Podcast appearances and mentions of Aaron Betsky

With so many good architecture books coming out, we can barely keep up scheduling interviews, but we are gonna try.  Joining the show are authors Aaron Betsky and Sam Lubell, architecture photographer Darren Bradley, and Danish Modern furniture savant, Carl D'Silva.  More books and authors next week!

Aaron Betsky is a US-based writer, educator and critic, who has served as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, as well as a curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has also written over 20 books with subjects ranging from Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Dutch architecture practice MVRDV to the relationship between architecture and same-sex desire. He is about to publish another. Don't Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture implores the construction industry to refrain from doing what it does most – building – and, instead, find new ways to use the materials and stock we already possess. In this episode, we talk about: the trauma of election day in the US; how we can reuse buildings imaginatively and effectively; working with relics of the industrial age; why the digital world is changing the architect's role; making spaces more egalitarian; squatting; what architects can learn from artists; urban mining; taking inspiration from music festivals; hanging out in the legendary Studio 54; the importance of loft living; and much, much more.(This episode was recorded on election day in the US.)Support the show

Architectural critic Aaron Betsky challenges conventional thinking about our built environment in his new book "Don't Build, Rebuild," in which he makes the case for transforming existing structures rather than constructing new ones. From San Francisco's empty offices to Los Angeles's historic core, Betsky explores how this approach can not only address housing shortages and climate change but also preserve the soul and stories embedded in our buildings. He discusses the economic challenges, policy hurdles, and gentrification paradox while arguing that reimagined architecture can be more beautiful and meaningful than new construction, carrying within it the patina of human experience.

In Episode 103 of A is for Architecture, Aaron Betsky discusses his recent book The Monster Leviathan: Anarchitecture, published by MIT Press in January this year. Until recently Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech, and with previous roles as the President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the author of over 20 books. Aaron directed the Venice architecture biennale in 2008 and now operates as an independent scholar.  The Monster Leviathan describes an architecture ‘lurking under the surface of our modern world […] an unseen architecture—or anarchitecture […] which haunts in the form of monsters that are humans and machines and cities all at once' which Betsky suggests ‘are concrete proposals in and of themselves' and which indicate to us now ways we might ‘construct a better, more sustainable, and socially just future'. Aaron is on Instagram and LinkedIn and all over the internet, because he's proper famous.    Thanks for listening. +  Music credits: Bruno Gillick

Aaron Betsky is a critic, curator, and administrator. Until 2022, he was the director of Virginia Tech's School of Architecture and Design. He previous was the president and dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin, the director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, and a curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He's the author, most recently, of The Monster Leviathan: Anarchitecture. In this conversation, Jarrett and Aaron talk about anarchitecture and the relationship between theory and practice, the role of modernism, and why the future is multidisciplinary. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/247-aaron-betsky. 
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“Per me l'architettura è il mezzo, non il fine. È un mezzo per rendere possibili diverse forme di vita.” Bjarke Ingels. Insieme a Francesca Santambrogio, Head of Editorial Content di AD Italia, ripercorro in questa puntata l'eccezionale vicenda professionale di Bjarke Ingels, architetto danese, fondatore dello Studio BIG, conosciuto in tutto il mondo.

In Episode 27/ 2 of A is for Architecture Bryan Cantley speaks about his very extraordinary body of work, beautifully documented in Speculative Coolness: Architecture, Media, the Real, and the Virtual, published by Routledge earlier this month. Bryan is Professor of 3-Dimensional Design at the Department of Visual Arts at California State University, Fullerton, and founder/ director of Form:uLA, an experimental architecture, design, and graphic communication studio. As the blurb has it, ‘Cantley's work offers a unique and critical insight into the emergence of a liminal territory that exists between the real and the virtual that mainstream architecture has yet to exploit.'  Speculative Coolness documents Bryan's extraordinary, imaginative and alluring architectures, with essays by other leading theorists and writers discussing it import and impact. Aaron Betsky said eight years ago, ‘experimental architecture is a marginal phenomenon, pursued by a few brilliant, but isolated figures: Perry Kulper or Bryan Cantley come to mind'. No so marginal now, is it? Listen, share and subscribe to the show on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.   Speculative Coolness is available on the Routledge website here. Bryan is to be found on the CSUF website here and on Instagram as both bcantl3y and speculativecoolness. His own website, bryancantley.com, features a 20% discount code for the book you'd be wise to use (till 30/4/23). Bryan's previous book, Mechudzu: New Rhetorics for Architecture, published by Springer Verlag GmbH in 2011. Bryan will be speaking on Speculative Coolness at UCLA in May this year. Thanks for listening. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Music credits: Bruno Gillick + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + aisforarchitecture.org Apple: podcasts.apple.com Spotify: open.spotify.com Google: podcasts.google.com Amazon: music.amazon.co.uk

In this our last show from Modernism Week 2022, we close out with fascinating poolside conversations with speakers from the week! Aaron Betsky is a household name, if your house is full of architects.  He's a critic, curator, educator, and lecturer who is Director of the Virginia Tech School of Architecture and Design.  Betsky is joined today with returning podcast guest Andrew Pielage, an internationally published architecture and travel photographer who, like Star Trek, is on a multi-year mission to photograph every single Frank Lloyd Wright building. Aaron and Andrew brought us the new book 50 Lessons to Learn from Frank Lloyd Wright. Returning guest, architect and author Alan Hess has been on this show more times than anyone.  If you're old enough to remember Johnny Carson, Alan is the Charles Nelson Reilly of USModernist Radio.  A longtime advocate for Modernist preservation, he is a prolific author with some 20 books. He's the top presenter every year at Modernism Week. Returning guest, fashion designer, and CEO Trina Turk has one of the most exciting brands of brightly colorful, wildly fun clothing for both men and women. Trina is also a devoted serial Modernist, having owned many houses, and an active philanthropist, contributing to preservation causes, including the USModernist Advisory Board and the fight to Move Marilyn in Palm Springs.  Last February, she spoke at Modernism Week to discuss the influence of another important lifestyle entrepreneur and tastemaker, Vera Neumann.

In this episode you will hear:   (07:20) In this week's “In the news” segment, we do the big “switcheroo” and Lisa tackles an “in the news” question that was sent in and directed to her. It looks at the Windowless 4500 person dorm that Charlie Munger built at UC-Santa Barbara.   We discuss a December 13, 2021 article entitled, “The Munger Dorm is bad, but why” by Aaron Betsky. The article appeared in Architectural Magazine. Aaron Betsky is Director of the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech and a critic and author of more than a dozen books on art, architecture, and design   Lisa and Mark discuss why was it built, what makes it unique and what are the risk factors in building a dorm like this. We also discuss the role of big donors in implementing their plans for a school even when the professional architects disagree with their vision.   https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/buildings/the-munger-dorm-is-bad-but-why_o     (25:28) Question from a listener    For medical schools, is it better to go to a “lower” tier undergraduate school and be at the top of your class vs. going to a school where more of the students are at the child's level (and therefore the student would be in the middle of the pack)?   Jennifer from Virginia     Dave takes Lisa's role in helping answer the question from a listener. He draws off his experience as a Medical Director and Mark draws off his experience of seeing which students from which schools get in medical schools to answer Jennifer's question.   (57:10) Mark interviews Gary Clark, the Dean of undergraduate admissions at UCLA and Gary helps us to understand UCLA.  Preview (Part 2/2) Gary and I talk about enrollment of non-resident students who are not from California Gary shares statistical information, such as how many students apply and what the acceptance rate is for nursing and he talks about what UCLA is looking for when they evaluate a nursing applicant. Gary describes what “The Compare Favorably standard is” and he explains how this is measured. Gary answers the question, does test-blind apply to AP and IB tests or only SAT and ACT. I put Gary on the hot seat and we get to know the lighter side of Gary   (01:09:05) Our recommended resource for episode 212 is the website Uaspire is a non-profit with the singular focus on college affordability and removing financial barriers so that every student has an equitable opportunity to attain a post-secondary degree without burdensome debt. Uaspire provides training and resources for students and counselors to help them understand college financial systems and the barriers that keep students from graduating because of money.   To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our free quarterly admissions deep-dive, delivered directly to your email four times a year, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign up on the right side of the page under “the Listen to our podcast icons”   Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news,  and updates about the podcast before they go live:     To access our transcripts, click: Find the specific episode transcripts for the one you want to search and click the link Find the magnifying glass icon in blue (search feature) and click it Enter whatever word you want to search. I.e. Loans Every word in that episode when the words loans is used, will be highlighted in yellow with a timestamps Click the word highlighted in yellow and the player will play the episode from that starting point You can also download the entire podcast as a transcript   Feel free to pass this podcast on to others who you feel will benefit, even if they are not a YCBK listener.   Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: . If you enjoy our podcast, would you please do us a favor and share our podcast both verbally and on social media? We would be most grateful!   If you want to help more people find Your College-Bound Kid, please make sure you subscribe to our podcast. You will also get instant notifications as soon as each episode goes live.   Check out the college admissions books Mark recommends:   Check out the college websites Mark recommends:   If you want to have some input about what you like and what you recommend we change about our podcast, please complete our Podcast survey; here is the link:     If you want a college consultation with Mark or Lisa, just text Mark at 404-664-4340. All they ask is that you review the services on their website before the complimentary session. Their counseling website is: https://schoolmatch4u.com/

C’est le final de notre fameux cycle sur le genre, l’identité et les normes. Une dernière occasion d’abattre cette idée fausse que l’architecture est neutre ! Cette fois-ci, on reçoit Jean Makhlouta et Mahé Cordier-Jouanne, deux jeunes architectes diplômés de l'école d'architecture Malaquais, pour un dernier regard queer sur l'architecture. Avec eux, on a parlé de manières de "queeriser" l'espace, des corps straights produits par l'architecture et des bienfaits des outils computationnels pour la communauté lgbtqi+. C’est un épisode tout particulier puisqu’il a été réalisé en ligne, sur skype, entre Paris, Lyon, Marseille et Bruxelles. Extraits musicaux : Planningtorock - Human Drama, 2014 NIKI NIKI - Ungenderness, 2018 Baxter Dury - Cocaine Man, 2005 Textes lus : Extraits n°1 & 3 issus de "Queer Space : Architecture and Same-Sex Desire", Aaron Betsky, publié en 1997 aux éditions William Morrow. Extrait n°2 issu de "Imminent Domain: Queer Space in the Built Environment", Christopher Reed, dans Art Journal, vol. 55, n. 4, publié en 1996.

What can we predict about post-pandemic urban planning? For answers we turn to Aaron Betsky, director of Virginia Tech's School of Architecture + Design, and a widely published critic on art, architecture and design. We touch on the required adaptation of office buildings, prescient predictions he made two decades ago, the need to focus on ‘upcycling', or repurposing building stock, expanded use of post offices, the need to rethink museum design, and urgent concerns bearing down on designers due to economic and racial disparity, climate change, and other pressures.

What can we predict about post-pandemic urban planning? For answers we turn to Aaron Betsky, director of Virginia Tech's School of Architecture + Design, and a widely published critic on art, architecture and design. We touch on the required adaptation of office buildings, prescient predictions he made two decades ago, the need to focus on ‘upcycling’, or repurposing building stock, expanded use of post offices, the need to rethink museum design, and urgent concerns bearing down on designers due to economic and racial disparity, climate change, and other pressures.

Zaha Hadid: The complete Buildings and Projects by Aaron Betsky

From Le Corbusier’s ‘5 Points of Architecture’ to Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ and the more recent ‘Architecture Must Burn’ by Aaron Betsky, Katie Treggiden asks what it takes to create a lasting manifesto.

For those who could not attend the event in person, enjoy this recording of the Lunchtime Response with Lars Lerup and Aaron Betsky following Lars' Farewell Lecture. The response was held on April 5, 2019. Find more information at Rice Architecture News: https://arch.rice.edu/latest/news/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte-lars-lerup-and-aaron-betsky

This week’s episode features a conversation between Aaron Betsky and Lars Lerup following Lars’ farewell lecture "Building the Unfinished: An Intellectual Autobiography of a Life in Design." They discuss Lars’ focus on Houston within his research, his transition to studying similar cities in Florida and how Rice Architecture has changed over his years here. If you missed the lecture and lunchtime response, tune in to our SoundCloud channel to hear those recorded events. Find more information at Rice Architecture News: https://arch.rice.edu/latest/news/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte-lars-lerup-and-aaron-betsky

The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design has offered a critical look at the city of Los Angeles since the late 80's. The nonprofit has been providing public programming, exhibitions, and publications through its ever-shifting board of directors and volunteer contributors. To celebrate this 30-year milestone, the Forum has carefully selected a collection of pieces published from its origin to today, and has published these in a book under the themes of Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas. Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissed suburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in Los Angeles, the LA Forum Reader reclaims and reconsiders the city’s architectural and discursive histories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urban investigation. This anthological volume includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of publications that have long been out of print, including pamphlets by Craig Hodgetts and Margaret Crawford, as well as early writings by Aaron Betsky and John Chase. In this week's show I invited editors Mimi Zeiger, Chava Danielson and Michael Sweeney to Archinect's recording studio to discuss the history of the Forum and the process of putting together this anthology. 

This week we’re joined by special guest co-host Aaron Betsky, author of Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire and Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture & the Construction of Sexuality. As a strong presence in the architectural discourse of gender and sexuality since the 1990s, Betsky discusses with us a few of our recent Features published under April's special editorial theme, Sex, including: The enduring influence of "Playboy Architecture" Screen/Print #41: "Family Planning" from Harvard Design Magazine The gimp room, the padded cell, the medical office: inside the world of Kink.com Transparent Motives: the ins and outs of sex-specific architecture "The difference between porn and erotica is the lighting." – One-to-One #19 with Jake Jaxson, CEO and Creative Director at CockyBoys Betsky was last on the podcast in his current professional capacity as the dean at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin, to talk about the school's then-uncertain future. You can listen to that episode here.

Back in December of last year, the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture launched in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, featuring an exhibition curated by Los Angeles-based critic Mimi Zeiger and designer Tim Durfee. Their show, “Now, There: Scenes from the Post-Geographic City,” winner of the Biennale’s Bronze Dragon, reconsiders what makes up today’s idea of a “city”, specifically regarding our digital and virtual presences, as well as contemporary issues of globalized economies. Mimi and Tim joined Paul and I in Archinect’s podcasting studio to talk about the exhibition, and introduce a discussion recorded in Shenzhen among the participants of “Now, There" and one of the Biennale’s curators, Aaron Betsky. Their conversation, “Where is now; When is then” makes up the meat of this Bonus Session. The exhibition features work by Besler & Sons, Walton Chiu, Tim Durfee and Ben Hooker (with Jenny Rodenhouse), John Szot Studio, m-a-u-s-e-r, and Metahaven, as well as texts by Joanne McNeil, Enrique Ramirez, and Therese Tierney.

It seems as if the tumult and intrigue that ran through Frank Lloyd Wright's life has lived on at Taliesin. After being embroiled in accreditation issues, suspending Fall 2013 enrollment, and working through rocky fundraising plans, Taliesin recently appointed Aaron Betsky to lead the school and help it regain solid footing. Betsky was previously the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and has quite the art/architecture pedigree: he's served as the Director of the 2008 International Architecture Biennale in Venice, SFMOMA's Curator of Architecture and Design, and the Director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. Betsky joined Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken on the podcast to talk about his plans to make the school the "best experimental and its role in the changing world of architecture education. It also turns out that Betsky is quite the DJ. News this week was also rather Wright-ous, with the nomination of 10 FLW structures to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the Hollyhock House's reopening in Los Angeles. We also take some time this episode to gaze inward on the podcast, and frankly consider our "intro" segments, where each hosts shares what's going on in their lives. What do you think of our introductions? We hunger for feedback. Send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

This episode is a doozy. Paul and Amelia left the temperate sunshine of Los Angeles for Washington, DC's frigid monumentality, to interview Bjarke Ingels on the eve of his "Hot to Cold" exhibition at the National Building Museum. The 40-year old architect shared some quick-won wisdom about scaling a business, the Danish condition, and the indispensability of humor and play in architecture. Donna and Ken joined Paul and Amelia to speak with Lian Chang about her recently published visualizations of the Archinect Salary Poll for the ACSA, in charming emoji-based data sets. The Sessions co-hosts also discuss Aaron Betsky's new appointment as the head of the deeply troubled Taliesin West, and what Thom Mayne's demolition of Ray Bradbury's house means for architecture preservation and sentimentality. And for another climatological analogy, Paul and Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions's legal correspondent, poke at the tip of the iceberg concerning issues of copyright in architecture.   A reminder: send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions about the podcast, via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

Aaron Betsky called visionary architect Lauretta Viciarelli's (1943–2011) watercolor paintings of buildings, light, and water "spaces for the senses, without ground, program, or context" that are "more beautiful than real." Her artwork is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and has appeared in the Venice and Whitney Biennales and the arresting monograph Not Architecture But Evidence That It Exists. In this conversation, Viciarelli's colleagues reflect on her work as educator, architect, and artist—from teaching drawing at Columbia University GSAPP and collaborating with Donald Judd in New York and Marfa, Texas, to producing the body of work in "Clear Light: The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli," on display 3/1–5/25 at The City College of New York.

The graphic designer Thomas Widdershoven of the agency Thonik spoke with the curator and critic Aaron Betsky on stage in Milan about Thonik's prominent position in the Netherlands and abroad. Thonik can be seen as a forerunner of the New Sobriety movement. Thomas Widdershoven and his partner Nikki Gonnissen are advocates of the idea that graphic design should act in the public domain where it can and participate in public debate. Their work spans graphic identities and communication materials for countless cultural institutions, such as the Marta Herford Museum in Germany and the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as a political party and a newspaper.

Philippe Rahm, born in 1967 studied at the Federal Polytechnic Schools of Lausanne and Zurich. He obtained his architectural degree in 1993. He works currently in Paris (France) and Lausanne (Switzerland). In 2002, he was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice and is one of the 20 manifesto’s architects of the Aaron Betsky’s 2008 Architectural Venice Biennale. He is nominee in 2009 for the Ordos Prize in China and was in 2008 in the top ten ranking of the International Chernikov prize in Moscow. In 2007, he had a personal exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. He has participated in a number of exhibitions worldwide (Archilab 2000, SF-MoMA 2001, CCA Kitakyushu 2004, Frac Centre, Orléans, Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg 2003-2006 and 2007, Manifesta 7, 2008, Louisiana museum, Denmark, 2009). Philippe Rahm was a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome (2000). He was Head-Master of Diploma Unit 13 at the AA School in London in 2005-2006, Visiting professor in Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland in 2004 and 2005, at the ETH Lausanne in 2006 and 2007 and he is currently guest professor at the Royal School of Architecture of Copenhaguen. He is working on several private and public projects in France, Poland, England, Italy and Germany. He has lectured widely, including at Cooper Union NY, Harvard School of Design, UCLA and Princeton. Matthias Böttger, born 1974, studied architecture and urban planning in Karlsruhe and London. He heads the Berlin-based think-tank “raumtaktik — spatial intelligence and intervention”. 2007/2008 he was Visiting Professor for Art and Public Space at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremburg. In 2008 he was commissioner and curator for the German contribution “Updating Germany— Projects for a Better Future” to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. 2009 was a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Currently he teaches „Art + Architecture“ at the ETH Zürich and 2010 he runs the exhibition space aut - Architektur und Tirol - in Innsbruck and curates the series aut.raumproduktion.