About Buildings + Cities

Latest Episodes:

118 — How to be a Beaux-Arts Architect Nov 14, 2024

Show notes

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 art and the astonishing drawings produced as part of its relentless programme of competition exercises.

Do you know your Parti from your Poché? Do you know your way around a Class A? Does Mosaic leave you baffled? Look no further for a guide to all things Beaux Arts.

You can follow along with the slides on our YouTube: https://youtu.be/Jj1anRYMmLI

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

117 — John Soane 7 — The Museum Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

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 also talked about Pitzhanger, his country house in Ealing, and the development of his unique collecting practice.

To follow along with the images we discussed and see clips from our visit, check out this episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/gOzIg5kB2Hg

You can see the full length video tour of the house excerpted in this episode on our Patreon feed: https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings. Please consider subscribing to support the show!

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

*Preview* — Soane's Reputation Bonus Episode Aug 27, 2024

Show notes

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 son George!

You can listen to this episode in full on our Patreon feed: https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

116 — John Soane 6 — Monuments Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

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 gallery in the world. Then we discussed his church buildings in Marylebone, Southwark and Bethnal Green respectively.

Watch on YouTube to see the images as we discuss them: https://youtu.be/8IFQjALMaW8

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

115 — John Soane 5 — London Improved Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

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 National Debt Redemption Office, and his various hypothetical schemes for transforming the city with a thick encrustation of Corinthian columns. We also discussed his work for the Royal Hospital Chelsea, some of which survives to this day. We talked about John Gwynne's 'London & Westminster Improved (1766) and the ongoing problem of London and Westminster's disorderly urbanism, which Soane's unbuilt schemes cannot convincingly overcome — as always, he is at his best when constrained!

To see the images as we discuss them, check out this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_Rr-GRqsc4Y

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

114 — John Soane 4 — Westminster May 30, 2024

Show notes

In this fourth episode of our miniseries on John Soane, we discussed his projects conducted over many years in and around Westminster. This is a tale of confusing canceled schemes, designs by committee, thwarted architectural vision and some of the most electrifying lost interiors of 19th-century London.

As always, you get get a better sense of the images we discuss by having a look at this episode of the show on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/xxeGY4LsHdM

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

113 — John Soane 3 — The Bank of England Apr 29, 2024

Show notes

In the third episode of our ongoing series on John Soane, we discussed his magnum opus, and one of the most entrancing lost buildings ever: The Bank of England. This vast administrative complex signalled the transformation of London into the capital of a modern imperial state, but by the 1930s, after just a century of its existence, the bank had outgrown Soane's intricate and weighty toplit classicism and the whole thing was demolished. We attempt here to imagine and reconstruct what it was actually like, why it was like that, and how Soane achieved it.

See the images we discussed on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/FmY1bFPv-oo

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

112 — John Soane 2 — Rustic / Classical Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

In episode 2 of our series on John Soane, we discussed the projects he worked on after returning from his Grand Tour of Italy, but before he got his career-defining job as surveyor to the Bank of England. These include several built and unbuilt schemes for country houses, a proposal for a pair of enormous prisons in strict geometrical manner, and several rural outbuildings in a rustic classicism that draw upon the founding myths of architecture.

Images for this episode can be found on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/0dAc_Dh1BTk

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

111 — John Soane 1 — 'Visions of Early Fancy' Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

We're back!! In this first episode of our new series on John Soane (1753–1837) we discuss his origins: the child prodigy draughtsman, son of a bricklayer, apprentice of George Dance, winner of a studentship at the Royal Academy, and later with his Design for a Triumphal Bridge, winner of the Royal Academy and a travelling scholarship to Italy, enabling him to join the aristocratic young men of Britain on their Grand Tour. Over the rest of this series we will discuss is iconic works: the Bank of England and his house (Sir John Soane's Museum) alongside some of the deeper cuts.

Watch this episode on YouTube for accompanying images: https://youtu.be/qtB_nERFaBA?si=1q5EdJEkQbsLBRxH

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

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We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org

110 — Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York — 3/3 Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

The final part of our series on 'Delirious New York'! We discussed the culture clash between European high modernism and Manhattanism. We also discussed the Appendix at the end of the book, a set of speculative, wry, ironic and beautiful visions of where next for the retroactive manifesto, featuring the work of Madelon Vriesendorp, Zoe Zenghelis, Elia Zenghelis and Richard Perlmutter.

Hope you enjoy it!

Watch this episode with images: https://youtu.be/ouVLzj-292s

Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts.

Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show.

Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us!

We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org