Blueprint For Living - Full program

Blueprint For Living - Full program episodes:

• 04.13.2024

  Saudi Arabia’s 'The Line' and architectural megalomania

  Stretching for 170 kilometres and soaring 500 metres into the sky, how does The Line rank among the most grandiose architectural efforts in history? The story behind a Vogue editor's beloved Chanel jacket; and who wields the real influence when it comes...

  
• 04.05.2024

  Re-designing the nature strip and re-inventing the suburban backyard

  Re-inventing the suburban backyard with regeneration and community in mind; re-designing the nature strip; Elizabeth David's Gratin Dauphinois and Besha Rodell's love of vintage glassware.

  
• 03.29.2024

  The lost art of dress and a tour of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show

  If you are dressed head to toe in black, polyester, nylon or some combination thereof, you may need a dress doctor. Linda Przybyszewski - Dress maker, historian and author of The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish...

  
• 03.22.2024

  The alt right diet, meat and masculinity and chef Jo Barrett's last supper

  Raw meat, egg slonking, seed oil panic and the war on “soy globalism” -  welcome to the obscurantist dietary fixations of the alt right. Jan Dutkiewicz, Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at...

  
• 03.15.2024

  Paris' radical climate plan and a design history of the bicycle

  The city of Paris is about to enact an ambitious new climate Plan and we discuss the commitment to building a cyclist friendly urban centre; We also delve into the design history of the bicycle; and visit a man who...

  
• 03.08.2024

  Nam Le on Iowa City, Provincetown and becoming a writer and hors d'oeuvres with Elizabeth David

  Internationally renowned designer Bethan Laura Wood is building a library like no other; she gives us a tour of Kaleidoscope-o-rama; Nam Le, award winning author of The Boat, takes us to the two places that shaped him as a writer; and...

  
• 03.01.2024

  Optimistic design the Solarpunk way, trend cycles spinning out and a museum of disgusting foods

  Solarpunk's vision for a brighter future, the churn of aesthetic trends online and why we find some foods disgusting.

  
• 02.23.2024

  Besha Rodell predicts 2024 food trends, Nathan Thrall on Jerusalem and Guy Grossi's last supper

  Besha Rodell casts her gaze back on the food scene that was 2023 and makes her predictions for 2024; Journalist and author Nathan Thrall takes us to the city he calls the most divided in the world – his home city of...

  
• 02.16.2024

  Aesthetic uniformity, hipster cafes and Neutraface, the ubiquitous signifier of gentrification

  Exposed brick, smashed avocado, hanging Edison bulbs, the patina of industry and reclaimed wood furniture – this is the algorithmic aesthetic writer and critic, Kyle Chayka investigates in his new book, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Also, the history of Neturaface, dubbed...

  
• 02.09.2024

  Kevin McCloud on good design, Yanis Varoufakis' sense of place and Annie Smithers' homage to Elizabeth David

  Kevin McCloud on the definition of good design, why Grand Designs is such a compelling proposition; Yanis Varoufakis reflects on growing up in the shadow of the Parthenon, on his idyllic childhood and its contrast to the brutal political reality against...

  
• 02.02.2024

  A psychoanalytic account of comfort eating, the fate of COVID-core comfort wear and the design history of the comfy chair

  Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen reflects on the contradictions, conflicts and the disordered and divided appetites of the modern individual and Colin Bisset gives a design history of the comfortable chair.

  
• 01.26.2024

  Blueprint For Living: Bee Wilson on loss and cooking, Dan Hunter's last supper and Lucy Treloar on a ghost town in South Australia

  This week, a haunted edition of Blueprint: a meditation, through food, cooking and place, on loss and the insistence of the past.

  
• 01.19.2024

  The architectural and environmental legacies of colonisation

  The settler-colonial project involved the imposition of European conceptions of natural landscape on the one hand, and the built world on the other. Jack Pascoe, Owen Hatherley and Michael-Shawn Fletcher consider the legacy of colonialism - its persistent myths and enduring imprint on...

  
• 01.12.2024

  The greigification of interiors and the netural-colours of stealth wealth

  From the landlord special - beige-grey laminate, vast empty spaces, and colourless walls - to the neutral-coloured knitwear favoured by todays wealthy elite, we discuss aesthetic conformity and homogeneity in the worlds of fashion, architecture and design.

  
• 01.05.2024

  Cruise ships, cargo ships and capital

  Professor Laleh Khalili discusses the movement of cargo, capital and cruiseliners across the globe and the human economy and exploitative labour practices upon which it relies.

  
• 12.29.2023

  'We're afraid of walkable distances now?' — conspiracies and the '15-minute city'

  The polite world of urban planning has become the latest target of conspiracy theorists. In recent weeks, the 15-minute city concept — where neighbourhoods provide life's essentials in 15 minutes by foot or bike — has become a harbinger of...

  
• 12.22.2023

  A scholarly paean to leftovers and the festishisation of decay

  Tamar Adler explains how to use the Marcella Hazan tomato sauce onion and how to talk about no-waste cooking without moralism; Tom Wilkinson discusses the ideological and political context of the contemporary architectural fetish for decay.

  
• 12.15.2023

  Blueprint x Christmas: a very seasonal romp through food, gardens and design

  Rummage through the essential cultural ingredients - design, architecture, food, travel and fashion.

  
• 12.08.2023

  Pasta and food writing with Rachel Roddy and the challenges of urban planning in Reykjavik

  Iconic food writer, Rachel Roddy, talks pasta, literary influence, Roman food culture, and writing about Italian food as an outsider; and Brent Toderian discusses Reykjavik’s urban development plan competition, the problem of car dependency and the populist backlash to the 15...

  
• 12.01.2023

  Building modern Australian universities, fashion in the age of AIDS and Tokyo's Yoyogi gymnasium

  A survey of the history and legacy of Australian built university campuses; fashion in the age of AIDS; Chef Annie Smithers on what to do with your broad bean leaves and design writer, Colin Bisset on Tokyo's Yoyogi gymnasium

  
• 11.24.2023

  A design history of the sneaker and the legacy of iconic designer Garry Emery

  A tour of an iconic designer's city with Garry Emery, a design history of the sneaker and Paul Bangay on his life in gardens.

  
• 11.17.2023

  Re-designing the planet with Liam Young, ecological protection and the design history of the mason jar

  Filmmaker and architect, Liam Young gives us a tour of his radically re-imagined city of the future; Jack Pascoe explains why recognition of cultural significance is required for ecological protection and Colin Bisset on the design history of the mason jar.

  
• 11.10.2023

  Plant detectives and redefining Australian food

  Its arguably one of the most universally reviled features of the plant world but pollen has proven invaluable to detectives in solving crimes, from revelations of war crimes to the identification of murderers.

  
• 11.03.2023

  Menu uniformity and the scourge of kingfish crudo and a conversation with Carlos Moreno, inventor of the 15 minute city

  Critic Jill Dupleix on the ubiquity of kingfish crudo and burrata and Carlos Moreno, inventor of the 15 minute city and target of conspiracy theorists on why proximity should be at the heart of urban planning.

  
• 10.27.2023

  Conservation or intervention? How to manage Australia's native forests; and a conversation with Stephanie Alexander

  The question of what should follow in the wake of the decision t. o end native forest logging in Victoria has exposed deep divisions over how best to manage Australian forests. Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher discusses.

  
• 10.20.2023

  Reinier de Graaf on the new language of building and the legacy of Clarence Chai

  Sustainability, wellbeing, placemaking, innovation, liveability: welcome to the hollowed-out language of architecture in the 21st century.

  
• 10.13.2023

  Kate Reid's journey from Formula 1 to the boulangerie

  In this edition of Blueprint For Living, an audience with a croissant engineer, a Turner Prize winner, and the car grille. Stay for the buxus party.

  
• 10.06.2023

  Siegfried Kracauer's analysis of class and urban spaces and garden designer Peter Donegan's favourite tree

  Why do todays domestic interiors mimic 4 star hotels and what might Siegfried Kracauer have said about it? Renown garden designer Peter Donegan on why the hawthorn is his favourite tree; and Annie Smithers with a way to prepare asparagus...

  
• 09.29.2023

  Meat, masculinity and the culture war and a post-war solution to the housing crisis

  Raw meat, egg slonking, seed oil panic and the war on “soy globalism” -  welcome to the dizzying dietary fixations of the alt right.

  
• 09.22.2023

  Childless cities and the architecture of therapy

  Alexandra Lange - award winning design critic, writer, author of The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids - reflects on why our cities seem so antagonistic to children and what a city designed for children might look like.

  
• 09.15.2023

  The ideology of meat consumption and the history of the men's suit in the formation of modern Jewish identity

  From 'return to the land' rhetoric of celebrity chefs-turned-farmers to the idyllic pastoral scenes depicted on the packaging of supermarket pork chops, 'meat love' - according to cultural critic and writer, Amber Husain - continues to obscure the violence entailed in...

  
• 09.08.2023

  An urban tree recovery initiative and demystifying the meaning of 'plant based'

  A visit to Revival Projects where Director, Robbie Neville, has established Melbourne's first inner-city timber mill and kiln.

  
• 09.01.2023

  The effects of franchise-chain capitalism and the history of the Norwegian sweater

  The arrival of Wendy's in Australia, a tour of a late winter garden, the implications of our food choices and the history of the Marius sweater

  
• 08.25.2023

  Food, national identity and the myth of authenticity and a tour of the National Herbarium

  Rummage through the essential cultural ingredients - design, architecture, food, travel and fashion.

  
• 08.18.2023

  George Monbiot's culinary regenesis, and a utopian architect

  George Monbiot wants to turn the global food industry on its head – from radical changes in farming practices to 3D-printed steaks. The prolific writer, environmental activist, and rewilder, explores this and more in his latest book, Regenesis. Then it's time...

  
• 08.11.2023

  Decline of the Australian fashion industry, architecture and acoustics and rewilding Great Dixter

  Lucianne Tonti on the decline of a once thriving local industry and the complex set of forces that have produced aesthetic uniformity in the world of fashion. And Tim Entwisle talks to Fergus Garrett, world renown garden designer, about the rewilding of Great Dixter.

  
• 08.04.2023

  Food culture in Sydney and Melbourne and dam removal across Europe

  The ever-changing food landscapes and never-ending rivalry of Sydney and Melbourne and the growing movement for dam removal and river restoration across Europe.

  
• 07.28.2023

  Cruise ships, cargo ships and capital

  Professor Laleh Khalili discusses the movement of cargo, capital and cruiseliners across the globe and the human economy and exploitative labour practices upon which it relies.

  
• 07.21.2023

  The greigification of interiors, the netural-colours of stealth wealth and finding beauty in the bare winter garden

  From the landlord special - beige-grey laminate, vast empty spaces, and colourless walls - to the neutral-coloured knitwear favoured by todays wealthy elite, we discuss aesthetic conformity and homogeneity in the worlds of fashion, architecture and design.

  
• 07.14.2023

  Reimagining flood plain development and restoring Australia's architectural treasures

  As floods increase in frequency and intensity, do geographical realities need to be at the centre of planning decisions in order to protect flood-prone communities?

  
• 07.07.2023

  The architectural and environmental legacies of colonisation

  The settler-colonial project involved the imposition of European conceptions of natural landscape on the one hand, and the built world on the other. Jack Pascoe, Owen Hatherley and Michael-Shawn Fletcher consider the legacy of colonialism - its persistent myths and enduring imprint on...

  
• 06.30.2023

  A scholarly paean to leftovers and the festishisation of decay

  Tamar Adler explains how to use the Marcella Hazan tomato sauce onion and how to talk about no-waste cooking without moralism; Tom Wilkinson discusses the ideological and political context of the contemporary architectural fetish for decay.

  
• 06.23.2023

  A story of design, technology and material and a cultural history of the gay bar

  An exhibition that tells the story of design, technology, material and culture and Jeremy Atherton Lin on the history of the gay bar.

  
• 06.16.2023

  An artistic approach to coastal defence and retrofitting earthquake-prone buildings

  The Dell Eco Reef is an innovative and artistic approach to coastal defence, installed in the City of Greater Geelong, combining new technology and knowledge of intertidal ecosystems.

  
• 06.09.2023

  Discovering psychogeography and the hidden cost of electric vehicles

  Rummage through the essential cultural ingredients - design, architecture, food, travel and fashion.

  
• 06.02.2023

  Sustainable design and construction and the medieval penchant for lamprey

  A visit to a workshop where salvaged building materials are repurposed and where a quiet revolution in sustainable design is taking place.

  
• 05.26.2023

  Autumn in the botanic gardens and interrogating interior design

  An oak-forward autumn walk and tribute to the humble chestnut.

  
• 05.19.2023

  Gaetano Pesce on optimism and design

  Gaetano Pesce on optimism, art and design, Paul Bangay on the garden in autumn, tropical island cooking and the history of the Bugatti

  
• 05.12.2023

  Tim Ross on the 80s, and Personal But Not Private- A contemplation on home in public housing

  Architecturally trained multi-disciplinary artist, Guled Eylas offers a different perspective on the complex relationship between public housing and home in his latest exhibition, Personal But Not Private for Melbourne Design Week. Resident chef Annie Smithers confronts her nemesis- the lemon tart, and Tim...

  
• 05.05.2023

  Meet the Afghan fashion designers sewing new lives Australia

  This week we hear from creative, bold and powerful Afghan women who are defying The Taliban regime and embracing their culture through fashion design. We also hear about why Blak design matters and ask if Australia can eat meat in a way that's healthy and...