Negroni Talks #S18 - Quality Streets: How To Ensure That Ramsgate’s Future Is Sweet? Ramsgate is a place on the edge, full of potential and opportunity, but does this really show up in terms of the character of its built environment? Entrepreneurial thinking, initiatives and campaigns from both individuals and groups frequently set sail against the wind of an unstable economy and funding cuts. So is there a disconnect between Ramsgate’s creative communities and the quality of the spaces that its...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 64
The city continually changes despite its perceived permanence as a place; centuries of temporary inhabitation by all kinds of people passing through a built environment seemingly fixed, yet in continual flux. Buildings go up, buildings come down, buildings get repurposed for different uses and short-lived gaps appear in the landscape, whilst a more persistent emptiness can sometimes inexplicably lie dormant behind hoarding for years on end. Vacancy has long been an opportunity to take advantage ...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 63
As Robert Hughes stated in The Shock Of The New, “In the C19th, Architecture built palaces for the rich, villas for the upper bourgoise, and ceremonial structures for the state.” and “the poor, the invisible ones, they had no architecture. They had slums.” Whilst architects in the C20th sought to address this inequality through utopian ideals and design manifestos and often working within the state aparatus, do we find ourselves in a C21st world in which CLASS still remains a prevalent factor in...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 62
[NOTE: In the opening 18 minutes the recording contains background noise due to technical issues on the night] New Towns: (Any) New Ideas? The New Town is now old - about a hundred years old. From their roots in the visionary Garden City Movement of Ebenezer Howard, to their mid-20th century iterations like Milton Keynes, they have long been touted as a solution to relieve urban overcrowding and housing shortages. It was hoped they would usher in an era of improved health and prosperity, as thes...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 61
Around the world tensions often surround the arrival of a new building development, which challenges the status quo and has implications for local people, buildings and the natural environment alike. The omnipresent NIMBY ("Not In My Backyard") and a counterpoint that has more recently emerged, the YIMBY ("Yes In My Backyard"), seem to be opposite sides of the same coin in having a great deal to say about proposed changes within our built environment. Both appear to be angered by what they feel ...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 60
The UK public love The Repair Shop on TV, as grandad’s favourite old toy is given a new lease of life. Sadly, in terms of the climate crisis, the re-use of objects has a pretty negligible impact compared to something like the construction industry and we urgently need to look at the consumption and waste involved, whereby perfectly good interiors are ripped out for corporate fit-outs and whole buildings are demolished and thrown on the scrapheap. We simply don’t have the carbon budget for this l...
Oct 18, 2024•58 min•Ep. 59
The different typologies of building and space in which we live are broad and disparate, as housing models have evolved over the centuries to suit different needs. From cellular abodes to open-plan spaces, from the detached residence to mixed-use developments, we have sought to formulate ways to accommodate the changing needs of individuals, families and communities within different environments. But is this long tradition of flexibility and adaptation being adhered to today and what happens whe...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 58
Architects don’t just design buildings, they also ‘craft narratives’ to help explain them. Storytelling and the art of telling a good story plays an important role in successfully getting permissions and selling ideas to clients. This frequently involves some weird and wonderful language that pushes the boundaries of believability and comprehension, in both fellow professionals and the wider public. An eagerness to describe projects as a great thing for everyone can often make claims that buildi...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 57
Do we think that architects are fit-for-purpose in the 21st century? The world is seemingly changing at an incredibly rapid pace, with the needs of clients and society in a state of constant flux. Strangely, it seems that both practice and education remain largely static however, we now know that the manner in which we have been taught to be architects in the last 30 years, is maybe no longer good enough. Architects historically took on a ‘master builder’ role which saw the profession in a much ...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 56
Sir John Soane built Pitzhanger Manor at a time when Ealing was considered a nice location to have a ‘country retreat’. Things have obviously moved on since 1804 and in 2024 the house can be found sitting within the hustle and bustle of the Broadway – featuring shops, restaurants, offices and 200+ years’ worth of speculative residential developments. Soane wouldn’t recognise Ealing of the 21st century, however he did understand how to create a vision and sell ideas about ‘what could be’ to his p...
Jun 11, 2024•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 55
We’re living in housing crisis, and apparently a loneliness epidemic with everyone shut away doing their own thing behind closed doors. Surely the answer to this is for human beings to move away from the isolationism of their personal pursuits in property, and head back to what human civilisation has always been about, namely sharing resources and, most importantly, space. The public realm traditionally offers a natural setting to promote this ‘sharing’, but can the privacy of the domestic domai...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 54
You’re an architect until you die, it’s a vocation and not a job. At least, that’s what some people would have you believe, with starchitects continuing to design well into their 90’s and succession plans drawn up to keep their practices going after they have left this mortal coil. Meanwhile, newly qualified architects emerging from years of study are met with a culture of “welcome to the real world ” at an age where others in music, fashion, film, and the arts generally, are already shaping the...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 53
The Barbican is under siege! This might seem to be a natural and unremarkable occurrence for a medieval fortified outpost. However, the Barbican in question is a mixed-use residential and cultural complex within the City of London. Home to cinemas, concert halls, the LSO and over 4000 residents, it is also an international symbol of 'modern architecture' and a unique estate within the financial heart of London’s square mile. With its bold forms, spatial variety/complexity and an attention to mat...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 52
One headphone out, keys in hand and checking the street behind you is a familiar experience for a lot of people on their way home, particularly women and those from marginalised groups. And these feelings are not purely anecdotal, as a recent report from the fitness app Strava revealed that UK women are twice as likely to feel unsafe on a run when compared to the global average. In a similar vein, Arup’s Queering Public Spaces study showed that many LGBTQ+ people feel they have to switch or hide...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 51
Mods or Trads? History and Histrionics In Architecture According to social media, we are in the middle of a culture war for both the past and future of architecture. Lines have been drawn and tribes are assembling on a beach with the tide coming in. On one side we have groups that want to protect our modernist heritage and seem to enjoy high-quality contemporary architecture. On the other is a growing collective that extoll the virtues of traditional aesthetics, often following a stylistic appro...
Feb 07, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 50
We’ve seen hemp houses and walls made of rammed earth, rammed stone and anything else you can ‘ram’. Timber has designers drooling at the mention of the word and there was even a show about straw last year that had architects queuing round the block. There is a huge appetite for a ‘return to the natural’ with ‘new’ (maybe old!) and exciting building materials, however, the practical implementation of these at a scale that will actually make a difference seems at present negligible. The built env...
Nov 13, 2023•57 min•Ep. 49
How many times have we heard the phrase “race to the bottom” when it comes to architects discussing fees and design quality. With practices closing their doors and citing the undercutting of their fees as a key factor, competition seems to have defeated camaraderie and we have to ask if the profession is eating itself? We want clients (both public and private) to respect the quality that an architect can bring to a project, but how can we do that when we don’t respect ourselves? Now that we’re i...
Nov 07, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 48
Negroni Talk #S9 AI or Die: Advance or Interference? by Fourthspace
Sep 22, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 47
Having provoked debates interrogating all things “Architectural” from its base in east London, “Negroni talks…!” is hitting the road to discover how the Politics Of Architecture plays out in other parts of the UK. Heading North, South, East and West, The Negroni Talks On the Road Tour aims to hold ‘4 talks in 4 towns’, taking a look at what’s happening on the ground by focusing on local factors that shape the built environment, and what this means for it’s inhabitants. In overview, the Series pr...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 46
Absurdity In Architecture When you think about it, Architecture is quite absurd. The importance placed upon the differences between one building design and another, the dedication to detail, the careful choreography and the assertions of taste and quality, all seem to be on a different planet when one looks up at the huge global issues that confront us. The time and energy, the resources spent on the particularity of a design's development, feels somewhat self-centred, myopic and at a remove fro...
Jul 11, 2023•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 45
Decency By Design What does it mean to be an ethical architect? Is it about the way you run an architectural practice, the type of work you produce, the people you work for? They say that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ and whilst we’re seeing a growing trend of practices becoming B-Corps, does that mean you’re a ‘decent’ company? With the de-regulatory drive to relax the rules and make permitted development easier, the sheer scale of the Post Grenfell cladding crisis, along wit...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 44
Negroni Talk #S7 - FROM HERO TO (NET)ZERO: Carbon Footprints We are in a climate emergency and the built environment contributes 30-40% of the world’s carbon emissions. We have to do something about this and seemingly some governments across the world have belatedly recognised the collective need for us to head towards a net-zero future. Ok, so there’s a plan and we all know what we’re doing, right, but can someone explain clearly what net-zero actually means? Also does the whole tree planting/o...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 43
Talking Shit! DRAIN AGE Stone Age... Iron Age... we are now living through the Drain Age... Regular news reports of flash flooding showing homes filled with filthy water suggest that our treatment of water maybe based upon suspect principles. The mounting evidence is that our ‘interventions’ within the natural world are more and more frequently coming back to bite us in our cities, towns and villages. Is architecture a key factor in our divorce from reality? We put bleach in water, and we drink ...
Mar 02, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 42
‘Affordable’ : The Problem With Affordable Housing In the age of austerity 'affordable housing' is heralded as a basic requirement for new build housing schemes, with any project that doesn't deliver at least a small quota being crucified in the press. But when the term affordable is defined as 80% of market value, and an average house costs £484,716 in London, who can even afford the affordable? The failings of local councils to provide housing for all Londoners has led to this almost meaningle...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 41
Mind The Gap: The Chasm Between Practice And Education After years spent designing wondrous master-plans for fictional cities, debating the rights and wrongs of the Frankfurt School and churning out thousands of words on the subject - architects leave university to find themselves working on technical details for perfunctory spaces in massive practices. Surely given the length of time needed and the tens of thousands of pounds spent in the process, Universities could better prepare students for ...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 40
Londons Borderlands: Territorial Pissings? (Borderlands: Boundaries Within The City State) London is a wonderful metropolis but those that live and work in the city know that it is really the congregation of many different fiefdoms. Each place abides by its own rules and cherishes its own identity. There is no such things as a Londoner; people identify with their local community, as well as the physical context and history of their surroundings. This brand of fierce localism has a knock-on effec...
Feb 27, 2023•48 min•Ep. 39
I’m So Bored With The RIBA: Irrelevance Institutionalised? Everyone loves taking a swipe at the RIBA. Either it's out of date, too bureaucratic, too ineffective, too expensive, too London centric and lacking diversity or all of the above. Yet with 44,000 members, the RIBA falls into the same difficulty as other British institutions such as the BBC and NHS and being so large that it's an impossible task to keep everyone happy. The RIBA is still extremely prolific and internationally respected wit...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 38
Fail Safe, Safe Fail, Fail Better! In engineering and design, a fail-safe is a system that mitigates further harm or failure. Mistakes, bad decisions and a lack of skill can cause great harm to projects at any point in the process and architects often have to step in with their fail-safes. This can involve taking the blame, sorting the problem or even reversing the fail into something positive. Though there are many ways to define the success of a building (PR spin, fees, satisfied clients/users...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 37
Thick As A Brick: Dis Honesty And Architecture… Over years of architectural and building history, the approach to design has frequently been supported by claims of being honest to material, form and context. This becomes a polemic when encompassed into architectural styles and genres: Hi-Tech wears its heart on its sleeve; Modernism, from the roots of classicism, follows function to a degree; and Post Modernism masks and plays games with little care as to whether there is honesty or dishonesty i...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 36
Negroni Talks N°5 Podcast by Fourthspace
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 35
