In this conversation Andrew Clancy speaks with the Belgian architect Kersten Geers. Kersten was educated at the University of Ghent and in ETSA Madrid, before setting up his practice (Office KGDVS) with his friend David Van Severen in 2002. This practice has from the start had a very clear position, with each project presenting itself as a typological study in a way - refined to an essential reading. Building its innovations from a close reading of history particular attention is paid to plan and form to allow each project possess a singular character. This work is intertwined with teaching an ..read more

In this episode Andrew Clancy speaks with Dr Anna Minton. Anna investigates and writes about the politics shaping our cities. In particular she tracks how certain forms of global capital are increasingly informing more and more of what makes their fabric. Streets, squares and housing are now frequently being shaped by pressures that have little consideration of the needs of the vast majority of their citizens. Her two books 'Ground Control' and 'Big Capital' are essential reading (click on the link to her website below to buy copies). She lucidly makes visible the impact of policies, regulatio ..read more

In this episode Andrew Clancy speaks with the Belgian architect Jo Taillieu. Jo is Professor of Architecture in EPFL Lausanne, and runs his practice, Jo Taillieu Architecten, from his home town of Ghent. He established this practice in 2004, and between 2009 and 2019 worked in partnership with Jan deVylder and Inge Vynck. In all his work, in collaboration or sole practice, Jo brings an open and curious sensibility, based on a close reading of each site and its potentials. This attitude allows him to see ordinary things anew, and to propose lyrical and playful works which are expressive of thei ..read more

In this episode Andrew Clancy talks with Professor Marilyne Andersen. Marilyne is a physicst by training, but her first love was architecture. Her research has allowed her to develop a particular expertise in daylight, which has allowed her to work in a very architectural way in her various laboratories. She explores the effect of the built environment on daylight, and on how this impacts on human behaviours, mood and well being. In this conversation we range widely, exploring her early work, and how she came to set up the Daylight Lab in MIT, and then the LIPID lab in EPFL. We also hear about ..read more

In this episode Andrew interviews Andreas and Samuel from Stockholm based Hermansson Hiller Lundberg Architects. Their practice is concerned with the capacity for contemporary construction for expression - and they explore structure and a close reading of context to make characterful and beautifully considered work at a wide variety of scales. The work speaks eloquently of our time, and draws on deep traditions in architecture - seeking expressive qualities in contemporary construction techniques. Here they speak about how they balance this careful ‘present tense’ aspect of their work, against ..read more

In this episode Bruno Silvestre interviews his compatriot Alvaro Siza. First off an apology - the sound is not as we would like it. Circumstances dictated that the interview had to be recorded in a hotel lobby, and the backgrounders noise is quite distracting - but we felt it was useful to put out anyway. Bruno is working with Siza on a project here in the UK, and grabbed this time during Sizas most recent visit. In this conversation they talk about practice, Sizes early frustrations with small projects, how current jobs interrelate in the office, and the value of Kenneth Frampton in highlight ..read more

In this episode Andrew Clancy and Laura Evans interview Alice Casey and Can Deegan of TAKA Architects in Dublin. Over their 10 years of practice Alice and Cian have designed a series of remarkable buildings, which clearly illustrate the concerns of the office. Most obvious there is a recurrent engagement with context, making buildings which are grounded in the forms and materials of their physical situation. There is more at work than this - most intriguingly a continual engagement with the potentials for architecture to accrete meaning through its engagement as a protagonist in ritual and hab ..read more

In this episode Louise Koopmanns and Andrew Clancy interview Gunter Vogt, the eminent landscape designer, and Chair of Landscape at ETH Zurich. He views landscape design not as an autonomous totalling discipline, but as a careful reassembly of the world. In his methods he stresses the productive tension between the necessary subjectivity of the human condition, and the availability of scientific analysis and process. In speaking with his students he observes that a field trip can at once be a sensorial immersion and a scientific appraisal, and posits a work method that includes space for digre ..read more

In this episode Kate Ivinson and Dan Ryder-Cook both interview the London architect Amin Taha. Amin’s work, and that of the practice he established (Groupwork) is heavily invested in exploring the potentials for contemporary technology to allow a re-engagement with materiality, ornament and civic expression - particularly in the making of facades. This approach, at once playful and rigorous, has resulted in work which is beautifully detailed, robustly made and historically situated. In this conversation Amin teases out the underlying ideas of the practice, including the way that memory, and mi ..read more

In this episode Andrew Clancy interviews Edwin Heathcote, the critic and writer. Edwin is the architecture critic for the FT, and an author of several books as well as the curator of an online resource celebrating the value of the written word in architecture (Reading Design). In this conversation we tease out the particular pressures on critics and discuss whether the golden age of architecture criticism may have passed. https://www.readingdesign.org/ --------- Credits: Register is the Research Centre in the Department of Architecture & Landscape at the Kingston School of Art, Kingston Un ..read more