001: Amy Butt

The first episode of Hold the Space is an interview with Architect, doctor of science fiction, and lecturer in architecture at the University of Reading, Dr. Amy Butt.

In this conversation we talk about:

• How to engage non-architects in architecture
• Science fiction as a way to practise the future together
• Amy’s indirect route towards her current teaching and practice
• The design crit process, and how to improve it
• A few of the ethical issues with practising and teaching architecture
• A workshop run in the Horniman Museum
• Time management
• And more!

Jump to a section

• (00:00) - 001: Amy Butt
• (00:11) - Introduction
• (03:22) - What do you do?
• (05:52) - Audience
• (08:53) - Personal journey
• (14:54) - Criticising critiques: how to improve the design critique process for students
• (22:47) - Sustainable modes of practice
• (26:55) - Teaching and workshops: The Horniman Museum
• (40:49) - Time and project management
• (50:22) - The Absent Paradigm and science fiction reading communities
• (56:53) - Beyond Gender and collaborative writing
• (01:08:21) - Success criteria
• (01:12:20) - Building communities
• (01:19:51) - Outro
• (01:20:22) - Credits

Links and references

Links

• Amy’s website / Instagram / Twitter
• Amy’s academic profile

Groups

• Society of Architectural Workers
• Involve Architecture Collective
• Beyond Gender Research Collective

Articles

• The Present as Past: Science Fiction and the Museum (2021) by Amy Butt (article and photos from the Horniman Museum workshop we discuss in this episode)
• Performance, Utopia, and the "Utopian Performative" (2001) by Jill Dolan

Books 

From the Horniman Museum workshop

• The Time Machine (1895) by H.G. Wells 
• We (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin 
• The Wanderground (1979) by Sally Miller Gearhart

From the Beyond Gender reading group:

• Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) and The Salt Roads (2003) by Nalo Hopkinson
• Your Faces, O My Sisters! (1990) by James Tiptree Junior - featured in the collection Her Smoke Rose Up Together
• The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Contact

This show is new and evolving - if you have any suggestions or comments, things you’d like to hear (or not!) please email me at holdthespace@olliepalmer.com

Credits

This podcast is made possible by the Situated Art and Design Research Group at Caradt, the Centre for Applied Research in Art, Design, and Technology. Each episode is recorded, edited, and mixed by me, Ollie Palmer. For more information - including full transcripts for each episode, links to relevant work or resources, please visit the podcast website at www.holdthespace.art, or click the link in the podcast notes.

Thanks for listening, and see you next time.