GSAPP Conversations

DK Osseo-Asare and Naeem Biviji in Conversation with Mpho Matsipa

In this podcast episode, we continue the conversation around making culture in Nairobi, Lagos, Accra/Tema, and Johannesburg. Faculty Mpho Matsipa speaks with designers DK Osseo-Asare and Naeem Biviji about their making processes, which explore local craftsmanship and low-cost & small-scale architecture as alternatives to rapid industrialization and big infrastructure in Africa today. DK Osseo-Asare is co-founder and principal of architecture and integrated design studio Low Design Office (LOWDO), based in Austin, Texas and Tema, Ghana. Naeem Biviji is the co-founder of Studio Propolis, a design workshop based in Nairobi, Kenya run with partner Bethan Rayner. They were both part of the GSAPP event Building Cultures: Making in Nairobi, Lagos, Accra/Tema, and Johannesburg held at the school on September 6, 2019.

Nifemi Marcus-Bello and Thabisa Mjo in Conversation with Mpho Matispa.

In this podcast episode hosted by faculty Mpho Matsipa, makers Nifemi Marcus-Bello and Thabisa Mjo bring us on their journey to integrate cultural heritage and unique craftsmanship in local communities to create economic viability in Africa. Nifemi Marcus-Bello is the founder of nmbello Studio, an Industrial Design practice located in Lagos, Nigeria, with a focus on product, furniture, and experience design for both local and international clients. Thabisa Mjo is the founder of the Johannesburg-based Mash.T Design Studio, a studio focused on telling uniquely South African stories using the medium of design. They were both part of the GSAPP event Building Cultures: Making in Nairobi, Lagos, Accra/Tema, and Johannesburg held at the school on September 6, 2019.

MARCH student Lucy Navarro speaks with Annabelle Selldorf in advance of the Annual Paul S. Byard Memorial Lecture at the school on April 15, 2019. Annabelle Selldorf is founder and principal of Selldorf Architects, a New York City-based firm that is currently working on several expansions to existing cultural institutions, including the Frick Collection in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. They discuss designing for existing spaces and explore the connections between art and architecture.

“When I think about space and art, I think about the person who is viewing it. Ultimately, I think there isn't such a thing as a neutral space. It is your own experience, evaluation, or judgment that contributes to the analysis of what works.” – Annabelle Selldorf

Daniel Bernal, a dual degree student in the MARCH and MSRED programs, speaks with Nina Baier-Bischofberger and Florian Baier in advance of their lecture at the school on April 8, 2019. The pair founded their firm Baier Bischofberger Architects in 2005 after meeting as students at Columbia GSAPP. They discuss the studio’s work and creative process, and reflect on their experiences at GSAPP and the realities of architectural practice which they encountered post graduation.

“When I graduated, I went to visit a friend who was working at NASA. They said NASA actually quite liked hiring people with architecture degrees because they could look at lots of different things at the same time and understand the bigger picture... I think architectural education allows for so many new possibilities.” - Nina Baier-Bischofberger

CCCP student Paula Vilaplana speaks with Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss, co-founders of Mexico City-based firm Pedro y Juana, following their lecture at the school on February 11, 2019. The duo is also teaching advanced studio VI at GSAPP during the Spring 2019 semester. Their work explores the capacity of objects to change their environment through typological transgressions, the indiscriminate use of material, texture, color, placement, or form. Recently, their installation Hórama Rama won the 2019 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program.

“We like to think that objects also have agency within their environments. How you place the object, or the amount of permission you give the user to change or fix it, actually creates different actions...We're very much interested in seeing what happens within spaces more than holding on to an idea of how they should be used.” - Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo

MARCH student Tim Battelino speaks with Anthony Acciavatti following the 5th Annual Detlef Mertins Lecture on the Histories of Modernity at the school on March 25, 2019. Anthony Acciavatti is a GSAPP faculty member, historian, cartographer, architect, and author of the award-winning book, Ganges Water Machine: Designing New India’s Ancient River, the first environmental and urban history of the world’s most densely populated river basin.

"I'm trying to make almost a graphic biography of these [Ganges River Basin] regions and areas by pairing image and word… I’m always trying to couple what I see with ways to describe and narrate the work that I do, both empirically but also theoretically. Ganges Water Machine in that way was very much an experiment in how to narrate such a vast territory.” - Anthony Acciavatti

MARCH student Tim Battelino speaks with Anthony Acciavatti following the 5th Annual Detlef Mertins Lecture on the Histories of Modernity at the school on March 25, 2019. Anthony Acciavatti is a GSAPP faculty member, historian, cartographer, architect, and author of the award-winning book, Ganges Water Machine: Designing New India’s Ancient River, the first environmental and urban history of the world’s most densely populated river basin.

"I'm trying to make almost a graphic biography of these [Ganges River Basin] regions and areas by pairing image and word… I’m always trying to couple what I see with ways to describe and narrate the work that I do, both empirically but also theoretically. Ganges Water Machine in that way was very much an experiment in how to narrate such a vast territory.” - Anthony Acciavatti

MSCCCP (M.S. Critical, Curatorial & Conceptual Practices) student Amelyn Ng speaks with Adrian Lahoud, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art London. He is also the inaugural curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, the first major platform for architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, North and East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, which will be held in November 2019. During the conversation they discuss curation in architecture, the upcoming Triennial, and the thinking behind its theme, “Rights of Future Generations.”

“The entire aim of the Triennial is to say that climate change is the colonization of a single perspective on what it means to relate to other beings, and that perspective is an extractive one. So the question is how do you decolonize that extractive perspective, how might you allow other kinds of modes of existence to reverberate and to register? I think ultimately if climate change is about anything, it's really about that.” – Adrian Lahoud

MSCCCP (M.S. Critical, Curatorial & Conceptual Practices) student Amelyn Ng speaks with Adrian Lahoud, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art London. He is also the inaugural curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, the first major platform for architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, North and East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, which will be held in November 2019. During the conversation they discuss curation in architecture, the upcoming Triennial, and the thinking behind its theme, “Rights of Future Generations.”

“The entire aim of the Triennial is to say that climate change is the colonization of a single perspective on what it means to relate to other beings, and that perspective is an extractive one. So the question is how do you decolonize that extractive perspective, how might you allow other kinds of modes of existence to reverberate and to register? I think ultimately if climate change is about anything, it's really about that.” – Adrian Lahoud

UP students Laura Postarini and Tyrene Calvesbert speak with Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare and Geography and inaugural Director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin, in advance of her lecture at the school on February 25, 2019. They discuss Ananya Roy’s current research around metropolitan segregation and racial banishment in Los Angeles, and decolonization of the urban planning discipline in the United States.

“What might decolonial logics look like? In urban planning, it starts with thinking about the role of our discipline and profession in this colonial violence…I want to know what reparations urban planning is going to make for the tremendous colonial harm that we have inflicted. I want to know how our instruments of planning are deeply colonial or imperial, or rooted in the extermination of indigenous people in this country. What then do we do with those instruments? The moment of Trumpism ironically is an opportunity for us to have these conversations.” – Ananya Roy