Architecture Off-Centre

In our previous episode, we spoke to the team from Better Shelter about their kit-of-parts approach to providing emergency shelters in crisis situations. Today, we continue that line of inquiry and look at the work that Pop-Up Housing has been doing in India by deploying an industrial and modular construction system. Sampat Althur is the founder of Pop-Up Housing, a social innovation organization working on improving sustainable housing and infrastructure in low income communities in India. Using latest advancements in industrial construction, sustainability and hands on volunteering, Sampat is simplifying housing and enabling infrastructure development in marginalized communities. More on Pop-Up Housing: https://popuphousing.org/

The very first episode of our podcast focused on the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh and highlighted the role of designers in alleviating the living conditions of the refugees. Today, we speak to Better Shelter about their work in providing shelters to refugees and displaced people around the world. Better Shelter is an independent Swedish non-profit without political or religious ties. They design and provide temporary shelters to help people live safer and more dignified lives until they can return or move to a new permanent home.  About Better Shelter: https://bettershelter.org/ And their photo project What Makes a Home: https://www.whatmakesahome.org/

We have been talking extensively about housing this season but have not really looked at the identity of the cities within which it exists. In today's episode, we zoom out a little to take stock of new capital cities and discuss their planning through the theoretical lens of feminism. Dorina Pojani is Associate Professor of urban planning at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her latest books are Trophy Cities: A Feminist Perspective on New Capitals (Edward Elgar, 2021) and Alternative Planning History and Theory (Routledge, 2023). Her forthcoming book is Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique (Anthem, 2025).  About Dorina: https://about.uq.edu.au/experts/11894

For those of us who have grown up in India, we were introduced to the concept of segregation and apartheid very early on as we were taught about the discrimination Gandhi faced while living in South Africa and how that marked the beginning of the independence movement in India. In this episode, we speak to Adi Kumar about the history of apartheid in South Africa and how those land policies continue to affect the supply of affordable housing in Cape Town today. Adi Kumar is a trained architect and seasoned land and housing activist. Over the last two decades, Adi has been leadership positions in several civil society organisations working across the globe in India, Southern Africa, Lebanon and United States on development programmes. He is former Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. Adi's current work: https://www.seeingtheother.org/

In this episode, we speak to Yutaka Sho about working in a context that has a history of genocide and colonization, and we discuss the challenges of working on ground, at the grassroots level.  Yutaka Sho is a partner of nonprofit architecture firm General Architecture Collaborative  (GAC) that has been working in Rwanda since 2008, and a professor of architecture at Meiji University in Tokyo. GAC works with underrepresented communities to build sustainable and aesthetically engaging spaces while using the construction sites for end-user training.  About GAC and their work: https://www.gacollaborative.org/

We are no strangers to the AirBnB phenomenon – and how it has revolutionized the travel industry. Over the last two episodes, we have been focusing on the rental housing markets in Kenya and India, and today we'll take pan over to Australia to see what the short-term rental market looks like.  Dr. Thomas Sigler is an academic researcher in urban and economic geography. He holds a PhD and MSc from the Pennsylvania State University, and a BA from the University of Southern California. He is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and a Guest Professor of Geography at the University of Luxembourg. About Dr. Sigler: https://environment.uq.edu.au/profile/9602/thomas-sigler

Bandhu is an AI driven urban-tech startup that is solving for India's rapid urbanization by enabling low-income workers to access urban jobs along with housing and thereby directly addressing the roadblocks that rural migrants face while entering the urban workforce. Rushil Palavajjhala is Co-founder and CEO of Bandhu, and holds a Master's degree in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on finance and technology for urban development in the Global South.  Jacob Kohn is Co-founder and COO of Bandhu, where he heads product development and data science. Jacob holds a Master's degree in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on technology integration in informal urban economies.  About Bandhu: https://www.bandhu.work/

When we talk about discourses on housing, we usually draw references from the western context. It is only in the last few decades that developing countries have come to the forefront of housing dialogues owing to their growing economies and increasing populations. Today, we take a closer looking at the housing market in Kenya, especially in Nairobi. Etta Madete is an architect, sustainable design expert, and developer passionate about sustainable real estate development in emerging markets. Passionate about advocacy, Etta previously taught at the University of Nairobi, is an EDGE Expert, Aspen and Mandela Washington Fellow. She has co-led acclaimed exhibitions at the Barbican and at the Guggenheim with Rem Koolhaas and has over 15 publications in Aljazeera and Architectural Record, amongst others. Etta's affordable housing initiative: https://zimahomes.co.ke/

Toolshed is a platform, a project and a place in Hudson, New York, where artists Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris collect and share tools for ecological living. They have categorized these tools into four distinct groups: food, kin, shelter and magic. Today, we speak to Susannah and Edward about what ecological living means and how Toolshed plays into it. Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris (Sayler/Morris) work with photography, video, writing, installation and open-source projects. Of primary concern are contemporary efforts to develop ecological consciousness and the possibilities for art in support of social movements. From 2006 – 2020 they co-directed The Canary Project, a studio that produced media and art to deepen public understanding of climate change and other ecological issues. More on Toolshed: www.tool-shed.org

People are increasingly making the conscious choice to live alone and it just so turns out that the number of people living alone in Europe has doubled since the 1980s. We speak to architects Maria Vittoria Tesei and Flavio Martella about the social, economic and architectural implications of living alone.  Founded by Maria Vittoria Tesei (architect and urban planner) and Flavio Martella (PhD architect), m²ft architects is a multidisciplinary firm working in the fields of architecture, urban planning, public space and research. Through design by research, they propose to produce architecture through the understanding of new contemporary lifestyles. Living Alone on Future Architecture: https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/9e224ad4-acb9-411f-86ff-29c1fc97ff2b/ Their work: https://m2ft-architects.com/

By living in a world of wars and unrest right now, we are witnessing one of the largest human displacements to have ever happened. People around the world are on the move to seek refuge – whether it is because of military action or a natural disaster. The idea of a "home" is under constant scrutiny as entire populations are uprooted from the very places where they built their whole lives. We ask our guests about how the concept of home has evolved in the last century. How do policy and design intersect to alleviate or exacerbate housing crises in cities around the world? Why are governments failing to reduce homelessness? What is the temporary housing market and how is it driven by migrant workers? And how can architects play a role in creating emergency shelters?  Introducing Season 6, supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

In this bonus episode, we speak to Kim Holden, whose change of careers has been unconventional and courageous at the same time. She was a founder, managing principal and architect at the renowned SHoP Architects and decided to become a doula after 20 years of practice. We speak to Kim about her initiative Doula x Design and how she helps people during pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum. Kim is a registered architect and certified doula focused on the intersection of design and women's health. Through the examination of the role that environment plays in the physical, physiological, and psychological experience of birth, Kim seeks to create awareness, improve outcomes, and to reframe childbirth as a societal topic, rather than as a women's issue. Kim's website: https://doulaxdesign.com Image credits: Kate Randall and Adventure to Motherhood: The Picture Story of Pregnancy and Childbirth, J. Allan Offen, MD, 1960

For our final episode for this season, we speak to doctor and architect Diana Anderson, who has skillfully carved a unique career path for herself as a "dochitect" – by pioneering a collaborative, evidence-based model for approaching healthcare from the medicine and architecture fields simultaneously. Dr. Diana Anderson is a triple boarded professional – healthcare architect, internist, and a geriatrician. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University, and a recipient of an Alzheimer's Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship. She is also a healthcare principal at Jacobs, contributing her thought leadership at the intersection of design and health. Diana's website: www.dochitect.com

In our previous episode, we got an overview of medical tourism around the world and the key factors that drive people to travel from one country to another for medical treatments and procedures. Today, we take a closer look at some of the medical tourism hubs along a very specific geographic area, i.e., the US-Mexico border.  Viviane Clement is an epidemiologist and a cultural Anthropologist whose research focuses on the macro and micro effects of health and environmental policies and politics on under-sourced and under-researched communities. For her article on medical tourism titled 'In Search of Health: Medical Tourism at the US-Mexico Border/Lands', she collaborated with Emma Newsome and Dr. Sergio Lemus to apply transborder theory and virtual ethnographies to analyze the variation in access to health care for populations who share the US-Mexico border/lands.

Medical tourism is a rapidly growing industry that has emerged out of people's need to travel across country borders to access medical treatments and procedures. In order to understand this global movement, we need to understand the reason for travel, the destinations that attract individuals and the web of factors that shape this global industry. Dr. Valorie Crooks is a health geographer who specializes in health services research. She is a Professor at Simon Fraser University where she also holds a Canada Research Chair and currently serves as Associate Vice-President, Research. For more than a decade she has been qualitatively studying the ethical and equity impacts of medical tourism. This work has taken her to countries as diverse as India, Mongolia, Jamaica, Colombia, Barbados, St. Lucia, Cayman Islands, Guatemala, Mexico, South Korea, and Belize. More on Dr. Crooks: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/about/our-people/profiles/Valorie-Crooks.html

What is your idea of good mental health? What does it taste like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like to touch? And if you could design your own safe space, what would it look like? What would you have in it? James Leadbitter, also known as The Vacuum Cleaner, is a UK based artist and activist who makes candid, provocative and playful work. Drawing on his own experience of mental health disability, he works with groups including young people, health professionals and vulnerable adults to challenge how mental health is understood, treated and experienced. James' project Madlove: A Designer Asylum - http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/madlove-a-designer-asylum/

It has been a while since architects have been attempting to address various forms of disability in the buildings, neighborhoods and cities they design. However, these attempts are most often limited to increasing access for differently abled bodies. Our guest today, David Gissen, argues that a disability critique of architecture is not one that solely seeks to make the built environment more accessible but instead understands how embedded the ideas of physical incapacity and impairment are within architecture.  David Gissen is a New York-based author, designer, and educator who works in the fields of architecture, landscape, and urban design. His recent book, The Architecture of Disability, has been praised as "an exhilarating manifesto" and a "complete reshaping about how we view the development and creation of architecture." He is Professor of Architecture and Urban History at The New School University/Parsons School of Design and Dean's Visiting Professor at Columbia University.  David's website: https://davidgissen.org/

We don't talk about the technical and logistical aspects of death enough. For example: How does one's economic status affect the conditions in which they die? Do gender identities play a role in how people receive end of life care? Can we choose the memories that we want to leave behind for our loved ones? And how does social media become an archive of one's life after passing? We speak to artist Oreet Ashery about death in the digital age. Oreet Ashery is a visual artist whose practice navigates established, institutional and grassroots contexts. Ashery was a Turner Bursary recipient in 2020 and won the prestigious Jarman Film Award in 2017 for her web-series Revisiting Genesis, which looks at the emergent field of digital death. Ashery is Professor of Contemporary Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. To watch Revisiting Genesis: https://revisitinggenesis.net/ Oreet's work: http://oreetashery.net/

Historically, many communities around the world spatialized the bodily function of menstruation and integrated it within their architecture in the form of menstruation huts – often leading to the isolation and oppression of women as impure beings. Our guest today argues that these spaces in the west African Benin Kingdom were intentionally designed for women to rest and recuperate – that the isolation rooms were essentially spas.  Minne Atairu is an interdisciplinary artist whose research-based practice seeks to reclaim the obscured histories of Benin Bronzes. Utilizing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and additive fabrication, Atairu reassembles visual, sonic, and textual fragments into conceptual works that engage with repatriation-related questions. She is the recipient of the 2021 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology. Minne's Graham Foundation project: http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/6457-the-menstrual-isolation-room-is-a-spa

Over a century ago in 1896, the bubonic plague broke out in colonial Bombay. While the British officials maintained detailed records of the various aspects of the plague, local newspapers reported on the public sentiment towards the disease and its colonial management. Ranjit Kandalgaonkar explored one such archive to draw out a subaltern narrative of the bubonic plague. Ranjit Kandalgaonkar lives and works in Mumbai and his art practice primarily comprises of a lens directed at the urban context of cities. Most of his long-term projects are research-intensive and attempt to unlock historical and contemporary data by placing the work in the context of an unseen social history. His works have been showcased at Bergen Assembly Art & research Triennale, Colomboscope Biennale, and several galleries in India and overseas. Ranjit's city-based practice: http://cityinflux.com