Open City
Open City is a charity dedicated to making architecture and built heritage more open, accessible and equitable.
Providing you with essential listening, inspiring voices and built environment insights – the Open City Podcast covers news and current events as well as in depth studies of landmark buildings, and cities around the UK and world.
At the centre of our line-up is our flagship show The Brief – an award-winning review of the big stories in architecture, planning and housing news – hosted by Sahiba Chadha and Fran Williams on a fortnightly basis.
Alongside this is Deconstructed – a monthly podcast hosted by Matthew Lloyd Roberts taking apart the architecture of individual buildings and InterCities – a monthly podcast hosted by Owen Hatherley exploring municipal transformation around the world.
All three shows profile new, expert and diverse voices from across industry, journalism, academia and beyond. The Open City Podcast is produced by Hunter Charlton and Paige Reynolds. The commissioning editor is Merlin Fulcher.
The Open City Podcast is supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture platform and produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, London Society, C20 Society and Save Britain's Heritage. The Open City Podcast is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau.
To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City Friend.
Photo credit: Owen Hatherley portrait © Antonio Olmos
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 35 minutes
- Episodes
- 249
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Lives at risk as blistering heat scorches southern Europe
This week Sahiba spoke to the writer and Design Museum curator, George Kafka.
// Lives at risk as blistering heat scorches southern Europe // Government adviser calls for a major rethink on new road b…
The housing policy reforms local authorities are calling for
This week Phin spoke to Leo Pollak, who is Councillor for South Bermondsey Ward in the London Borough of Southwark.
// An SUV crash at a primary school in Wimbledon kills two children // The Architect…
Eric Parry's tour of Westminster
This is the first audio tour of a two-part series led by architect and Royal Academician Eric Parry visiting London’s two historic cities: Westminster and the City of London
Eric Parry Architects (EPA…
Thames Water sinking under more than £14 billion pounds of debt
This week Merlin speaks to Prudence Ivey, Editor of Homes and Property at the Evening Standard, and guest curator of the Open House Festival.
// Thames Water sinking under more than £14 billion pounds…
Designing cities to cope with heatwaves and combat loneliness
In this episode Marsha speaks to Professor Debbie Bartlett from The Cool Towns Project, and Clare Penny who is course leader for Landscape Architecture at the University of East London.
Through conve…
Prince William vows to build social housing and end homelessness
This week Merlin speaks to the architectural critic and the blogger behind McMansion Hell - Kate Wagner.
// Prince William vows to build social housing and end homelessness // Acclaimed London housing…
The battle to save 20th century buildings from the bulldozer
On this week's show Phin speaks to the architecture critic, incoming chair of heritage campaign group Twentieth Century Society, and author of the new book ‘About Architecture: An Essential Guide in …
Six years on from Grenfell – we ask why housing is still in crisis
This week Merlin speaks to the journalist and author of the powerful account of the Grenfell disaster ‘Show Me the Bodies’, Peter Apps.
// Six years on from Grenfell – we ask why housing is still in c…
Shaping spaces to be inclusive to all
In this episode the Landscape Institute's Neelam Sheemar speaks to Glen Macfarlane and Pierre Chin-Dickey from Macfarlane + Associates, and the writer and landscape architect Jill White.
They discuss …
The millions of adults living with parents amid the housing crisis
This week Fran speaks to the architect, writer and producer Ewa Effiom.
// Close to five million adults living with parents amid the housing crisis // A row over nightime closures of London’s finest s…
The British Pavilion at this years Venice Biennale
This week Merlin travels to Venice to catch up with Jayden Ali, one of the curators for the British Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.
// The British Pavilion shines a light on everyda…
With four months to go Open House Festival announces its guest curators
This week Sahiba speaks to Open House Festival assistant curator Hafsa Adan.
// With four months to go Open House Festival announces its guest curators // A row erupts over the mass arrests of anti-Co…
SuperBloom and the not-so-green credentials of urban trees
In this episode Jaideep Warya, landscape architect at Allies and Morrison and Andrew Grant from Grant Associates, discuss how to steer projects and clients towards long-lasting, sustainable outcomes …
The Londown Transport Special
This week we revisit some of our favorite London transport stories we've covered over the past year/
Episodes featured:
Poor housing costing NHS £1.4 billion each year
This week new host Fran Williams speaks to Melissa York, assistant property editor at The Times and The Sunday Times.
|| Poor housing costing NHS £1.4 billion pounds each year || Rishi Sunak scraps ho…
Gove admits Coalition policies added to social housing failures
This week Phin Harper speaks to the founder and director of the consultancy Municipal, Claire Bennie.
| Gove admits Coalition policies added to social housing failures || Landlords roll out draconian …
Britain's first memorial to the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade
This week Merlin speaks to the writer, architecture historian, and head of the London School of Architecture - Neal Shasore.
Paris bans rental e-scooters | A new ‘Superloop’ bus network for suburban L…
Petrochemical reliance & the value of indigenous knowledge
Marsha Ramroop speaks to two contributors of the Material Matters edition of Landscape: Claire Thirlwall and Sandeep Balagangadharan Menon. Together they discuss landscape architecture's reliance on …
the 100th episode of the Londown
In this special bumper 100th episode, Merlin Fulcher takes the guest-pundit hot seat, to answer questions on the housing, cost of living, and climate crises. Guiding him through these meaty topics is…
A new budget amid a wave of public sector strike disruptions
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This week Merlin speaks to Lachlan Anderson-Frank. Lachlan trained as an architect…