Podcasts about starchitects

There are architects and then there are starchitects–the rock stars of the architecture world. They are architects whose ambitious vision and unyeilding determination drove them to rise above the rest to become that of legend. They're innovative, inspiring, brash and sometimes notorious. While their designs and personalities are some times controversial, you can't deny their impact in redefining architecture. From All Things Architecture, join Steve Park for a podcast series that explores the personal struggles and the triumphant of the world's most incredible architects. The special four-part series begins October 23, 2023 exploring the incredible story of Frank Gehry's struggle to get the Walt Disney Concert Hall built.

RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio theatre reviews. This week we had a bit of dance-circus fusion with the relaxed performance that included audio description of Starchitects by Motionhouse at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre on Friday 3 February at 1pm with description by professional Audio describer Caroline Burn. Starchitects, the new show from Motionhouse is a joyful cosmic adventure. With its mix of gravity-defying choreography and digital projections, Starchitects is a visual spectacle using the dance-circus fusion that the company is renowned for. This  magical adventure, Starchitects allows us to revisit the magic of our childhood imagination where anything is possible…when a cardboard box can be a train and a dressing up box is the start of countless thrilling adventures. Full of fun and thrilling surprises, Starchitects has an easy-to-follow and humorous storyline, making it perfect for a fun and entertaining trip out with children, friends or the whole family. Starchitects continues on tour around the country for venue details along with dates and times of both relaxed and audio described performances, do visit the Motionhouse website-  https://www.motionhouse.co.uk Image: ITV Vidar Hjardeng MBE

I talked to Tim Stephens from Jasmax in a wide ranging conversation about innovation, design automation, AR/VR and my new favourite word : Starchitects...

The idea of a maverick in architecture – and arguably in art, literature and even science – is inextricably associated with the myth of the creative genius. From perhaps Leonardo da Vinci onwards, creative genius has been popularly associated with disregard for social conventions, isolation, and of the individual overcoming adversity – traits that are often understood in masculine terms. In architecture, the creative genius trope has helped give rise to the ‘starchitect’, the name given to an almost exclusively male group of celebrity architects, whose work is defined by its avant-gardist novelty, and signature, iconic forms. As the gravitational pull of the ‘starchitect’ consumes media attention with ever increasing ferocity, our panel discusses its distorting effects and explores what might lie beyond it. To what degree is the ’starchitect’ a creation of the media? In what ways does the ‘starchitect’ system act to exclude women, if indeed it does? How might we begin to celebrate architectural achievements without perpetuating the myth of the ‘starchitect’? What, in short, might life be like after the age of ‘starchitects’ and how might it be reached? Speakers: Karen Cook – founding partner, PLP; former partner, KPF Owen Hopkins – Architecture Programme Curator, Royal Academy of Arts (chair) Hana Loftus – founder, HAT Projects Catherine Pease – founder, vPPR Vicky Richardson – Director, Architecture Design Fashion, British Council Image caption: Fred May, 'Caricature of dinner at RIBA (detail)'. Original drawings from “The Tatler” sketch 22 Feb 1939. Pencil & wash with white highlights on Card/board. 555 x 405mm. © RIBA Collections, London.

This week, we devote the majority of our show to a discussion with Patrik Schumacher, about celebrity and the insularity of critical discourse in architecture. The idea of the "starchitect" is onerous to pretty much everybody in architecture, but that hasn't stopped us from using it. It's a popular media fabrication that, by becoming a potent cultural meme in its own right (thanks, Gehry), has derailed significant portions of architecture discourse into the murky realm of identity politics – the aesthetics and politics of a built object becoming an inextricable part of their designer's character. Schumacher's Parametricism may be an antidote to that. We discuss Schumacher's recent op-ed on these subjects, in the hope that keeping the discussion going will flush out something useful (or even flush away the "starchitect" concept entirely). In the news, we touch on BIG's design for Two World Trade Center displacing Foster's, the resignation of five Cooper Union trustees (including Daniel Libeskind), and the scandal of Red Cross's contested use of earthquake-relief funds in Haiti. Our take on news is a bit different this episode; let us know what you think of it!

James Howard Kunstler shares his observations of Seattle based on his recent trip to that city. He believes that the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood gives one an idea of what the best of American urbanism can be, inspite of some clunky housing types. Though downtown is active and fairly pleasant, JHK has ominous feelings about the future of its many glass apartment towers. Kunstler also describes the Capitol Hill neighborhood, University District, Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. He talks about riding the bus and the lessons we can learn from the lame monorail. Seattle is also home to the ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks, which has many downsides to it, but which has also introduced some culture to certain places that had previously lacked any sort of "third place."

A listener asks James Howard Kunstler to react to the Feb. 9 fire that destroyed a Beijing building by Dutch starchitect Rem Koolhaas. Kunstler believes many famous architects, including Koolhaas, often strive to confound people in order to appear supernaturally brilliant. It's all in the service of grandiosity and narcissism, though. Rather than attempting to disturb our expectations, architects should strive to give us buildings that are neurologically comprehensible and that satisfy our need for cultural orientation. Kunstler also takes shots at a proposed skyscraper in Boston and the Southern Poverty Law Center. **Tim Halber, managing editor of Planetizen, responds in a listener comment to Duncan's recent comments about the failures of new urbanism.

How and why did Seattle build that hideous new public library? asks one listener from that city. James Howard Kunstler tells us how cities get hoodwinked into a status fashion contest to have a museum or library built by one of the celebrity architects of the day. Rem Koolhass, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and others are deliberately designing these disastrous, anxiety-inducing mothership UFOs in order to mystify people into thinking they're supernaturally brilliant. And then we're stuck with these Gillette Blue Blade-clad fun houses for decades. (Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com)Direct Download (7.1 MB): KunstlerCast_05.mp3