Selected interviews recorded for The Architects on Triple R, a weekly radio discussion show about architecture I put together with Stuart Harrison and Simon Knott.
As our online archive of shows reaches 70+ hours of content after 3 and a half years of broadcasting, this page captures a neater, limited selection of my favourite interviews I've been involved with.
For the full deal, go to our podcast page, subscribe manually to the podcast with this feed link, or get shows from our iTunes podcast directory.
VM Housing, Copenhagen, 2005
Bjarke Ingels is founder of the Copenhagen-based architectural practice BIG.
Martin Musiatowicz and I interviewed Bjarke following his lecture at Monash University for the Melbourne International Design Festival (thanks to Kate for setting it up!) in July 2008.
Conversation ranges from Lego, Mies, evolution, bigamy, and even an explanation for the similarity between BIG's hotel for Sweden's Arlanda Airport, and ARM's Dupain building in Sydney.
My favourite quote:
“In many ways, Denmark is a country built out of Lego”
Download the interview as mp3 or the full show.
Dan has the beard
Dan Hill is behind the amazing City of Sound blog.
I spoke to Dan in the cold outside the Melbourne Musuem following his presentation at the Design Capital conference in July 2008.
My favourite quote:
“That's why I'm interested in this informational stuff, and how it applies to buildings and streets, because as the information begins to hit the street, I think we need to have a view on that, and some really serious thoughts about design practice as regards to that.”
Rethinking Architecture, Routledge, 1997
Neil Leach is an architect and theorist. He is editor of numerous books including the seminal ‘Rethinking Architecture’ (1997) and ‘Designing for a Digital World’ (2002), and is curator of the Beijing Architecture Biennale.
I interviewed Neil during his visit to RMIT as part of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature conference in June 2008.
A nice wide-ranging conversation from Fillipino maids in Hong Kong on their day off, the limits of an architects ability to predetermine the function of a space, architecture’s current relationship to theory and a discussion of the role of scripting in the production of a more sustainable and responsive bult environment.
My favourite quote:
“The students I see today are a kind of ‘mutant generation’ − they've totally changed the way they operate − they‘re mutants because they've been brought up in a highly technologised computer society, and the way they think is something that is radically different.”
Praxis 9: Expanding Surface, 2007
Ashley Schafer is editor and co-founder of Praxis: a journal of writing and building with Amanda Reeser Lawrence. Praxis is published twice yearly and aims to ‘bridge the gap between theory and practice’.
Stuart Harrison and I interviewed Ashley during her visit to RMIT as a guest critic for the Graduate Research Conference in May 2008.
My favourite quote:
(Regarding the new OMA scheme in Dubai) “What an amazing opportunity for the Office of Metropolitan Architecture! To make a city, like do it! This is something you‘ve been talking about at one level or another since Delirious New York. This is it right.”
Download the interview as mp3 or the full show.
Allan Chochinov is an industrial designer, educator, blogger, thinker and editor-in-chief of Core 77.
I interviewed Allan following his presentation at the Design Capital Conference as part of the State of Design Festival in July 2008.
My favourite quote:
“I teach at a couple of design schools in New York, and the students really feel this imperative to design a thing. You give them any kind of assignment − no matter how abstract or social issue based − and they feel like they‘re mandated to design a thing. And that has to stop.”
Download the interview as mp3 or the full show.
Teddy Cruz's occupation of New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture's 'Ring Dome' for his 'Food for Thought: The Tijuana NY Kitchen' project, 2007. That's not Teddy on the tongs though.
Teddy Cruz is a San Diego based architect and Professor at the University of California. His practice and research is directed toward a greater understanding of the US - Mexico border and the social and political issues that impact it.
Stuart Harrison and I interviewed Teddy outside a restaurant following the presentation of his Stirling Prize-winning lecture "Border Postcards: Chronicles From the Edge" at RMIT in August 2006.
My favourite quote:
"I was very upset... It was obvious again that architecture seems so trivial in the context of this socio-political reality; the 'trivialisation' of this issue by 'high design'. Ultimately it challenges me to transcend those cliches. The problem isn't about desiging the border."
Download the interview as mp3.