Ideal Spaces podcast: Recent Episodes
Flora Loughridge
In this podcast series, hosted by Flora Loughridge, the Ideal Spaces team discusses the driving forces behind society as it is today: not only the built ‘architectural’ world we live in, but also the human processes of social imagination that architecture is an expression of. In each episode, a new guest joins Ulrich Gehmann and Michael Johannson to explore one of ten vignettes focusing on a different aspect of 'space': from managed and functional spaces, to the utopian or dystopian spaces of the imagination.
Have we become too attuned to accepting throwaway, meaningless places and spaces that don’t really meet our needs? And have we been programmed to believe that a neat place is a good place, a tidy place is a healthy place, and a pristine clean surface is a sign of a well-designed building? Podcast hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack these complex questions with the help of Ian Boyd, an ecologist based on the Isle of Wight, whose mission is to to shape better places by conserving, reimagining and revitalising landscapes, places, communities and wildlife across the Island. They discuss the role of young people and the street-level democratic voice in placemaking today, and why communities should be encouraged to allow wildlife to flourish in and naturally colonise urban spaces. Finally, Ian reflects on how we can combine built and natural heritage, to create curated biodiverse spaces and places in which people and nature can thrive side by side in the future.
Ian was born and raised in Birmingham, where he developed a passion for wildlife and city spaces that has never left. He spent a decade living and working on nature reserves around the UK learning how habitats work, before settling on the Isle of Wight and working to see it become a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2019. Ian has worked in the charity, public and private sectors, running landscape restoration, urban regeneration and environmental education programmes and advising on sustainable practice in development, asset management and urban design. He is a director of the consultancy Arc Biodiversity and Climate which includes the research partnership and ecological engineering practice Artecology. He is also a director of the public realm non-profit The Common Space.
Show notesArc Biodiversity and Climate is at the forefront of new thinking in environmental consultancy, integrating ecology, landscape, communities and development to shape better places for people and wildlife. Click the image below to read about the diverse range of projects delivered by Arc.
The Common Space is a not-for-profit organisation on the Isle of Wight and part of the Arc, Artecology hub, dedicated to the management, restoration, celebration and creation of public spaces. The Common Space is based in The Bay, on the east coast of the Island, and has a special focus on its own local area, in particular the work of the Bay Coastal Community Team, Shaping The Bay.
The Common Space, Iris Garden Project, Sandown (Photo: Arc)
Isle of Wight projects (Photo: Arc)
Artecology is a service that involves crafting regenerative ecological environments for wildlife and human communities. In response to the climate crisis, sea level rise, habitat loss and biodiversity collapse, the approach focuses on creating novel ‘intentional habitats’ designed specifically for building biodiversity and bio-abundance. A ‘Shaping Better Places’ delivery framework is used as a placemaking tool to build resilient, biodiverse spaces for people and nature to thrive side by side. Click the logo below to find out more.
In this new episode – the first of our 2023 series – Flora interviews Andreas Hofer, the Artistic Director of the International Building Exhibition or IBA’27, a company based in Stuttgart, Germany that provides advice, project support and networking opportunities to those interested in transforming cities and open spaces of the 21st century. Drawing on his rich experience in cooperative and new forms of housing and his training as an architect, Andreas does his utmost to promote dialogue between projects, experts and communities, not only in the Stuttgart region but all over the world. In this episode, Andreas describes the fascinating history of urban planning in the Stuttgart region, and how it developed into a highly industrialised metropolitan region with a population of 2.8 million. We explore the social, technological and ecological similarities and differences in urban planning in 1927 and today, and what challenges architects face today: what place do history and heritage have in architecture today, and how can architects build ‘future proof’ homes that are relevant to communities today and in decades to come?
Andreas Hofer, Artistic Director, IBA’27 Stuttgart, Germany (Photo: Urban Future)
Andreas Hofer was born in in 1962 Lucerne. He studied architecture at the Swiss Institute for Technology in Zurich. In 2018 he was elected as artistic director for Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (International Building Exhibition, IBA’27). In Zurich, he mainly worked as a consultant and project developer for innovative cooperative housing projects as Kraftwerk1 and mehr als wohnen (more than housing). Andreas Hofer publishes regularly about city development and housing issues.
IBA’27 website – click the image below to read about IBA’27 projects and to find out how to participate:
Stuttgart region – Credits: IBA’27 / L2M3 / Max Guther
“There is a clear focus on the idea of the »productive city region«, which marries housing and leisure time with work and brings together industrial and agricultural production in liveable and sustainable spaces.” Andreas Hofer. Text from IBA27.de website.
Weissenhofsiedlung 1927 (Photo: Strähle-Luftbild, Schorndorf)
Weissenhofsiedlung 1927 (Photo: Freunde der Weissenhofsiedlung)
“The Weissenhof Estate (Weissenhofsiedlung) is one of the most important examples of »Neues Bauen« (»New Objectivity« or »New Building«) in the history of architecture. It was part of a building exhibition held by Deutscher Werkbund together with the City of Stuttgart in 1927. Weissenhofsiedlung 1927 (Credits: Freunde der Weissenhofsiedlung)The architectural avantgarde of the time under the artistic leadership of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe wanted to use these innovative approaches to counter the lack of living space. The plan was to create lowcost homes using industrially manufactured materials, typological components and modular designs.
17 international architects, including Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Hans Scharoun, experimented with floor plans, designs, materials and home technology.
In just four and a half months, 21 model buildings with 60 residential units were created. With a clear and sober layout, each home had central heating, a bathroom and toilet as well as a kitchen with gas appliances. The cubicstyle flat roofs were unusual for the era, making them the subject of much scorn. The success of the exhibition proved the architects right, however, with roughly 500,000 visitors flocking to the exhibition from far beyond Germany’s borders.”
Text from the IBA.27.de website
Konversion Sindelfinger Krankenhausareal – Sindelfingen Hospital Area Conversion
“The relocation of Sindelfingen’s hospital to the Flugfeld Böblingen/Sindelfingen will free up an area of roughly eight hectares for transformation. First of all, the municipal authorities want to develop a concept collectively with the citizens of Sindelfingen for using, modifying and adding to the existing large-scale structure in terms of its future purpose. Embedded in a wooded area, the buildings of the former clinic complex are to be preserved to a large extent. There will be a particular focus on combining space for living and working. There are key questions around what type of commercial use will be possible and which additional functions would be necessary. It is also necessary to rethink the connection to the town of Sindelfingen. Development should be completed by 2030, with individual parts already to be realised by 2027 as part of IBA’27.”
Project Initiator: City of Sindelfingen. Text from IBA27.de website.
Richard Neutra, revolving stage in the Onkel-Tom-Strasse House No. 85 or 87, Zehlendorf Houses, Berlin, 1924
The revolving stage at either Onkel-Tom-Strasse 85 or 87 was designed to transform the living room into a library, a dining room or a music room at the push of a wall. Is out housing a form of theatre, and the practice of architecture a creative outlet?
In the fight against heat, drought, forest fires and heavy rain, every little green counts. In this brand-new podcast interview, Flora and Ulrich talk to German landscape architect and author Tim Kaysers about his vision of a world that is made up of green cities: human and climate-friendly spaces filled with plants and trees, and free from cars and concrete. With the irreversible effects of climate crisis an ever-present threat to the future of mankind, Tim explains why we must act quickly to make this vision a reality. We find out why plants are so crucial, and the practical steps involved in greening our cities – will it take a bottom-up, or top-down approach, or both? And what challenges will there be to changing people’s mentality in our technology-focused world, where convenience and speed rule the day?
© Tim Kaysers
After studying Landscape Architecture in London and Berlin, Tim gained years of professional experience whilst working in Ecuador and China, before putting down roots in Lake Constance, where he’s worked as a landscape architect since 2007. Through his work at Planstatt Senner, a landscape architecture firm, Tim has developed and implemented in practice the topic of climate and green as part of urban planning, environmental planning, and landscape architecture projects. This work has culminated in Tim’s recently published book “Phyto for Future – with plants from the climate crisis”, in which he explores the solutions that plants offer humans, the environment and biodiversity.
Show NotesTim Kaysers – website
Tim Kaysers, Phyto for Future – with Plants from the Climate Crisis (Büchner Verlag: 2022)
Phyto for Future – Mit Pflanzen aus der Klimakrise
References in podcast episode:
10:05 – Sir Ebenezer Howard, English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement
15:14 – Luc Schuiten, visionary Belgian architect, Vegetal City http://www.vegetalcity.net/en/
In this new episode on the Ideal Spaces Podcast, Flora and Ulrich talk to the acclaimed artist and master sculptor Romolo Del Deo about how to make art that stands the test of time. Taking a stand against the fast, momentary and disposable ‘now’ culture of the present, Romolo instead focuses on creating enduring, sustainable, ‘long art’ for the 21st century. He tells us how his sculpture is preoccupied with two major aesthetic sources of inspiration; a fascination with the artefacts washed up upon the ocean shores of his native Provincetown and a natural affinity with the archeological ruins of his Italianate background and training.
Romolo shares with Ideal Spaces an interest in creating spaces that work for the people, and express important and essential, historically tested ideas: something that speaks to long art’s interest in the historical record of how art is made and used. We discuss an upcoming collaboration between Studio Romolo and Ideal Spaces for “The Heavenly City and Paradise”, an Ideal Spaces event held in the Evangelical Church in Karlsruhe, Germany in September 2022, which explored through the medium of drawing, graphic design and video projection, the many forms a heavenly city can take. We also learn about Romolo’s sculpture “The Tree of Life Which is Ours”, an artwork recently installed at the Venice Biennale, whose part-ancient ruin, part-driftwood sea wrack yet distinctly contemporary appearance tells an interesting story about the fast-paced and often destructive world we live in today.
After completing a distinguished career at Harvard and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Romolo turned away from his early successes and the artistic trends of the late 20th Century. For several years he isolated himself on a mountaintop in Italy, where he created a blueprint for an alternative future art. He foresaw that there would come a time when we would be saturated with disposable and ill-made things, While everyone else was racing to define the moment, Romolo dedicated himself to an art that expressed the eternal. His labor-intensive, thoughtful pieces have become a refreshing counterpoint to the ever faster, more trendy, more transitory art of his peers. Romolo envisioned a future where society as a whole would move beyond disposable consumerism, which was drowning the planet in waste, to re-embrace the value of thoughtful, skillfully handcrafted masterworks created over time from the noble natural materials the ancients used. This manner of working creates artworks which focus an artist’s creativity, into less wasteful use of resources. Romolo calls this enduring art for the new millennium, “Long Art.”
Flora interviews Delhi-based architect, urban designer and educator Tapan Chakravarty, to find out more about building with true community impact. Tapan describes how traditional, vernacular housing in rural India mirrors the characteristics of the local environment, climate and natural materials – and how the lifestyle of villagers and their ways of using domestic spaces have been culturally inherited over many generations. Amongst other themes, Flora and Tapan explore how being curious about the past is key to understanding the built environment of today – this is a mindset that Tapan encourages in his students at the Pearl Academy’s School of Design in Delhi.
In this episode, Flora and Ulrich speak to Ed Finn about the complex world of algorithms. Ed tells us about the ever-increasing role that computational systems play in the 21st century. We discuss the threat that our increasingly technology-focused lifestyle poses to imagination and creativity, and what the future might hold in a world where Apple and Google determine, and often dominate, our every move: from dating and shopping, to securing good A Level grades or choosing a film to watch on Netflix. What's the difference between a useful algorithm and a damaging algorithm? And what responsibility do we have when it comes using algorithmic and computational systems?
Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome artist-game designer Chris Solarski onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast in this brand-new episode on Experiencing Space. We explore how Chris's sensory design approach Interactive Empathy and Embodiment (IEE) to interactive media heightens the player-audience's physical experience of gameplay, making them feel totally immersed in the virtual gaming environment. Chris explains how his sensory design method relates to architecture, interior design and classical painting (as well as acting theory, neuroscience, psychology and disability aesthetics), with the atmosphere of a game similarly created through the careful placement of objects, colours, music and movement. We also learn how exactly video games succeed in evoking a wide range of emotions in their players. Along the way, we discuss fail videos, the rubber hand illusion, The Simpsons and Game of Thrones!
In this episode, Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome San Francisco architect John Marx onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast to explore the importance of emotional meaning in built and natural environments. We discuss the role that architects play in bringing poetry and beauty to our daily interactions with buildings and urban spaces - to giving form to ideas and emotions, rather than falling into the trap of creating banal and purely functional, soulless Modernist buildings. John shares with us how architects might achieve architecture that is sustainable, aesthetically appealing and function, and which fundamentally, stands the test of time - just like the great Doric Columns in Agrigento's ancient Greek temples. Along the way, we discuss the Brutalist Barbican complex in London, the difference between beautiful, pretty and cute and The Temptation's 1966 hit single 'Beauty is only Skin Deep'.
John Marx, AIA, is a co-founding principal and chief artistic officer of Form4 Architecture in San Francisco, California. He is responsible for developing Form4 Architecture's design vision and philosophical language. Form4 Architecture has received over 174 design awards and in 2017, John became a Laureate of the American Prize for Architecture - one of the highest public tributes for architecture in the United States. In order to return a sense of humanity back into architecture, John advocates for the inclusion of Philosophy, Art, and Poetry in the thoughtful making of place by creating emotionally resonant architecture and urban spaces. John's design work and writing have been published in over 100 national and international publications. In 2018, the Architectural Review published his monograph "The Absurdity of Beauty - Rebalancing the Modernist Narrative". He has widely lectured on the topics of Design, Placemaking, Emotional Meaning and Cultural Vibrancy in Silicon Valley and places as diverse as Korea, Italy, Austria, Australia, Canada and the Technion in Israel.
In this episode, co-founder of Deep Blue Institute and expert in green, clean and smart cities Greg Delaune joins us on the Ideal Spaces Podcast to speak to us about the multi-scale regenerative marine infrastructure projects that Deep Blue Institute is leading in the Bayou region. Greg explains why the transition to a blue economy is so crucial, and shares the challenges that the institute faces in its work to preserve and restore at-risk aquatic ecosystems most impacted by climate change and other human-caused damage. We learn about Deep Blue Institute's 'three legged' approach to building a blue economy, which will leverage the economic and environmental benefits of emerging blue technologies, and will allow the Bayou region to become a global leader in the deployment and scaling of these critical marine infrastructure solution sets.
Greg Delaune is an internationally recognised consultant, teacher, speaker, and writer specialising in public-private partnerships (PPPs) for green cities and smart cities, regenerative floating cities, sustainable economic development, and innovation ecosystem design. He is the Co-founder and CEO of The Urban Innovation Exchange (UIX Global), Co-founder of Deep Blue Institute, and founder and editor of the blog IMPACT URBANISM (www.impacturbanism.org).
In this episode, documentary and architecture photographer Filippo Romano joins podcast host Flora Loughridge to share his experiences capturing the devastating earthquake in Haiti for a photoreportage commissioned in 2010. He speaks of his ongoing interest in the relationship between architecture and communities, and the importance of trust when capturing the spirit and stories of people living in the Mathare ghetto in Nairobi, 2011.
Filippo studied at ISIA in Urbino and specialised in photo documentary at the International Centre of Photography (ICP) in New York. His work explores cities, architecture and urban dwellers, and has featured in magazines, including Abitare, Dwell, Domus, Io Donna, Courrier International, Huffington Post, Newsweek and Skira. Filippo has travelled widely throughout his career, working in cities including Tokyo, Nairobi and Cairo. He also works on diverse projects closer to home, in Italy, and currently teaches at the Naba Design School in Milan and in the Photography Department at IUAV in Venice.
@idealspaceswg @filipporomanophoto https://www.filipporomano.it/
Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann speak to Dr. Khalid Kadir, a Continuing Lecturer at UC Berkeley and recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s most prestigious honor for teaching. In this episode, we discuss the intersection of poverty, engineering expertise and politics, as well as the complex role that expertise plays in the politics of international development and poverty alleviation. Along the way, we talk about everything from social media and Silicon Valley to resilience, utopia and who is accountable for the social injustice in the technology-focused society we have built.
In Episode 3 of the Ideal Spaces podcast, we are joined by Stan Allen, an architect and Professor of Architecture at Princeton. Stan holds degrees from Brown University, The Cooper Union and Princeton. In 1991 he established an independent practice, and since that time, has pursued parallel careers as architect, educator and writer. He has taught at Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, and served as Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton from 2002 to 2012. His books include Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City (1999); Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation (2008); Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain (2011); and Four Projects: A Stan Allen Sourcebook (2017). His most recent book, published in 2020, is Situated Objects, a book of buildings and projects located in the Hudson River Valley where he lives and works.
We discuss architecture as a material practice that should anticipate and continuously evolve over time and architecture as the immaterial structures and spaces between things. We explore the importance of re-connecting architecture with time and process, to once again find a human measure that makes functional spaces sustainable, human living environments.
Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann are joined by Andy Jones, Professor in Public Health at UEA’s Norwich Medical School. Andy’s primary research focus is on the environmental influences on population health. His core work explores the manner by which characteristics of the social and physical environments act to influence the health of the population.
This interview focuses on Andy’s recently published co-authored study on Environmental Equity and Perceived Accessibility to Urban Parks in Osaka, Japan. This opens up a thought-provoking discussion on the history of parks, problems with accessibility and funding of urban parks, as well as the future of green spaces.
This week on the Ideal Spaces podcast, we're joined by Professor Kean Birch, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change as well as Graduate Program Director of the Science & Technology Studies Program at York University, Canada. Kean's research focuses on the emergence of a specifically technoscientific capitalism, entailing the increasing entanglement of technoscience and finance. His most recent project focuses on the diverse modes of rentiership in technology sectors, especially in the extraction and exploitation of our personal data, and what this means for the organization of markets and economies. Kean talks to us about the entanglement of space with financial logic, using two key examples of assets: bio-fuels and houses. We discuss the complex relationship between people and managed spaces, the collection and use of personal data, and the future of management.
Welcome to Episode 1 of the Ideal Spaces podcast. Flora Loughridge is joined by the founder of Ideal Spaces Working Group, Ulrich Gehmann, and Michael Johannson, who leads New Developments and Digital Design at Ideal Spaces to explore the question ‘What is Space?’. This episode is the first in a series of 10 ‘vignettes’, in which the Ideal Spaces team discusses the driving forces behind society as it is today: not only the built ‘architectural’ world we live in, but also the human processes of social imagination that architecture is an expression of.