Open City

This week Merlin is joined by Joris Lechêne, the diversity and inclusion trainer and the man behind the Tiktok channel @Joris_explains

Rishi Sunak caught in video celebrating the defunding of deprived areas | Muyiwa Oki wins the RIBA presidential election | Children of social housing tenants banned from playing in a new Thameside development | And could the new Transport Bill be waging an unfair war on cyclists?

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Merlin speaks to Ben Page, the global chief executive of market research firm Ipsos.

Soaring inflation sees one-eighth of households facing no options to cut costs. A power shortage leaves West London with a new homes ban. How buy-to-let landlords fuelled the housing crisis. And the Grade I-listed Finsbury Health Centre is finally set for a refurb

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leadership rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak criticised for lack of housing policy. New London buildings dominate the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist. The capital weighs up its Olympic legacy a decade on from the games. And is there a socialist case for traditional architecture?

This week Merlin is joined by the architect and writer Douglas Murphy.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week host Rachel Copel is joined by Fran Williams, deputy architecture editor at the AJ

On the menu: London burns as soaring temperatures highlight the inadequacy of our buildings to cope in extreme weather. Developers accused of bribing social housing residents to vote in favour of estate regenerations. A Southwark councillor is issued with a no fault eviction notice. And Canada Water's Printworks nightclub is set to close ahead of a huge redevelopment.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new covid wave has meant we are sadly unable to make an episode of The Londown this week. However, instead we're going to play you an episode of the Architecture Foundation's new podcast series Power and Public Space which was made in collaboration with Drawing Matter.

In the episode Matthew Blunderfield speaks with the artists Mark Wallinger. Wallinger's art exists in public space. He’s made films and performance pieces set in tube stations and airports, and was the first artist to occupy the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 1999. In this episode of Power and Public Space Wallinger discusses the installation “State Britain”, which reconstructs a protest encampment originally erected in Parliament Square by the peace activist Brian Haw. If you enjoy the show please subscribe to it via the Architecture Foundation wherever you get your podcasts.

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For this weeks Open City Stewardship Awards special host Phin Harper is joined by Director of Sustainability and Physics at the integrated consulting engineers and advisers practice Buro Happold - Smith Mordak, and Director of Sustainability at the housing association Peabody - Richard Ellis.

Damning report warns the UK is already failing its own net zero targets. Census reveals London hollowing out of the London city centre. Star architects dRMM parachuted in for a landmark study to boost timber construction. And conservationists celebrate victory in the battle to save London’s former City Hall from demolition

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Royal Institute of British Architects names its three presidential contenders | A US property price slump casts doubts over London’s residential market | The City Corporation is urged not to demolish the old Museum of London | And the row over a prime ministerial treehouse at Chequers while thousands of homes lay vacant in the capital

This week Merlin is joined by Muyiwa Oki, one of the three candidates in the running to be the next RIBA president.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this weeks Open City Stewardship Awards special Merlin is joined by the Executive Director for Thamesmead at Peabody - John Lewis.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Five years on Grenfell survivors say they are still waiting for justice. A toxic culture spanning decades at London’s most famous architecture school. Campaigners warn Right to Buy’s revamp could worsen the housing crisis. And a new inquiry into American sweet shops flooding Oxford Street.

This week Rachel is joined by Pooja Agrawal. Pooja is the co-founder and CEO of Public Practice and is also the co-founder of Sound Advice.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Help to Buy scrapped amid a looming housing market slowdown, Marketisation of landmark buildings takes a twist with some questionable projections, Camden Highline’s submitted for planning as calls for a pedestrian first city grow, And the Platinum Jubilee in architecture – does the reality of Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Tree of Trees’ live up to the renders?

This week Merlin catches up with Will Jennings; editor of Recessed Space, director of Hypha Studios charity, and architecture lecturer at UCL Bartlett and Greenwich.

The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal. If you enjoyed the show, we recommend you subscribe to the AJ for all the latest news, building studies, expert opinion, cultural analysis, and business intelligence from the UK architecture industry. Listeners can save 15% on a subscription using this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.