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Vikram Prakash

ArchitectureTalk

A Design and Arts podcast

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About the show

Designed around an engaging conversation, Architecture Talk explores issues in contemporary architecture and architectural thinking. It is hosted by Vikram Prakash, Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Newest episodes

161. Pierre Jeanneret and the Chandigarh Vernacular with Manu Sobti

1 hr 12 min

Today, we are joined by Manu Sobti who is a senior lecturer at the University of Brisbane in Australia. We talk to Sobti today about his research on Pierre Jeanneret and Aditya Prakash, what he found, and the role of these two people in the making of modern India and modern architecture

160. Modernism's Magic Hat with Ijlal Muzzafar

1 hr 0 min

Today, we are joined by Ijlal Muzzafar who is a professor at RISD and author of Modernism's Magic Hat: Architecture and the Illusion of Development without Capital. The book is M's thesis on how modernists in the post-war era invoked and worked with the concept of development to produce a re-imaging of development as a process of self-actualization without real sizeable investment of capital.

159. Devising Theater with Jeffrey Fracé

55 min

Today, we are joined by Jeffrey Fracé who is the chair of acting at the University of Washington. Fracé discusses his background of the arts through Shakespeare, improvisational theater, the different modalities of theater, and the difference between producing theater and producing architecture.

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All episodes

161. Pierre Jeanneret and the Chandigarh Vernacular with Manu Sobti

1 hr 12 min

Today, we are joined by Manu Sobti who is a senior lecturer at the University of Brisbane in Australia. We talk to Sobti today about his research on Pierre Jeanneret and Aditya Prakash, what he found, and the role of these two people in the making of modern India and modern architecture

160. Modernism's Magic Hat with Ijlal Muzzafar

1 hr 0 min

Today, we are joined by Ijlal Muzzafar who is a professor at RISD and author of Modernism's Magic Hat: Architecture and the Illusion of Development without Capital. The book is M's thesis on how modernists in the post-war era invoked and worked with the concept of development to produce a re-imaging of development as a process of self-actualization without real sizeable investment of capital.

159. Devising Theater with Jeffrey Fracé

55 min

Today, we are joined by Jeffrey Fracé who is the chair of acting at the University of Washington. Fracé discusses his background of the arts through Shakespeare, improvisational theater, the different modalities of theater, and the difference between producing theater and producing architecture.

158. Jean Louis Cohen and the Transurbanism of the Modern City

52 min

"Architecture and culture operate in a porous manner through the construction of ideas…Trotsky reading Henry George, who had an impact on Frank Lloyd Wright in the U.S. which then bounced back into Russia in the 1930s… so I'm interested in the worldwide circulation of ideas, and their patterns and themes of discourse. " Jean Louis Cohen We are bringing back our conversation with Jean Louis Cohen, who led an international and multi-placed life deeply interested in the mutation transformation movement, ricochet reflection of architectural ideas of modernism globally. Discussing his work on the transurban, Jean Louis Cohen takes us on a tour of the history of ideas that have shaped, formed, and deformed the various cities that stitch together the seams of the world. This conversation continues the ongoing conversation centering the impact of Modernism on architecture and contemporary culture in the world today.

157. Life is a River, A Conversation with 2018 Pritzker Prize Winner BV Doshi

47 min

At age 90, Balkrishna Vithaldas (B.V.) Doshi's journey in architecture has spanned 70 years, starting from Indian independence in 1947, to the vicissitudes of postmodernism and globalization. Doshi's voice is a touchstone in global and Indian modernism. Conversation topics include his reflection on life and creativity, his 'favorite' projects, the legacy of Nehruvian modernization, and architectural pedagogy in India today.

156. Modernism, Utopia, and Living the Catastrophe with Anthony Vidler

1 hr 2 min

As we kick off our new season on ArchitectureTalk, we are bringing back our conversation with Anthony Vidler: Modernism, Utopia, and Living the Catastrophe. Anthony Vidler (1941-October 19, 2023) was an architectural historian, role model, and friend who will be missed dearly.

155. Homelessness is a Housing Problem with Gregg Colburn

54 min

Today we are joined by Gregg Colburn who co-wrote "Homelessness is a Housing Problem". Colburn also shares with us his findings about causes of homelessness, his views on the situation, and some solutions that could remove the problem.

154. Alternative Futures with SB Divya

1 hr 0 min

Today we are joined by SB Divya who wrote the science fiction novel Meru and helps us think about potential futures on Earth. Meru as we discuss in this episode is a future in which tech is developed based on imaginations of current technology and science and possibilities unknown but conceivable.

153. Decolonizing Archives with Martien de Vletter

48 min

Today we are joined by Martien de Vletter who is the associate director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) and gathers archival material dedicated to rethinking, remembering, and preserving architectural thoughts and memories. Vletter also talks about decolonizing the archive and transforming it into something more diverse, inclusive, and multifaceted.

152. Songs of Protest and Sorrow and Connecting Civilizations with Sumangala Damodaran

1 hr 3 min

Today we are joined by Sumangala Damodaran who teaches in the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington, trained economist, dedicated her life to documenting and being a part of leftist oppositional protest movements. Today, Damodaran discusses her protest songs, her songs of sorrow, her singing, the research she has done to connect civilizations, and the diverse impact she has created internationally.

150. Before and After Our Wars with Eliyahu Keller

54 min

Today we are joined by Eliyahu Keller who shares with us the relationship between war, war technology, architectural thinking, the climate crisis, the post-COVID era, and the crisis of imagination.

148. The Promise. Architect B.V. Doshi with Jan Schmidt-Garre

41 min

This week, we are joined by Jan Schmidt-Garre, who directed the film The Promise. Architect B.V. Doshi which was shown at the ADFF (Architecture Design Film Festival). This film took place in the last few years of his life and highlighted his philosophies and outlook on architecture and design.

147. Moby Dick and Modernism with Ayad Rahmani

1 hr 17 min

Today we are joined with Ayad Rahmani who teaches architecture at Washington State University. Rahmani's love for literature and architecture leads us to today's conversation about Moby Dick and architecture.

146. Modernism, Utopia, and Living Catastrophe with Anthony Vidler

1 hr 2 min

As we kick off our new season on ArchitectureTalk, we are bringing back our conversation with Anthony Vidler: Modernism, Utopia, and Living Catastrophe. Anthony Vidler (1941-October 19, 2023) was an architectural historian, role model, and friend who will be missed dearly.

145. The Cyberfeminism Index with Mindy Seu

49 min

This week we are joined by Mindy Seu who published The Cyberfeminism Index electronically and physically. What we focus on is how the index is gathered, organized, and shared and how it could be applicable in the built environment.

144. Towards a Post-Punk Gothic Architecture with Phillip Thurtle

51 min

This week we are joined by Phillip Thurtle, who is the director of the Comparitive History of Ideas (CHID) program at the University of Washington Seattle. Thurtle talks to us about the gothic, what it is and what it means to him and what he researches. 

142. Phantom Hands with Deepak Srinath

1 hr 10 min

This week, we are joined by the founder and CEO of Phantom Hands Deepak Srinath. Phantom Hands creates chairs and other various furniture pieces, and also brings attention to Indian craft worldwide.

140. Biking Through American Freedom with Benedikt Hartl

48 min

This week, we are joined again with Benedikt Hartl. Hartl and his girlfriend recently biked from Seattle to La Jolla, and shares his experience as a European traveling through the West Coast as well as the architectural impacts he observed.

139. Planetary and the Climate Crisis with James Graham

57 min

This week, we are joined by James Graham who is currently an assistant professor at CCA, and used to be faculty at Columbia University and handled publications there. His work heavily revolves around the planetary and climate crisis.

137. Bawa's Garden with Clara Kraft Isono

59 min

This week, we are joined by Clara Kraft Isono, who directed the architecture film Bawa's Garden. Isono is an architect, film maker, and educator in the UK and is currently focused on film making. In this discussion, Isono talks about what film making is, as well as what an architecture film is and what it should be.

136. Architecture after Architecture with Jeremy Till

1 hr 0 min

This week, we are joined by Professor Jeremy Till, who talks about his work with the research collective MOULD and their project Architecture after Architecture which interrogates the constitutive entanglement between architecture and modernism. With modernism responsible for the climate emergency, we will have to re-think what architecture is in fundamental terms, and Till discusses architecture as the solution. 

133. Arch Talk on Architecture Talk with Junichi Satoh

58 min

This week we are joined by Junichi Satoh, who is current faculty in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. Junichi shares with us how he has incorporated architectural thinking in diverse and constructive ways throughout his life, and how it has gotten him to where he is today.

131. Pre-crastinating Art with Aaron Bourget

1 hr 4 min

This week, we had the opportunity to talk to Aaron Bourget who is a film maker of hundreds of short films. Bourget's process of creativity? Pre-crastination, use whatever you have at hand, and push whatever you have into the world week by week. 

130. The Faada-Adda Conversations with Mariam Issoufou Kamara (Part I)

1 hr 7 min

This week, Nigerien architect Mariam Issoufou Kamara joins us in a stimulating discussion about reimagining architecture and epistemologies that come from West Africa. Kamara also touches on how African, South Asian, and other non-European can help us think out of modernity.

129. Comparing Connections in the Ethosphere with Ambrose Gillick (Part II)

48 min

This week, we are joined once again with Ambrose Gillick for Part II of Comparting Connections in the Ethosphere. In this episode, Gillick shares his thoughts on the connections of his two interests in sacred architecture and the modalities and politics of design and the city influence that connects to architecture trends. 

128. Comparing Connections in the Ethosphere with Ambrose Gillick (Part I)

1 hr 6 min

Kicking off our new season of ArchitectureTalk, we engage in a conversation with Ambrose Gillick. Gillick shares his interest and findings in participatory and community-led architecture through a collaborative project with self-organising women's- co-op in Dakar, Senegal, and  theory of sacred space in medieval church architecture.

127. The Architecture of Art with Hiroshi Okamoto

56 min

We're back with a conversation with Principal Architect at OLI Architecture, Hiroshi Okamoto. In this conversation we discuss his time working with I.M. Pei, the design of the Mu Xin Art Museum dedicated to the celebrated Chinese painter, scholar, poet and writer, and designing spaces for the work of American sculpture artist Richard Serra.

124. Architecture and the Photographic Eye with Randhir Singh

47 min

This week, we talk with Randhir Singh about his life as an architectural photographer, which he pursues, not just as an art, but as a way of architectural thinking itself. From the art and craft of the making of a photograph, to the final presentation in MOMA, Randhir Singh walks us through his methods and philosophy on the art of architectural photography.

123. A Fieldguide to Sub-Saharan African Architecture with Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa

1 hr 1 min

How does the idea of a "Nation" come through in architectural language? Is there such a thing as a Nigerian architecture, for example? Are there national identifications visible in architectural makeup? On the other hand, how does architecture transcend borders? What is the status of Modernism in architecture in these various places? This week, we dive into these larger questions as we dissect the recently published series Sub-Saharan Africa Edited by Philipp Meuser, Adil Dalbai, and Livingstone Mukasa.

120. Part 1: Mental Landscapes and the Architectural Archipelagos of Indian Modernism with William J.R. Curtis

1 hr 0 min

This week, we travel back in time with architectural historian and theorist William J.R. Curtis and his reading of the narrative of Indian Modernism. Part one of a two part series, Curtis and Prakash focus today's conversation on the life and work of Aditya Prakash, the nature and production of Modernism in India, and Curtis' own engagement with Indian Modernism.

119. Oracular Visions and the Fungal Futures with Mark Jarzombek

55 min

The modernist legacy has helped proliferate the current environmental crisis on a global scale. In architecture, what is to be done to address this civilizational problem? Could oracular visions be a way to rethink how we practice and teach architecture? Join us for this week's conversation with Mark Jarzombek, professor at MIT and co-director of the Office of [Un]certainty Research.

118. OCL Rerelease: On the Relevance of the Midcentury Modern Moment in India

57 min

In anticipation of the next installment of the One Continuous Line webinar series on Globalization and the Modernist City (being held online on December 13, 2021) this episode is a re-release of the previous panel discussion. This episode features guests Mark Jarzombek, Anthony Vidler, Partha Mitter, and Sunil Khilnani who discuss the relevance of Indian Modernism in terms of its various contemporary postcolonial contexts.

116. The Politics of Acoustic Space and Sonic Montage with Joseph Clarke

50 min

  This week, we sit down with Joseph Clarke to discuss his new book Echo's Chamber: Architecture and the Idea of Acoustic Space. The discussion looks at the convergence of politics, acoustics, and the metamorphosis of acoustic spatial thinking from Wagner to Le Corbusier and beyond.

115. An American Architect in India with David Stein

38 min

This week, the subject turns back to legacy. We have a conversation with the son of Joseph Allen Stein who was an American-born architect, designing fabulous buildings across India during the Nehruvian period in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. David Stein takes us through his life growing up in India and what his understanding was of his father's life and career.  

114. Nightrise and the Nocturnal Landscape with Mohamad Nahleh

53 min

What is an architecture of the Nightrise? How might we spatialize the unseeable, or "freeze" the shadows of a conjuration? This week, we have a fascinating discussion with Mohamad Nahleh, a recent MIT graduate, about his recent personal research and graduate thesis on the night in Jabal 'Amil in the southern reaches of Lebanon.

113. Architecture as a Site of Thinking with Mark Dorrian

46 min

How might we think about architectural education differently in a post-pandemic world? What are the intersections between Covid and Climate Change? How does seeing architecture as a site of thinking impact education today? This week, we sit down with Mark Dorrian to take a deep dive into the material, political, cultural and educational realities surrounding the ongoing pandemic.

See all 163 episodes

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