Scaffold is back this week, with an episode that asks a simple question: why be an architect today? The Architecture Foundation is based inside the office of AHMM in Clerkenwell, which, back in July, hosted a summer school for teenagers just beginning to explore architecture. We decided to speak with some of them, to try and understand what draws y…

Paul Shepheard is a British architect and writer known for his philosophical and multidisciplinary approach to architecture. Shepheard was a student at the Architectural Association in the 1960’s, and has worked both in practice, for the likes of James Gowan, and in academia, teaching at institutions like the AA, the University of Texas at Austin, …

Recorded live from the Kontextur Podcast Festival at Khaus in Basel, this episode features a conversation with the curator Fredi Fischli. Fredi Fischli, along with Niels Olsen, is co-curator and co-director of exhibitions at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich. Together with Niels, Fredi works on projects at t…

A month after the opening of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, we've invited three critics to come on the show to help make sense of what was arguably one of the most content overloaded, and curitorially ambiguous biennales in recent memory. Since its inception in 1980, The Venice architecture biennale has set the tone for global discourse …

Patrick McGraw is the editor and publisher of Heavy Traffic magazine. Based in NYC, designed by Richard Turley and featuring contributions as varied as Sheila Heti, Keller Easterling and Dean Kissick, Heavy Traffic understands and reflects the mood of contemporary life in a way that fiction is increasingly well suited to. Literature has the ability…

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the Tate Modern this week, the Architecture Foundation's Director Ellis Woodman speaks with two key figures behind the museum's conception: Nicholas Serota and Jacques Herzog. Scaffold is an Architecture Foundation production, hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. Download the London Architecture Guide App via the App Stor…

Carlo Ratti is is an Italian architect, engineer and educator, and the curator of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. As the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale opens its doors, we speak with this year’s curator, Carlo Ratti—architect, engineer, and a leading thinker at the intersection of design, technology, and urbanism. Under the theme 'Intelli…

Michael Meredith is a co-founder with Hilary Sample of MOS, an architecture practice based in New York. MOS is an acronym derived from Meredith and Sample, with the "O" serving as an abstract, connective element. The name, much like the practice itself and the cultural moment it emerged from in the early 2000s, captures a playful tension between ir…

This episode was originally aired in Novemebr 2022. "The direction in which I’m going is never fixed. Because I don’t know where I’m going, I’m very able to change direction. . . only at the very end of the process does all this nascent information suddenly have resonance – only in the singularity of the final work does the impact of this desperate…

Late last year a new museum opened its doors in Lagos, Nigeria, called The John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History. It is among a new generation of African cultural institutions – including the Bet Bi museum in Senegal, by Mariam Kamara, and the Museum of West African Art in Benin City by Adjaye Associates – which in different ways attemp…

Dima Srouji is a Palestinian architect, artist, and researcher born in 1990 in Nazareth. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Kingston University (2012) and a Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture (2016). ​ Srouji's interdisciplinary practice explores the ground as a repository of cultural narratives and potential collect…

Alison Crawshaw, whose practice encompasses architecture, landscape, urban design, and installations, is on the pod this week. In our conversation we focus on two key projects of hers that bookend her practice to date, and that share a philosophy of working with existing conditions rather than imposing top-down transformations. The first project, f…

badweather, founded by Oli Brenner, Sophie Mei Birkin and Leo Sixsmith in 2019, are an architecture and scenography collective based in London. badweather’s work represents a strand of contemporary practice that became more visible in the wake of the pandemic, and one distinct from the climate survivalism, social moralism, and poetic despair that h…

Gonçalo André Pires is an architect and co-founder, together with Pedro Santo Saraiva, of Studio Sotnas, a practice based between Aarhus and Lisbon. "While in the 90s and 2000s there were a lot of idealistic inventions and visions that wanted to be forced into being, now it’s more about reassembling and reorganising existing meanings and values in …

Art writer and former Spike columnist Dean Kissick stops by the pod to discuss his most recent article "The Painted Protest: How politics destroyed contemporary art" – published in the December 2024 issue of Harper's. Read Dean's article here. Support the Architecture Foundation by becoming (or gifting) a Patreon membership. More details here. Host…

Edward Jones is the co-author, along with the late Christopher Woodward, of the Guide to the Architecture of London, which, originally published in 1983, is now in its fifth edition and has become the definitive guide book of the subject. In 2017 the guide book became the basis of an app - called the London architecture Guide, and one of the Archit…

dorsa is a collective architecture practice founded by Yufei He, James Horkulak and Pan Hu in 2021. In their own words, they "seek to capture multiple and parallel realities concealed within our time, and employ whichever medium necessary to create optimistic narratives for an empathic future." Support the Architecture Foundation by becoming a Patr…

In this episode, we dive into the world of WSL’s ⁠H-frame scaffolding⁠ systems, the trusted solution in construction, decoration, and maintenance projects worldwide. From American, Euro, and Japanese frame types to the innovative baker scaffolding, we explore how these modular systems, featuring frames, cross braces, planks, and guardrails, are des…

This episode was recorded live at the Barbican Centre's Frobisher Auditorium on 25 June 2024, with panelists Bob Allies of Allies and Morrison; Charlie Edmonds of the grassroots activist group Future Architects Front; Cristina Gaidos + Maia Rollo of the recently formed union Section of Architectural Workers; and Jane Issler Hall + Owen Lacey of the…

Explore the innovation behind WSL ⁠Ringlock scaffolding⁠, a modular system transforming the construction industry. From building skyscrapers to supporting large-scale infrastructure projects, this scaffolding offers unmatched efficiency with easy assembly using wedge lock connections—no bolts or screws required. Learn how it outperforms traditional…

Petra Blaisse is a designer and founding partner of Inside / Outside. Blaisse started her career in 1978 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the Department of Applied Arts. From 1986 onwards, she worked as freelance exhibition designer and won distinction for her installations of architectural works. Gradually her focus shifted to the use of t…

Explore the innovative world of Cuplock Scaffolding in this episode, featuring insights from Wheels Scaffolding India Limited. We discuss how their galvanized Cuplock scaffold system enhances safety, efficiency, and flexibility on construction sites. Learn about the unique features that make Cuplock scaffolding a top choice for projects worldwide, …

The Architecture Foundation gratefully acknowledge the Delegation of Flanders to the UK for their support in producing this episode. Recorded on site at Horst Arts and Music Festival in Vilvoorde, Belgium on Saturday 11 May 2024, episode 108 includes conversations with Mattias Staelens, founder of Onkruid and the inspiration behind the Horst Festiv…

Florian Summa and Anne Femmer are founding directors of the Leipzig based Summacumfemmer and guest professors at the University of the Arts in Berlin. The practice's built work includes San Riemo (2020), a co-operative housing development in Munich designed with Büro Juliane Greb. Summa and Femmer were co-curators of Open for Maintenance, the Germa…

Wheels Scaffolding India Limited is a renowned global and India best Scaffolding manufacturer company specializing in manufacturing high-quality steel scaffolding and formwork systems. With a proven track record, we offer various combinations tailored for the building and construction industries. Our expertise ensures top-notch safety, reliability,…

Minsuk Cho is a Korean architect and designer of this year's Serpentine Pavilion. "We have a demanding role as architects, and I think movies are a good comparison: it’s always so polarising – there are serious directors, versus blockbuster directors – but there is a way of doing both." Show notes: Eun-Me Ahn - Korean Choreographer Cities on the Mo…

This week, AF Trustee Shumi Bose moderates a discussion on the state of architectural education with panellists Adrian Lahoud (Dean, School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art), Kester Rattenbury (former Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster), and Neal Shasore (Head of the London School of Architecture). The event was r…