About Buildings + Cities

This is an unlocked Patreon bonus episode from our series on WG Sebald (episodes 77 & 78 in the main feed), if you enjoyed listening to this episode, please consider supporting the show on Patreon fo…

This is an unlocked bonus episode from our series on Otto Wagner, released to mark the end of our Plečnik series. You can listen to the whole of our Otto Wagner series, episodes 79–83 on the main fee…

This is a clip from our latest Patreon bonus episode, if you'd like to hear our final thoughts on Plečnik in full, please consider subscribing at https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings — the show re…

In the grand finale of our Plečnik series, we discussed the last of his projects for Ljubljana both realised and unrealised. In this episode we covered his Peglezen or Flat Iron Building, the Nationa…

More Plečnik in Ljubljana! Here we talked about his approach to the Ljubljanica, the river that runs through the middle of the city, including the weirs, bridges and sluices which control its flow, t…

In the first episode of our Plečnik series on his work for Ljubljana, we discussed a few of his less well known works, including his work for the Chamber of Commerce, the Triglav Insurance Company Pa…

In the third episode of our Plečnik miniseries we talked about a couple more churches and the cemetery of Ljubljana. Specifically we discussed: the Church of St Michael, Črna Vas or the Church of St …

In the second episode of our miniseries on Jože Plečnik, we discussed four of his early church buildings, each representing a unique interlacing of early Christian architecture, 20th century classici…

This is the first episode in a new series about the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, who blended inspiration from deep antiquity with the modern sensibilities he learnt as a student of Otto Wagner (…

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Watch this episode on YouTube to follow along with the images: https://you…

In Part 3 of our series on SMLXL we talked through 'L', including the essay on BIGNESS, including unbuilt schemes for the Très Grande Bibliothèquethe in Paris, the Karlsruhe Zentrum fur Kunst und Me…

This is a preview of a bonus episode available on our Patreon feed, please support the show on Patreon for full access: https://www.patreon.com/c/about_buildings

In this bonus we talked about the boo…

In episode 2 of our series on SMLXL by Rem Koolhaas, OMA and Bruce Mau, we talked about 'M', including a Panopticon prison, an extension for the Dutch Parliament, the Netherlands Dance Theatre, an un…

SMLXL (1995) was the brainchild of Rem Koolhaas, principal of OMA, rhetorically and stylistically a rejection of the norms of architectural monographs, this 1400 page silver brick was one of the most…

In our last episode of 2024 we thought we would do something a little bit different, and talk about where we think architectural culture is at right now, an archaeology of the present, a dissection o…

In this episode we discussed The Study of Architectural Design (1926) by John F. Harbeson, a remarkable guide to the Beaux-Arts method of architectural education, with its many idiosyncratic terms of…

In the final episode of our series on Sir John Soane we discussed his house and museum on Lincoln's Inn Fields in the centre of London, where the museum kindly allowed us to record this episode. We a…

This is a cilp from our latest Patreon bonus episode, a discussion of Soane's contemporary reputation, particularly satirical and critical writing in the periodical press, not least by his estranged …

In the sixth part of our series on John Soane, we discussed some major monumental buildings in and around London. We began with Dulwich Picture Gallery, perhaps the first purpose-built public art gal…

In the fifth part of our series on John Soane, we discussed his designs for speculative housing developments in central London, another building in the middle of the city for the Bank of England's Na…