Superurbanism

<p>Superurbanism is a series of conversations with the most interesting people working in the field of architecture today: architects, curators, authors, designers. Host Tim Abrahams explores both the details of their work and their bigger vision.</p>

S2 EP33 — Pete Collard

Pete Collard is exhibitions curator at the RIBA; and the brains behind a new show held at RIBA North in Liverpool called Home Ground, the Architecture of Football. Tim spoke to him about an architectural typology that was developed in the home of football but increasingly found its apogee away in Europe.

11-24
36:00

S2 EP32 — David Adjaye

With controversy lingering over his personal conduct, three major new museums designed by David Adjaye open this month. Tim Abrahams goes beyond the scandal to explore his commitment to Africa’s cultural and social transformation.

11-06
32:07

News Review — October 2025

The Superurbanism News Review is back again! Tim sits down with our good friend Vicky Richardson, former Architecture Curator at the Royal Academy to discuss the latest events in the architecture world and reaction to them. Award season is upon us in the United Kingdom and we talk through the early responses to Witherford Watson Mann’s victory in the Stirling Prize and much more.

10-23
30:39

S2 EP 30 — Olafur Eliasson

In the early 21st century, Olafur Eliasson helped define a new era of public art with works that took on nature for scale. Tim Abrahams met him at the new Oxford North development and asked him what he makes of his metier as a public artist in a new era when who the public might be is less clear and the idea of nature is unstable.

10-20
24:36

S2 EP 29 — Asif Khan

Tim heads out to Almaty in Kazakhstan to talk to Asif Khan about his work on the Tselinny; an incredibly painstaking transformation of a 1964 Soviet cinema into an arts centre, which he undertook with Kazakh wife the architect Zaure Aitayeva.

10-02
27:15

S2 EP28 — Andy Groarke (part 2)

This is the second half of a two part discussion with Andy Groarke of the London practice Carmody Groarke in which he and Tim discuss more recent buildings including archives for the Bibliotheque Francaise and for the British Library takes this idea about the relationship between materials and time into a different order.

09-25
26:44

S2 EP27 — Ab Rogers

Tim spoke to Ab Rogers about the exhibition he has curated, dedicated to his father Richard, at Sir John Soane’s Museum. They also talk about Ab's own career including his ongoing working relationship with the film director Wes Anderson, and their upcoming Design Museum show in London.

09-19
32:37

S2 EP26 — Andy Groarke

This is the first half of a two part discussion with Andy Groarke of the London practice Carmody Groarke. Talking to Tim, he explores the origins of the practice and the influence of Antony Gormley on their singular appreciation of materials and their relationship to time.

09-04
30:03

S2 EP25 — Richard J Williams

Richard J Williams’s latest book The Expressway World is about spaces built for cars, which humans live alongside. He and Superurbanism host Tim Abrahams took a drive down the M40 to discuss urban landscapes in Glasgow, New York, Seoul and more.

08-21
37:17

S2 EP24 — Charles Saumarez Smith

Charles Saumarez Smith is a distinguished British cultural historian and curator known for his leadership in major art institutions including the National Gallery and the Royal Academy. He spoke to Tim about his latest fascination, the life and works of the great British baroque architect John Vanburgh.

08-07
40:20

S2 EP23 — Pablo Bronstein

Tim talks to Pablo Bronstein, a London‑based artist born in Argentina, known primarily for his beautiful, clever drawings which have been collected by the Pompidou, the Met and the British Museum. His latest project at Waddesdon Manor plays with design history and explores how national identities are constructed.

07-24
35:05

S2 EP22 — Farshid Moussavi

Farshid Moussavi is the co-ordinator of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy this year, the first architect to perform the task since Eva Jiřičná in 2013. Tim spoke to Farshid about her key curatorial decisions and to Stephanie MacDonald about her contribution to the annual arts jamboree.

06-18
28:39

S2 EP21 — Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas, principal of OMA, won the Pritzker Prize in 2000. His work Delirious New York is one of the best books written about architecture and cities. The Seattle Central Library and Casa da Musica in Porto are two of the great buildings of the early 21st century. Tim spoke to him about two recent exhibitions.

06-09
45:53

s2 EP20 — Marina Tabassum

Tim talks bricks, nation building and temporary architecture with Marina Tabassum, the architect of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1969, Tabassum was listed in TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2024. Her Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka won the Aga Khan Award in 2016.

06-03
32:37

S2 EP19 — Tiffany Jenkins

Tiffany Jenkins is author of Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life, published by Picador. “Always interesting, always well written and always provocative," said David Aaronovitch in The Observer. She has also just been made a trustee of the British Museum. Tim spoke to her about the need for the public and the private.

05-27
36:35

News Review — May 2025

The Superurbanism News Review is back from the Venice Architecture Biennale. The super soaraway architecture podcast hears from curator Carlo Ratti on his vision for the event and then addresses how things turned out. Tim is joined by Vicky Richardson, former Architecture Curator at the Royal Academy to talk through the early reviews and give their own assessment.

05-19
30:45

S2 EP17 — Owen Hopkins

Owen Hopkins is a British architectural historian and curator who is now the Director of the Farrell Centre in Newcastle. He is also one of four curators of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Tim explored the dual perspective his positions grant him and the state of architectural exhibitions today.

05-12
36:44

S2 EP16 — Annabelle Selldorf

Annabelle Selldorf is a German-born architect based in New York City known for her refined, modernist aesthetic. She recently completed the renovation of the Frick Collection in New York. Tim spoke to her though about the controversial reordering of the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing by Venturi Scott Brown.

05-06
35:01

S2 EP15 — Tom Emerson

Tom Emerson founded 6a architects with Stephanie Macdonald in 2001, completing the MK Gallery in 2019 and the South London Gallery in 2021. He has just published his first book Dirty Old River, a collection of essays that he discussed with Tim.

04-28
36:50

S2 EP14 — Samantha Hardingham

Tim talks to Samantha Hardingham about Cedric Price, subject of an exhibition touring UK architectural schools currently. Samantha, former director of the Architectural Association and academic director of the London School of Architecture, not only worked for Price but edited his collected works.

04-10
38:13

Recommend Channels