Failed Architecture: Recent Episodes
Failed Architecture
Failed Architecture is a podcast on architecture and the real world. By opening up new perspectives on the built environment, we seek to explore the meaning of architecture in contemporary society. FA challenges dominant spatial fashions and explores alternative realities, reaching far beyond the architectural community. We combine personal stories with research and reflection, always remaining committed to the idea that architecture is about social justice and climate justice, pop culture and subculture, representation and imagination, and everything that happens after the building’s been built.
For Breezeblock #38, editors María Victoria Londoño-Becerra, Juana Salcedo, and María Mazzanti discuss with Sidra Kamran questions on public space, domestic space, and workspace for women workers in Pakistan. What forms of experiences and encounters appear in these three different spaces, and how do they shape the relationship of worker women in retail and beauty and the urban space.
Para el BB # 27, la editora María Mazzanti habló con Manuel Correa sobre la exposición Huellas de Desaparición en Bogotá.
For Breezeblock 26, Eda talks to fellow editors Bassem Saad and Ameneh Solati about "Rhino: An Alternative Story" their contribution to the Stories on Earth project, Failed Architecture's contribution to the public parallel programme of the Dutch Pavilion during the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
For Breezeblock 25, Christin talks to fellow editors Bassem Saad and Ameneh Solati about "The Great Reanimation" their contribution to the Stories on Earth project, Failed Architecture's contribution to the public parallel programme of the Dutch Pavilion during the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
For Breezeblock 24, Christin talks to Karin Lachmising and Angelo Renna about "Sacred Planetary Garden" their contribution to the Stories on Earth project, Failed Architecture's contribution to the public parallel programme of the Dutch Pavilion during the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
For Breezeblock 23, Charlie talks to fellow editors Chiara Dorbolò and Daphne Bakker about Stories on Earth, Failed Architecture's contribution to the public parallel programme of the Dutch Pavilion during the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Para este Breezeblock (el primero en español) la editora María Mazzanti habló con Juan Corcione, publicista y académico colombiano que trabaja sobre cultura visual, teorías de la imagen y políticas del placer y el ocio. Juan ha venido reflexionando sobre las protestas masivas en Colombia que empezaron el 28 de Abril de 2021. En el podcast, Juan y María discuten sobre las dinámicas de la protesta y su influencia en la conquista narrativa de un país en conflicto, donde a través de imágenes digitales y la resignificación del espacio público los ciudadanos batallan por la legitimidad de un nuevo relato político.
En medio de las masivas protestas sin precedentes que estallaron en Colombia el 28 de abril, el equipo de Failed Architecture conversó con Temblores. Esta ONG ha liderado el llamado a la reforma policial y ha abogado fuertemente por comunidades históricamente marginadas cuyo derecho a acceder y habitar espacios públicos ha sido persistentemente negado, criminalizado y sometido a la violencia policial.
This spring, FA initiated ‘Situations’, an event series aiming to take critical reflections on architecture and space from the digital realm to the real world. Breezeblock #21 was recorded shortly after the second Situation ‘Swarming the Red Light District With Sound’, when our editor René Boer hosted a conversation with some of the organisers and participants, at a moment when everybody was pretty excited and also somewhat exhausted after having been swarming around the neighborhood for the past hour.
For Breezeblock #20, FA NYC editor Michael Nicholas spoke to Andi Schmied, whose book Private Views documents her experiences being shown around high-rise luxury apartments in New York disguised as a Hungarian billionaire. Through transcripts of conversations with brokers, photos of views not intended to be seen by the public, and a number of essays from contributors on the subject, the book illuminates how inequality is built into New York City's real estate market.
Popular culture has seriously obscured our idea of where heroin is produced, who uses it, how it gets to the places where it’s used, and why it ends up in these places… this episode of the Failed Architecture Podcast sets the record straight by tracing the drug's hidden historical geography.
For Breezeblock #19, FA’s Charlie Clemoes talked to Rhian E. Jones about Preston, community wealth building, and its capacity to radically transform our approach to development.
For Breezeblock #18, FA organiser René Boer talks to the founders of Radio Alhara, architects Elias and Yousef Anastas, on the one year anniversary of their radio project. It was launched in Bethlehem at the start of the global lockdown and by now has become a sonic public space reaching well beyond the confines of Palestine.
In this follow-up of Breezeblock #15, FA editors Michael Nicholas, Kevin Rogan, and Joshua McWhirter dive into the weird world of traditional architecture revivalism, or ‘trad arch’ for short. Where the first part of this discussion focused on a critique of the intellectual undercurrents of the trad arch movement, here, the editors explore how the trad impulse folds back onto the real world, from historic preservation projects, to former president Donald Trump’s infamous, and recently revoked, executive order mandating a ‘classical’ style for government buildings in the United States.
A few weeks ago, Yale Architecture professor Keller Easterling penned an article titled ‘On Political Temperament’, which became the subject of heated conversation about the role of architecture theory in discussions of politics. In response, Marianela D’Aprile wrote 'Not Everything is Architecture’ for Common Edge. For Breezeblock #16, FA editor Michael Nicholas spoke to Marianela and fellow editor Kevin Rogan about Easterling’s new book Medium Design, the role of architects as workers in the class struggle, and the politics of the architecture profession at large.
In this first installment of a two-part episode, FA editors Michael Nicholas, Kevin Rogan and Joshua McWhirter discuss the weird world of traditional architecture revivalism, or ‘trad architecture’ for short. Starting with a critique of pop philosopher Alain de Botton’s recent article ‘Why is the Modern World so Ugly?’, the three editors examine the surface-level aesthetic fixations and flattened historical perceptions of the trad architecture movement — so often a cipher for the exaltation of ‘Western’ culture, even as it makes claims to an apolitical stance.
Last week members of trade union United Voices of the World — Section Architectural Workers (UVW SAW), walked out of two architectural offices over COVID-19 safety concerns. For Breezeblock #14, FA’s Charlie Clemoes interviewed UVW SAW elected organiser Keri Monaghan to discuss the strike, the recent work of UVW SAW in its first year as a union, and what the future holds for workplace organisation in the architecture profession.
FA editor Joshua McWhirter speaks to Jilly Traganou, editor of the recently published book ‘Design and Political Dissent: Spaces, Visuals, Materialities’. Near the end of a year filled with mass protests on streets across the United States and the world, Jilly talks about some of the book’s themes and their significance during a moment when many architects are thinking about how to leverage their skills in the service of social justice movements.
In the 12th Breezeblock episode, FA editors Charlie Clemoes and René Boer discuss the future of De Wallen (aka Amsterdam's Red Light District), which is under increasing threat from the so-called "smooth city": the safe, clean, well-functioning and homogenous urban environment that has been taking over cities around the world in the past few decades.
In the episode, they talk about the ways in which the municipality, developers and various old white dudes are conspiring to frame the neighbourhood as an "urban jungle" and pushing to replace it with a "monumental garden". Against these moves, René has written a counter-manifesto, "Wallen 2020", which is intended to galvanise resistance to the neighbourhood's creeping sanitisation.
For #Breezeblock 11, FA editors Chiara Dorbolò and María Mazzanti discuss Failed Architecture special series A City of Our Own: Urbanism for the 99%.
Breezeblock #10 acknowledges that land reparations have remained largely unaddressed by the architecture profession, despite the glaring adjacency of building, landscape, and planning to land and the colonial concept of property. What do land reparations really mean for the many communities who have been harmed in different ways by white supremacy?
Breezeblock #9 departs from the fact that in the early days of the protests following the death of George Floyd the Philadelphia Inquirer published a cover story written by Inga Saffron whose headline made the infamous claim that "Buildings Matter, Too". Responding to the article, our editors Bassem Saad and Kevin Rogan discuss the value of looting and destruction of private property, with special reference to recent uprisings in the US and Lebanon.
For Breezeblock #8, FA editor María Mazzanti spoke with Arielle Assouline-Lichten about the invisibility of women architects, Denise Scott Brown and the Pritzker Prize, and Wikipedia editing activism.
In the seventh Breezeblock episode, FA editor Charlie Clemoes speaks to Pune-based architect, journalist and researcher Shruti Hussain about the current situation for migrant workers in India amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Breezeblock #6, FA’s founding editor Michiel van Iersel and architect Anne Dessing discuss the Swedish city of Kiruna with Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, curator of the exhibition Kiruna Forever at ArkDes Sweden's National Centre for Architecture and Design.
For Breezeblock #5, FA editors Juana Salcedo and María Mazzanti discuss the situation in Bogotá since the COVID-19 lockdown, especially as it affects the large informal sector of the Colombian economy.
In Breezeblock #4, FA editor Charlie Clemoes talks to Los Angeles Tenants' Union (LATU) organiser Sasha Plotnikova about the situation for tenants in LA amid the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis, as well as discussing the organising efforts of LATU in recent years, the prospects for a permanent rent strike, and how to get involved in tenant organising.
In the third Breezeblock episode, FA editor Christin Hu talks to Leijia Hanrahan about sirens, their role in enforcing control and their heightened presence in the New York City soundscape since it became a coronavirus hotspot.
The Louvre and its surroundings have served for centuries as a dramatic expression of French imperial might, this symbolism was dramatically challenged in 2018 when Beyoncé and Jay-Z used the site to film the video for their single Apeshit.
In the second Breeblock episode,FA editors Kevin Rogan and Charlie Clemoes talk about Kevin's recent article for Failed Architecture The City and the City and Coronavirus.
In the first Breezeblock episode, FA editors Eda Hisarlıoğlu and Charlie Clemoes talk about the spatial effects of both Covid-19 and ongoing construction in Istanbul.