ALL GOOD VIBES

This new series of podcasts was born as an idea to maintain an open dialogue with architects and designers. The short podcasts will share, through a virtual chat, engaging and interesting insights of works, ideas and thoughts of the most significant representatives of this artistic panorama [these two worlds], from promising young people to famous, renowned ones. All the multidisciplinary aspects that are connected with these two worlds will be examined, focusing particularly on environmental and social sustainability. The encounters will be led by two hosts, Christiane Burklein and Virginia Cucchi, as narrative voices. Two women who, belonging to different ages and different backgrounds, will provoke conversations more intense and compelling. The encounters, two a month, of about 15 minutes, are sponsored by the International platform Floornature and Iris Ceramica Group Foundation

SET Architects, a team of young architects, will entertain our audience, imprinting a fresh, innovative tone to our first virtual encounter. With their extremely precise though very concise language they evoke the notes of a precious, carefully crafted environment that is gradually disappearing. Simplicity, a key note of their creative process, combined with sustainable materials and reverence to context and identity, envisions and casts a flexible and resilient contemporary style of living. Rewarded with important recognitions, it will be for sure not a surprise if they will conceive very soon special projects that will stand out for their originality and expressiveness. Andrea Tanci, co-founder with Onorato di Manno of the firm, will be with us, as representative of Set Architects.

FFV was founded in 1999 in Berlin by Scottish native Leigh Sachwitz. In 1993, received her architectural diploma from the Glasgow School of Art, she arrived in the post wall city, a gigantic playground for creative people where nothing was impossible. She worked in an architect office by day, she helped create makeshift clubs, bars, art spaces for the night using all sorts of materials, light and projections. Later she would add sound and video. Her visuals, sights and sounds are ephemeral and bang on trend, mixing media and technologies, yet they create visceral experiences. From Leigh’s first slides in Berlin’s temporary spaces in the early 1990’s, she and her ever growing FFV family have developed quickly further, with all the new technologies evolving that never cease to amaze Leigh. She is delighted every time she can try and create something entirely new, such as using live 3D mapping to choreographed visuals, 3D projections to a live performance, GPS motion tracking, always looking into tomorrow’s latest trends, making FFV a multitalented organism of limitless creative potential, working all over the world, from music to architecture and events. Leigh will bring her good vibes as trained architect, working now over 20 years as an artist with light, one of the most important ingredients of architecture itself, as a layer to add meaning and emotions to the environment, to enhance our spacial experience and creating something unique. Following her motto: “Emotions trigger memories”.https://www.florafaunavisions.de/

Our new guest will fill the atmosphere of this new encounter with her energetic and extremely vibrant character. Beyond her apparent docile compliance, which is a bit a characteristic from her Asian origins, she hides an iron will and an extremely resolute character. Very talented and endowed with great originality and analytical skills she has achieved prestigious awards at a very young age, as AIA Young Architects Award, Emerging Voices Award and the Young Architects Forum Award by the Architectural League of N.Y. and the honour to be mentioned on some of the most authoritative architectural magazines. She will tell us about micro-housing and ‘spaces in between’, a topic she has always dealt with since the beginning, facing the crucial problem of living space in our contemporary crowded metropoleis. Environmental sustainability in a tropical country will be another interesting point that will be touched in our virtual chat.

Laura Iloniemi, native Finnish, is an expert for communication in the field of architecture. She has worked with architects for over twenty years, advising them on how to lead and support their promotional efforts with a curatorial approach, informed by her education in architectural theory and museology. She focuses on the branding aspects, starting from the identity of the architect and their practices since marketing - knowing how to sell yourself - seems to have become an absolute essential after the various crises in the building industry. (what makes it very interesting to talk to her in this special moment). Laura is author of several important books. Her first one, written in times where nobody seemed to be aware of the power of images, in 2004, with the compelling title “Is it all About Image?: How PR works in Architecture”, while “The Identity of the Architect: Culture and Communication” she guest-curated for Wiley, was published in 2019.She will share her insights into the world of architectural communication.

James Finestone is Director at Arup Architecture Europe. He is a multidisciplinary leader, experienced in low energy design, masterplanning and the role of Architecture in cities. As well as overseeing the development of the teams in Arup’s European offices, he has recently been involved in a number of sports stadia projects around the world, masterplans in Italy, Turkey and China, Science and Industry projects including Jaguar Landrover, Nestle and Equinix and many commercial projects. He was trained as an architect but has recently also gone back to student life in parallel with work to complete a masters in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for the Built Environment.

Erieta Attali was born in Tel Aviv and has a PhD in photography. She currently resides between New York and Paris, photographing the work of contemporary architects from around the world.She has been teaching in some of the world’s leading universities, including Columbia University in NYC, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), The University of Tokyo amongst others and she began her career in the ‘90s as a leading expert in archaeological photography using UV and IR radiation technology. About 20 years ago she came across the work of the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, and since then she has focused on architectural photography. She crafts images with a unique style, working with film and a Linhof camera, that means big format, with a panora-mic 6x12 cm back. One of the basic ingredients of Erieta Attali’s photographs is natural light. She is prepared to wait for hours and even days for just the right light. And her choice of analogue photography takes her into a domain that we could define as slow photography. An insightful and comprehensive ap-proach that is far from the frenetic pace that dominates our overloaded consumption of images, flattened out into rapid sequences on digital media. It is not by chance that looking at Erieta’s wonderful images one can feel the presence of time. In our talk she anticipates her new research on cities and the interaction with people that started actually in Paris during the lockdown and gives new perspectives on urban space. She also tells us also about her upcoming exhibition projects with new concepts as well as her upcoming aca-demic activities.

Richard Hassell is an Australian-born architect and artist who has lived in Singapore since 1989. He is the co-founding director, alongside Wong Mun Summ, of the Singapore-based architectural firm, WOHA. Known for their dedication to environmental and social issues, they tackle problems of the 21st century with innovative new design and urban solutions. Their work embraces diverse highly influential projects, from residential towers, resorts and hotels, public housing and institutional buildings, to masterplanning. It has been the Aga Kahn Award for Architecture in 2007 to establish their reputation and notoriety as authors of naturally ventilated skyscrapers for urban tropical context. Many other prestigious international achievements have followed, attesting the precious contribution of their projects, as milestone of sustainability. Richard will share his expertise, talking about topics today so much at heart, sustainability embodied in ‘high-density high-amenity’, ‘macro-architecture and micro-urbanism’, and, as a leader of outstanding skyscrapers, he will talk about his vision on how we can build, embracing more responsible, healthier choices, blending living green with vernacular traditions.

“Everything is Urbanism” with Irene Luque Martín, MVRDVOur guest today is Irene Luque Martín. She is Project Leader at MVRDV Urban Studio, one of the eight studios of the Dutch architectural firm in Rotterdam and is a PhD in Planning and Urban Technologies awarded Cum Laude and with an ‘International Mention’ during her stay at the Centre of Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She is an active member of several institutions such as ISOCARP, Complex System Society and AESOP where she is part of coordination team of the Young Academic (YA) network, as well a visiting scientist at the University of Twente. Her main role in these institutions is to bring academia outcomes into daily practice methods and research.Looking at her thesis and current expertise, focused on understanding the role and application of urban technologies (Geographical Information Systems, artificial intelligence, urban simulations and visualization tools) in urban planning, she is the ideal guest to talk about the future of our built environment as a whole. Because if we look closer at urbanism, we soon understand why one of MVRDV’s claims is actually “Everything is urbanism”. What was also the motto of Winy Maas, when he was the Guest Editor of DOMUS in 2019. MVRDV Urban Studio, lead by Studio Director Enno Zuidema, is active in many different countries and with a broad range of projects, that go from participatory masterplans in Germany including proposals for the resilience of the San Francisco Bay Area to the Supervision for the center of Eindhoven to research on Urban Air Mobility (UAM), where Irene has been involved.https://www.mvrdv.nl/https://www.mvrdv.nl/about/team/19694/irene-luque-mart%C3%ADn

George Ranalli is a renowned New York-based Architect, who has founded his practice in 1977. For over 40-years, he has worked on a diverse range of projects from civic masterplans, institutional and public buildings, private residences and interiors, as well as, product design. Alongside the studio, he has spent a long academic career: Professor of Architecture at Yale University, and later Dean of City College, for over 16-years, at Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. His architecture is characterized by meticulous attention to detail, tradition and craftsmanship. His work has been displayed in famous museums and his exhibitions have travelled the world. Anne Valentino, Ranalli’s life and work partner, is a specialized Neuropsychologist and Professor, and for more than 35 years, as Associate Partner of the firm, has added her contribution on spatial organization of interiors and as an expert in human behavior in relation to the built environment. A couple who truly complements one another: their practice constitutes a really interdisciplinary partnership between behavioral science and architecture.

Tszwai So is a London based architect whose work ranges from architecture, public arts, visual arts, installations, and writing to filmmaking. He is the co-founding Director of Sphe-ron Architects. He teaches at the University of Westminster.Tszwai So and the practice have been nominated for and won many awards. He was named a rising star in British Architecture by the RIBA Journal in 2016. He was named the best UK young architect under 40 in 2017 by the American Institute of Architects.The Belarusian Memorial Chapel, in London, commissioned by the Holy See of Rome and completed in 2017 - the first wooden church built in London since the Great Fire in 1666 - had been nominated in 2018 for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - the Mies van der Rohe Award. The same year, the church won the Religious Building of the Year award at the 2018 World Architecture Festival held in Amsterdam.In his work, Tszwai is always aware of the power of emotions. Last year, the exhibition “Emotional Architecture” at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge gave an insight in emotions related to the world of architecture, too often neglected in our always more digi-talized world. A world where parameters and thus machines and AI, are becoming the driving factors, leaving human needs behind.Together with Tszwai we will explore why emotionalism is becoming an always more ur-gent topic in a moment in which reality and the virtual are already indistinguishable. Still, nobody seems much to care about that, although it will have enormous consequences on our lives.

Dr. Stellios Plainiotis is the founder and CEO of NEAPOLI, an Environmental Design & Engineering consultancy firm with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. Considered as one of Asia’s leading Sustainability experts, he has spent over 20 years in academic, policy and private sectors across the Europe, South East and East Asia. He has consulted over 80 important construction projects which include Crystal Palace Park and Hoxton Square in London, Rohansky Ostrov Masterplan in Prague, Issam Fares Institute in Beirut, Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, TRX, Menara PNB, the Petronas Cititowers in KL and the multiple award winning project PKNS HQ, reaching prestigious awards as the recipient of the Europa Award for Sustainability 2017 (Best Sustainability Leader). He will shares with our audience his expertise in designing consciously and respectfully, thinking about sustainability as a more integral whole. Tropical lifestyle and urbanism will be some of the topics he will touch, above, the problem of affordability housing crisis connected to the Green Building Movement. He is the co-author of the first Chinese Guidebook “Design for Sustainability”, which is now used as a textbook at the Tongji University, Shanghai and the University of Nottingham (UK).

John Marx, AIA and Chief Artistic Officer, is since 1999 Principal and responsible for developing Form4 Architecture’s design vision and philosophical language. Form4 is an important architectural office based in San Francisco. John has has led projects for Silicon Valley tech giants, such as Netflix, Citrix, VMware, Google, and Facebook, and has an international reach that includes designs in India, Korea, Taiwan, and Ireland. In our podcast we talk about his projects for Burning Man, this year in a virtual version only where he proposed the Museum of no Spectators. He explains the spirit of Burning Man where creativity and togetherness makes great things happen.And we couldn’t forget about his talents with delicate watercolor drawings and touching poetry.Talking to John Marx is always an enriching experience because he is so much more than an architect: he advocates for art, philosophy, and poetry in the thoughtful making of place through the emotional power of form with an awareness that architecture is a balancing act between self-expression and collaboration. Artistically, Lyrical Expressionism has been the focus of this exploration.

Clément Blanchet is a French architect, teacher and critic, actively practicing in the fields of architectural theory, urbanism and cultural investigations. After working for over 10 years with Rem Koolhaas as Associate and then Director of OMA France, Clément Blanchet in 2014 founded his own firm, Clement Blanchet Architecture, CBA, in Paris. The studio is an international architecture and urban design practice which bridges together multidisciplinary and multicultural actors. The mission is to rethink architecture and urbanism to derive clear, durable and coherent solutions, informed by diverse points of view. Structured as a laboratory, CBA investigates the process of analysis of context and data, with a concern towards ecology and environment, to confer robust projects across multiple scales and typologies. Clement will talk to us about some of his recent projects, ecology and competitions, as a way to experiment with ideas, not afraid to learn from ‘failures’, an incentive to perseverate with a good dose of tenacious commitment, not seeking an alignment with homologation, a common trend of today’s society.

Richard England lives on an island, Malta, where he was born, a geographical area that has influenced his work with great resonance toward an architecture of silence, of spirituality and meditation. He graduated from the Polytechnic of Milan in the 1960s, and practiced in the studio of Gio Ponti, who at that time was also the editor of Domus magazine. The atelier was an opportunity for him to meet exceptional personali-ties: Albini, Michelucci, Mangiarotti, Scarpa, Giancarlo De Carlo, Moretti, Richard Neutra and Pier Luigi Nervi. A multitude of great passions, from poetry, literature, music, photography, art, and sculptures, have always accompanied his universal vision of architecture and life. Richard England is considered not only a great architect, but also a wonderful writer, artist, academic and Honorary Member of World Architecture Community. He will share with our audience stories and anecdotes filled with extremely interesting en-counters.

In our podcast, we have spoken to many architects who gave a deep insight into making architecture. We also started looking into the other activities that help to get the architects’ message around, from photographers and critics to PR. But there is still the elephant in the room: what about the perception and imagination of architecture. That is a crucial question if architecture isn’t meant to be done for its own sake but wants to fulfill its social function. Happily, some architects are looking into these aspects. One of them is our guest today, the German architect and philosopher Julian Franke.

Winka Dubbeldam is a Dutch-American architect, founder of the New York-based Archi-tectonics, a firm that operates on multiple scales of investigation, ranging from object design, buildings to complex urban systems and urban planning. In 2006 with the partnership of Justin Korkhammer, new offices were opened in Netherlands and China. The studio works with a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach, combining task-specific intelligent and performance methods to reach a strong identity. Through deep research, extensive prototyping and digital craftsmanship, Archi-tectonics creates efficient, optimized and sustainable, healthy buildings with custom-tailored and cutting-edge technology, while preserving at the core of design a unique character embracing versatility and poetic precision. Winka Dubbeldam is widely known for her award-winning projects, using hybrid sustainable materials and smart building systems, always refined and elegant.

Adib Dada is a young Lebanese architect and founder of theOtherDada [tOD] Regenerative Consultancy & Architecture firm, which mission is - since 2010 - to activate sustainability and resilience thanks to projects across architecture, living systems, and art. He is one of those professionals with a heartfelt environmental commitment. In our podcast, we talk about his various initiatives in Lebanon in a challenging moment for the country where the climate crisis and the urgent need for actions have to consider a complicated social and political situation. We explore his project Beirut RiverLESS, which aims to regenerate the deteriorated Beirut River.

SO – IL (Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu) is a Brooklyn-based architecture firm founded by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu in 2008. The couple represents one of the most inter-esting and original names among the young generation of architects. The philosophy that animates their work aims to dialogue with different cultures and countries, open to the world without any geographical borders. Their projects expand from North America, Asia, Europe creating an authentic interaction with the environment and the community. Well known for their research about innovative use of materials, they are authors of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art for the University of California, Davis (2018), the award-winning Kukje Art Gallery in Seoul, Korea and the recent Las Americas, an affordable social housing, in Léon, Mexico. In 2010, the firm won the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program with its playful, interactive installation Pole Dance, receiving a widespread at-tention. A generous production of temporary installations is an integral part of their de-sign. Their suggestive unexpected ludic scenography combined with poetic lyricism, en-gages the audience, making people more aware and responsible towards urgent topics. The Museum of Architecture and Technology, MAAT, Lisbon, during the past year has organized “Currents- Temporary Architectures”, an exhibition dedicated to 12 of them. Many other prominent cultural institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and Guggen-heim Museum have showcased their work. Awarded with extensive recognitions and prizes, including the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League, they have been featured on many publications, as New York Times, CNN and Frankfurter Allge-meine.