

77 — WG Sebald's 'Austerlitz' — 1/2 — In the Nocturama

*Preview* — 76.5 — Robert Moses Bonus Episode

76 — Jane Jacobs — 2/2 — Unslumming and Gentrification

75 — Jane Jacobs — 1/2 — Eyes on the Street

74 — Monasteries — 3/3 — Fourier, Narkomfin, La Tourette

73 — Monasteries — 2/3 — The Apostolic Life

72 — Monasteries — 1/3 — Cluniacs and Cistercians

71 — Christopher Alexander — 2/2 — Pattern Language

70 — Christopher Alexander — 1/2 —Notes on the Synthesis of Form

69 — Zaha Hadid — 4/4 — The Parametric Years

68 — Zaha Hadid — 3/4 — Vitra to Cardiff

Bonus Unlocked — 48.5 — OMA — Bigness

67 — Zaha Hadid — 2/4 — The Peak

66 — Zaha Hadid — 1/4 — AA Days

65 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 3/3 — Nostalghia and The Sacrifice

64 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 2/3 — Stalker

63 — Andrei Tarkovsky — 1/3 — Setting the Stage

62 — Leon Battista Alberti — 2/2 — Building the Quattrocento

61 — Leon Battista Alberti — 1/2 — De Re Aedificatoria

60 — Reyner Banham — 2/2 — Design By Choice

59 — Reyner Banham — 1/2 — Science for Kicks

58 — The Reactionaries — 3/3 — The Empire Strikes Back

57 — The Reactionaries — 2/3 — Caesar's Palace without the Fun

Conversation 3 — Dulwich Picture Gallery — Soane in The Colour Palace

56 — The Reactionaries — 1/3 — Interwar Anxieties

55 — Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira' — 3/3 — Good for Health, Bad for Education

54 — Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira — 2/3 — Exploding Neo-Tokyo Twice

53 — Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira — 1/3 — Radio School

52 — Nicholas Hawksmoor's Churches — 2/2

51 — Nicholas Hawksmoor's Churches — 1/2

50 — 19th c Machine Utopias — 2/2 — Looking Backwards

49 — 19th c. Machine Utopias 1/2 — Darwin Among the Machines

48 — OMA 1989 — Going Big

47 — Venturi Scott-Brown & Learning From Las Vegas

46 — Robert Venturi's 'Complexity & Contradiction' — Valid Banalities

Preview — 81.5 — Klimt

Preview — 77.5 — Patrick Keiller Bonus Episode

Preview — 76.5 — Robert Moses Bonus Episode