Scaffold

This special episode of Scaffold features a brief interview with the Austrian architect Herman Czech conducted by David Kohn in advance of Czech's 10.05.2024 Architecture Foundation lecture. The interview was recorded at Kohn's recently completed Smart's Place project in Covent garden for Baylight Properties. Czech's lecture coincided with a major retrospective of his work, Approximate Line of Action, that has been staged by FJK3 Contemporary Art Space in Vienna. Special thanks this week to Crispin Kelly / Baylight Properties for their support. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Takaharu and Yui Tezuka founded Tezuka Architects in 1994 and are best known for their experimental designs for schools and kindergartens, chief among them the Fuji School in Tokyo. They are currently fundraising to build a new orphanage and school in India called the Jhamtse Gatsal Learning Centre.Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phineas Harper develops cultural programmes that engage broad audiences with architecture and design. A regular contributor to The Guardian and former Chief Executive of Open City, their career spans criticism, curation, education, youth engagement, journalism and sculpture. "I see my work as always having an eye on some other change that is about making a better built environment […] and that’s why I admire architects so much, because they have the patience and the care to see a project through. I think there’s a lot the we in the critical, curatorial, discursive world have to learn from architects in that regard.”Phin's exhibition "Cascades" is on now until 1 June at San Mei Gallery Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode originally aired in April 2022; Scaffold will be back with a new episode next week. Asif Khan is a designer of buildings, landscapes, exhibitions and installations.“It’s helpful sometimes to think that architecture is made up. All of this cannon, all of this writing, all of this schooling […] let’s just imagine it’s a religion of some sort that you’re operating within, but before that religion there were other religions, and so it’s about stepping outside of that world and seeing what else is possible.”Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fernanda Eberstadt is a New York born writer living in Europe. She has published five novels and two books of non-fiction, the latest of which is BITE YOUR FRIENDS: STORIES OF THE BODY MILITANT. "Art lies in the cracks, the deep tremors, the dysfunctions, in the gap between our own broken capabilities and the unpoliced world we’re hoping to create" – FEScaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cristina Gamboa is a co-founder of the Barcalona-based architecture cooperative Lacol."We are constantly fighting with budgets, and are often left with what is absolutely necessary – a “pure” architecture. […] When the manzanas [Cerda’s urban grid for Barcelona] were built without architects this lead to a homogeneity, or even genericness, that we are comfortable with, maybe because of its lack of a specific aesthetic narrative."Episode References: John Habraken – frameworks of mass supportLucien KrollFrei Otto Francesc Rius – Coll De Portell HousingAlfons Soldevila – Casa Mas RamScaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Takero Shimazaki is director of the London-based practice t–sa, which he co-founded with Yuli Toh in 1996."You can’t control everything as an architect. You can’t dictate everything – that’s not the point. Instead it’s quite exciting to be liberating, to let things be in a way. I'm interested in the discrepancies that exist between imagined ideals and the realities of tolerance and conflict. In these kinds of chaotic and raw situations, how does architecture survive?" Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The artist working alone in their studio is the antithesis of what we do every day as architects […] and yet one hopes that the work you produce might have the same resonance.”Jamie Fobert a Canadian-born architect who has found himself increasingly working on projects at the centre of British culture. Fobert, who has recently become chair of the Architecture Foundation's board of trustees, studied at the University of Toronto before moving to London in 1988, where he worked for for David Chipperfield, before establishing his own practice in 1996. He is best known for his work with major fashion brands and cultural institutions, and has designed retail spaces for Selfridges, Versace and Givenchy, as well as major extensions and alterations to galleries and museums including Tate St Ives, Kettles Yard in Cambridge, and most recently London’s National Portrait Gallery. Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicholas Lobo Brennan and Astrid Smitham founded Apparata, their London-based architecture practice, in 2016."What we are always trying to do is a kind of activism, but the activism is entirely expressed and developed through prosaic things – literally, where is the door, how wide is the walkway, that kind of stuff.It’s not either or – either architecture is its own autonomous discipline, or it’s a social practice – there has to be room for the idea that the actual devices you use to engage with activist work can literally be construction, space and architecture."Buy tickets to Architecture on Stage: A public housing manifesto (This Friday 26 January at the Barbican Centre)Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a curator and artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. This episode features Part 2 of his interview for Scaffold. (Listen to part 1 here). "There is a different kind of time in the studio of artists […] time almost gets suspended when I do a studio visit, which is a major aspect of how I break with routine and liberate time. Artists are world builders, and so you travel into another world." – HUOScaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a curator and Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. "We need protected spaces for art, yes – that's why we have museums – but we need also to find ways to actually go from from the gallery space to the park, into the city, and into society…curating is about building bridges between art and society, and I’ve always believed we need to create this kind of experience for people”Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rural Urban Framework is a research and design collaborative based at the University of Hong Kong, directed by Joshua Bolchover and John Lin. Conducted as a non-profit organization designing for charities and NGOs working in China, RUF has built over 15 projects in various villages in China including schools, community centers, hospitals, village houses, bridges, and incremental planning strategies. Of course, much has changed in China since John and Joshua began their practice - the rural to urban migration emblematic of china’s development over the past several decades is now reversing following changes in government policy as well as massive economic and cultural shifts, which has caused Joshua and John to adapt and reorient their practice in different directions. While they still co-direct Rural Urban Framework, Josh is also director of the District Development Unit, which focuses on the growth of developing regions in Mongolia, Nepal and the Philippines, while John has established a postgraduate program at HKU called the Building Society that implements experimental building practices in traditional contexts. Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield.Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or on Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tosin Oshinowo is a Lagos-based architect and curator of the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Titled "The beauty of Impermanence, an Architecture of Adaptability," this year’s triennial considers design solutions built from conditions of scarcity and explores how this might impact sustainable design today. This interview was recorded in Sharjah during the opening weekend of the Triennial in mid November 2023, and the conversation began by addressing the triennial itself, before unfolding into a more personal discussion of the contradictions that emerge between the exhibition and Oshinowo's practice.---Book tickets for upcoming Architecture on Stage lectures by Duncan Lewis (Tuesday November 21st) and Sam Chermayeff with Jack Self (Wednesday November 29th). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RESOLVE is the Croydon-based collective practice of Akil Scafe-Smith, Seth Scafe-Smith and Melissa Haniff. “We want people to look at our work and think: “I could do that” - if it means it doesn’t look amazing, and it can’t go on dezeen, so be it. There has to the mark of people on these structures, and the mistakes of people too. That is a fundamental part of our work.”Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield.Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or on Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scaffold is on holiday this week – instead here's an interview with the IG architecture meme account Dank Lloyd Wright recorded last year for the podcast Power and Public Space, co-produced by Drawing Matter and the Architecture Foundation. A new Scaffold interview with Resolve Collective will air in two weeks ✌️ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Theo de Meyer is an architect based in Ghent whose work moves between architecture, design and the arts. He and doorzon interieur architecten together represent the core of the modular collective Stand Van Zaken (‘State of Affairs’), who create furniture and architecture in collaboration with specialists in various fields. Special thanks this week to the General Representation of Flanders to the UK (Embassy of Belgium) for their support.Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew BlunderfieldDownload the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or on Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Fretton founded his eponymous architecture practice in 1982. His early work in London, including the Lisson Gallery (1986-1992), was influential in defining a new approach to architecture focused on urban context and daily life.“By the time I graduated, London was completely different. It wasn’t opulent, it was poor, and punk was an attitude that accepted the nihilism of the state and of the city. All those songs by the Sex Pistols, they rang true, they weren’t just inventions. Punk was really important to me - punks were ethical, they had an idea of the world and it was about make and mend, about living in the margins, and that was the background from which I developed my practice.” – TFScaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew BlunderfieldDownload the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or on Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Fretton founded his eponymous architecture practice in 1982. His early work in London, including the Lisson Gallery (1986-1992), was influential in defining a new approach to architecture focused on urban context and daily life. “By the time I graduated, London was completely different. It wasn’t opulent, it was poor, and punk was an attitude that accepted the nihilism of the state and of the city. All those songs by the Sex Pistols, they rang true, they weren’t just inventions. Punk was really important to me - punks were ethical, they had an idea of the world and it was about make and mend, about living in the margins, and that was the background from which I developed my practice.” – TFScaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Store or on Google Play Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke Jones and George Gingell are hosts of the podcast About Buildings and Cities. "We’re interested in getting into things that are obscure [in architectural history], but we’re also interested in looking at things that are super obvious. […] Taking Gaudi for example, he’s the world’s favourite architect, and he’s also curiously elusive and totally unfashionable - like kitch embarrassing tea-towel stuff. At the same time, he is such a strange and virtuosic designer. We’re interested in trying to make sense of that thing that seems so obvious it’s almost embarrassing to talk about." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Bowling is Professor of Criminology at Kings College London, and the son of the celebrated painter Frank Bowling, whose studio he now manages."Frank always wanted children, but did not want to be a father, because of his own father’s violence; by being an absent father through my infancy and childhood, Frank allowed me to re-write the script of fatherhood."One thing that is joyous about working in the studio is being able to involve my son, who’s now in his 30’s, and his son, who’s two and a half. The fact that we now have four generations of male Bowlings in the studio, coming together around the work, is a source of joy. It’s almost like we disrupted this old pattern of what fatherhood should be."Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.