Architecture podcasts you should binge while traveling for—or escaping from—your holidays
Are you taking some time off during this holiday week? Or perhaps voyaging to visit loved ones? Or maybe you need a break from said loved ones? In any case, this week is a great time to refresh on what’s out there in the world of architecture podcasts.
Architecture podcasts offer a wide range of focused series, from practice and business to history and equity. In recent years, podcasting has gained popularity and grew more appealing during the pandemic as a way to create spaces for conversation and exchange.
Some offerings are are regional: Jon Gambrill and Michelle Liebling, from Gensler’s Denver office, lead Architect-ing, which tells the stories of Colorado designers; City Cast makes city-specific podcasts, and its Houston variant is particularly focused on the built environment thanks to the concerns of its host Lisa Gray. Many schools of architecture also now produce their own interview series as a way for students to learn media production and initiate conversations with relevant voices. Even individual offices produce dedicated series: Buildings and Beyond, about sustainability, is led by Steven Winters Associates; FX Collaborative has made ten episodes of Architecture 5-10-20, which prompts guests to peer into the future; and Perkins&Will makes Inhabit, a show about the power of design.
Below AN’s editors cook up a healthy helping of design series you may love or may have missed. Most are widely available wherever you listen to podcasts. Check them out when your flight is delayed or when you need to exit a dinner table discussion that veers off the rails. Happy listening.
In production for a decade, this podcast, hosted by Evan Troxel and Cormac Phalen, is probably one of the longest running architecture podcasts out there. Focused on the working lives of architects, the hosts dish “real talk on everything from design, tools, and work/life balance to generational differences, mentoring, job hunting, and more.” Their latest episode, published yesterday, reports on the Monterey Design Festival.
Emerged from a blog of the same name, Dallas architect Bob Borson with Andrew Hawkins lay out advice about the practical realities of working as an architect. The content is of interest for entry-level designers hoping to learn about the profession as well as more seasoned operators searching for inspiration to stay positive.
Do you prefer Eichler or Googie? This podcast, produced by the essential US Modernist website (which also hosts an archive of AN back issues), keeps the flame burning hot for midcentury modern residential architecture in all its glory. Bonus points: Each episode spotlights a musical guest.
Hosted by John Wheaton, Creating Structure shares interviews and discussions about life, business, architecture, construction, and more. AN’s own Diana Darling tells her story in episode 27.
Interested in running a design business? There are now a number of useful podcasts on the topic of how to run a successful firm. After 440 episodes, Business of Architecture is a serious resource from how-to architecture entrepreneur Enoch Sears.
Since 2013, Michael Riscica has helped architects become licensed and build meaningful careers. In this series, which boasts 189 episodes to date, a host of guests share about job decisions, starting their own practice, and leadership navigation.
Nearing its hundred-episode mark, About Buildings + Cities delivers in-depth exploration of architectural history and culture, with detours into film, fiction, comics, and the dimly imagined future. There have been prior multi-program dives into the work of canonical architects, like Palladio, Carlo Scarpa, and Otto Wagner.
For broader conversations about design, check out this long-running podcast hosted by designer, writer, and educator Jarrett Fuller. Recent guests include Elvia Wilk, Matthew Wizinsky, Eva Hagberg, Maria Nicanor, Liam Young, and Robert A.M. Stern, among other luminaries.
Conceived and produced by MIT’s Critical Broadcasting Lab and presented with The Architectural League of New York, Ana Miljački, professor of architecture at MIT, talks to architects explaining why they would turn down work. So far, the series has heard from Liz Diller; Walter Hood; Tod Williams and Billie Tsien; Tatiana Bilbao; Sara Zewde; Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu (of SO – IL); and Amale Andraos and Dan Wood (of WORKac).
This podcast is an extension of the incredible work of the Beverly Willis Foundation, which works to “lead a cultural revolution in the building industry that will acknowledge, cultivate, and value women’s contributions and achievements—past, present, and future.” (The podcast recently benefited from a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.) Each episode tells the story of a woman architect, and the first season kicks off with some big names: Julia Morgan, Natalie de Blois, Helen Fong, Norma Sklarek, and Florence Knoll.
Like New Angle: Voice, the Design Voice Podcast seeks to “elevate and amplify the voices of women in the architecture, engineering, and construction professions.” There are two episodes a month, and each one features honest conversations with those who shape the built environment.
Lindsay Baker and Kira Gould, two women working at the intersection of the built environment and climate change, lead this podcast about the future of the built environment, as told from the perspectives of women leading the way. Recent interviewees include Marsha Maytum of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, Nikita Reed of Quinn Evans Architecture, and Chandra Robinson of LEVER Architecture.
Now produced by the Architecture Foundation, photographer and architecture educator Matthew Blunderfield talks to architects, artists, and designers. Recent guests include Sam Chermayeff, Moshe Safdie, Flores & Prats, and Freek Persyn of 51N4E.
Coproduced by Architecture Foundation and Drawing Matter, an “organization that explores the role of drawing in architectural thought and practice,” and hosted by Matthew Blunderfield of Scaffold, this series showcases how spaces can transform into sites of resistance. In ten short bursts, Blunderfield talks with Manuel Herz, Mabel O. Wilson, and Instagram memelord Dank Lloyd Wright, among others.
The latest episode of this podcast made by the Architectural Review was coproduced with the Canadian Centre for Architecture and focuses on the outputs of its recent “How to: do no harm” residency, curated by Lev Bratishenko and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes.
Jess Myers, assistant professor at RISD and AN contributor, has made three seasons of this podcast. While there aren’t any new episodes, the existing three seasons are worth hearing if you haven’t tuned in previously. Check out A Pause is Not a Break, an exhibition this fall at RISD which had a significant audio essay that heard Myers in conversation with Ilze Wolff and Garcia Frankowski, in addition to an audio playlist, a video playlist, and a physical vinyl record.
Marquis Stillwell is a cofounder of and contributor to Deem, a biannual print journal and online platform focused on design as social practice. He also hosts their podcast, titled The Sweet Flypaper. Recent guests include artist Mel Chin, Milton Curry, Paola Antonelli, Sara Zewde, and a trailer featuring Deem cofounder and creative director Nu Goteh.
Linked to a magazine of the same name edited by Léopold Lambert, this platform offers a podcast (150 episodes deep) in addition to dedicated shows Diasporas et Imaginaires des Luttes (in French) and the older A Moment of True Decolonization (in English).
A network of contributors who aim to “reconnect architecture to the real world,” Failed Architecture’s podcasts (with the title Breeze Block), cover a range of social, political, and economic topics. The outfit counts AN contributors Kate Wagner, Kevin Rogan, and Michael Nicholas among its operators.
