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Hosted by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, Ph.D.
Malaysian Architect | Universal Design & Accessibility Expert (MS 1184 Specialist) | Former Associate Professor (28+ years) | Advocate for Inclusive Spaces & Women in Architecture
Launched in April 2020, Talk Architecture delivers intimate, reflective conversations on architecture education, practice, and human impact—hosted solely by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob. Rooted in Malaysia yet resonating globally, the podcast connects local insights with universal challenges faced by architects worldwide.
Every episode centres inclusivity, empathy, and equity, drawing on Naziaty’s expertise in universal design, ageing-in-place, sensory architecture, and professional well-being. Global listeners value candid critiques of education models, graduate employability hurdles, and practice realities.
Essential listening for architecture students, professionals, educators, and thought leaders everywhere who are shaping inclusive, resilient built environments in an era of technological and demographic change.
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397 Episodes
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Send us a text We dive into the conversation on "reforms in architecture education" to understand further how education affects the profession in a profound way. The principles from Mark Alan Hewitt's 2020 reforms explained in arch daily —emphasizing embodied cognition through hand drawing, physical model-making, haptic engagement, and sensory-rich practices—can absolutely be integrated into both the ARB Competency Outcomes Framework and the RIBA Themes and Values framework. Both are delibera...
Send us a text Another “unfiltered” critic argues that architecture education is the root cause of the profession being undervalued and widely misunderstood. The defense of the profession, we contend, must begin in academia, where the core problem lies in situating architecture schools to comply with—and be dictated by—non-architects who neither understand nor uphold the profession’s essential competencies. This external oversight has diluted the foundational truths of architecture, eroding i...
Send us a text This podcast episode is a one-off reaction piece to the discussion on "What makes a good studio master?" It refers to the Malaysian Architecture Education context and the premise from the problem of bureaucracy. The assertion here argues that formal qualifications (PhD, Part 3 registration, 5+ years industry/teaching experience) proposed by the Malaysian Board of Architects (LAM - Malay Acronym) are irrelevant for design studio masters, who need to have both talents in te...
Send us a text Architecture education and the problems of competent graduates have been discussed elsewhere in Talk Architecture podcast, but this topic shows how much things have changed in architecture education and how it affected the curriculum. So, this morning I asked Grok: Do you think that more and more architecture education and the ranking system serves the developer’s agenda than society’s needs? Grok says: Yes, absolutely — and the trend has been accelerating dramatically over the...
Send us a text The “research-framework” approach to design theses is a myth and must end. Best industry preparation: give the entire studio one real, complex, shared urban site and force students to solve 10–15 genuine, layered design problems from day one. This final episode of a 3-part series explains how using two cases almost a decade apart. 2008–09 (wrong way): 24 students → 24 different (often easy/speculative) sites → pretty drawings, 2–3 shallow problems, bored students, weak graduate...
Send us a text In the second part of this three-part series on the “context specificity” approach, we explain a design thesis studio philosophy that insists on “real site + real community issues only,” with the focus placed on identifying and solving authentic design problems. The studio runs for a full academic year, structured as: 7 weeks of Special Semester (Brief proposal on site analysis and research) 14 weeks of Design Development 14 weeks of Detailed Design + Special ...
Send us a text For a design thesis, context specificity approach is the answer, the only way to get students of architecture to be ready, equipped, going into the architecture industry because that's the way the industry works. There is no place for speculative design, prototypes or fantasy design, as you will not be able to overcome the challenges of the industry. This episode is the first part of the three-part series, focused on identifying design problems rather than speculating with a pr...
Send us a text For Architecture Academics, a special podcast on: Why Research Framework cannot be used in Architectural Design, specifically in the Architecture Studio Design Thesis Curriculum. An introduction to a topic addressing what is currently wrong with the way we teach architecture in universities where research and publication becomes increasingly important and how we have lost our way in producing credible architecture graduates. Refer to the link below on a previous Facebook post (...
Send us a text The seven principles of sensory-driven architecture, which focus on engaging human senses to create meaningful and immersive built environments, are often derived from the broader concepts of sensory design. 1. Sight (Visual Engagement) 2. Sound (Acoustic Harmony) 3. Touch (Tactile Experience) 4. Smell (Olfactory Design) 5. Temperature (Thermal Comfort) 6. Movement (Kinesthetic Awareness) 7. Emotional Resonance (Human-Centered Experience) This episode, Naziaty Mohd ...
![The Use of Sensory-driven Architecture Principles to Achieve Inclusive & Therapeutic Spaces [Part 2]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/9oaal775ty5mkiluf4svz41aao0v?.jpg "The Use of Sensory-driven Architecture Principles to Achieve Inclusive & Therapeutic Spaces [Part 2]")
Send us a text The concluding part (Part 2) of this proposition of using sensory-driven architecture principles to achieve inclusive and therapeutic spaces as explained by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, is based on a research to combine architecture, disability and phenomenology. Based on an internet literature search, the 7 principles of Sensory-driven Architecture Principles are: Sight (Visual Engagement)Sound (Acoustic Harmony)Touch (Tactile Experience)Smell (Olfactory Design) Temp...
![The Use of Sensory-driven Architecture Principles to Achieve Inclusive & Therapeutic Spaces [Part 1]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/8zpgczymnviv5m3qqyz03wrt29sw?.jpg "The Use of Sensory-driven Architecture Principles to Achieve Inclusive & Therapeutic Spaces [Part 1]")
Send us a text A new season on Sensory-driven Architecture principles and ideas. The first part of this proposition of using sensory-driven architecture principles to achieve inclusive and therapeutic spaces as explained by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, started on a research to combine 'architecture', 'disability' and 'phenomenology'. Definitions and approach to how we could go about as architects go above and beyond accessibility and universal design is articulated in Part 1. Reference to Juhani Pall...
![Conversation with Lillian Tay on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/vdypwrmlbaueqvjnqd5ovrvc92gz?.jpg "Conversation with Lillian Tay on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]")
Send us a text The Concluding Part [Part 2] of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Lillian Tay discusses a variety of issues from gender roles in taking care of children and the challenges to women architects who decided to start a family, how the local government can provide for nurseries in office areas and whether there is the glass ceiling for women architects. Bio: Ar. Lillian Tay is the Vice President of Veritas Design Group, est. 1987. She was trained at Princeton U...
![Conversation with Lillian Tay on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/rfig3y9kvz2yafjoxl01cqatida4?.jpg "Conversation with Lillian Tay on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]")
Send us a text In Part 1 of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Lillian Tay discusses on a wide range of issues regarding women architects, starting out in the beginning, the role of women in general, whether there is discrimination in architecture and architectural practice in reality. Bio: Ar. Lillian Tay is the Vice President of Veritas Design Group, est. 1987. She was trained at Princeton University and worked at Kohn Pederson Fox in New York. Lillian returned to Kuala...
Send us a text A Teaser introduction on a conversation with Ar. Lillian Tay in the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles. (Part 1 & 2 - coming soon.) Bio: Ar. Lillian Tay is the Vice President of Veritas Design Group, est. 1987. She was trained at Princeton University and worked at Kohn Pederson Fox in New York. Lillian returned to Kuala Lumpur in 1991. At Veritas Design Group, she provides the design direction and was leading numerous award-winning projects. Lillian contri...
![Conversation with Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/us2coah5nawgtre42zekws5b73fx?.jpg "Conversation with Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]")
Send us a text The Concluding Part [Part 2] of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim discusses on how younger women architects need to find that balance in their profession, flexibility arrangements with your boss, having empathy with your staff, the importance of "me time" and resetting your mind over the weekend, the importance of learning from one another in an office and the construction industry and learning how to market oneself with your variou...
![Conversation with Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/xs93okvih1bo3eenfdiey97fm5yp?.jpg "Conversation with Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]")
Send us a text In Part 1 of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim discusses on networking at top management level, advice when fresh graduates started out in employment, stepping out of the comfort zone and keep on challenging oneself and even marketing for oneself, the importance of the right mentor, and how acquiring knowledge and keep on doing so helps you to gain confidence, amongst other issues of managing an office. Bio: Ar. Almaz Salma Abdul Ra...
Send us a text A Teaser introduction on a conversation with Ar. Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim in the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles. (Part 1 & 2 - coming soon.) Bio: Ar. Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim, Managing Director of Almaz Architect Sdn Bhd. Throughout her 41 years of experience in the industry, she has been involved in over 250 design works in Malaysia winning awards. She was the convenor of Singgah KL, a Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) event in 2025 promoting the archit...
![Conversation with Cheryl Quan on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/sebvyy7fsm5yi7198ig7y4m0aw71?.jpg "Conversation with Cheryl Quan on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 2]")
Send us a text The Concluding Part [Part 2] of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Cheryl Quan discusses about the issues women architects face when "maternity leave" happens amongst other issues, the role of the institutions such as PAM, and more detailed deliberations on the Malaysian Architecture Week (MAW) and the awareness needed to get the public to know about the architect's role and function in society. Bio: Ar. Cheryl Quan is the principal of Cheryl Quan Architect...
![Conversation with Cheryl Quan on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/vsfpbyryeb4n1c4qf2vzcbv39j7h?.jpg "Conversation with Cheryl Quan on Women Architect in Leadership Roles [Part 1]")
Send us a text In Part 1 of the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles, Ar. Cheryl Quan discusses about her experiences and challenges in her practice and recounted how she struggled in the beginning when there were clear gender-based biases she was up against. As one of the main curator of the recent exhibition and talks in conjunction with the Malaysian Architecture Week (MAW), after a seven year sabbatical, she found confidence again to be part of the architecture fraternity and co...
Send us a text A Teaser introduction on a conversation with Ar Cheryl Quan in the series on Women Architects in Leadership Roles. (Part 1 & 2 - coming soon.) Bio: Ar. Cheryl Quan is the principal of Cheryl Quan Architect and partner in OTCQ architects, a practice focused on responsive, community-driven, and environmentally conscious design. She was named one of the 40 Under 40 Emerging Architects in 2023. Known for her material sensitivity and a willingness to embrace experimental approac...
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