logo
episode-header-image
Today
15m 21s

Why be an architect today?

The Architecture Foundation
About this episode

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 young people to this profession today, what they think architecture is for, and how they imagine their futures in it.


In these short conversations you get a strong impression of the perennial motivations that push people toward careers in shaping the built environment, despite the seemingly diminishing returns of practicing architecture today.


Speaking with these students about their convictions give us a lot of hope: that the culture of architecture today, its perceived importance in society, and the esteem it’s held in, might still be elevated, and remain worthy of the ambition and altruism that is clearly in no short supply in this incoming generation.


Special thanks this week to all the summer school students, and to Claire Pollack / AHMM


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Jul 31
Paul Shepheard
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, tea ... Show More
1h 5m
Jul 4
Fredi Fischli (Kontextur Podcast Festival)
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 Architectur ... Show More
52m 40s
Jun 2025
Crit: Venice Biennale with Emily Conklin, Fabrizio Gallanti & Phin Harper
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, Th ... Show More
1h 22m
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2025
John Barr, "1960s University Buildings: The Golden Age of British Modern Architecture" (Lund Humphries, 2025)
The 1960s continue to hold an almost mythical place in Western culture, particularly in Britain, where change was widespread and infiltrated many aspects of life. This included architecture, whose role in a modern democracy and the form it should take were hotly debated. 1960s Un ... Show More
57m 39s
May 2025
Owen Hopkins: Home made manifestos.
In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, author, curator and currently director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University, Owen Hopkins discuss his recent book, The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture, published by Yale University P ... Show More
50m 41s
Apr 2020
Reading List | #1 - 'A Theory of Architecture'
In the first of a series of short episodes I talk about the first book that should be on your architecture reading list, 'A Theory of Architecture' by Nikos Salingaros, and why it is so important and useful for architects and architecture students. 
7m 37s
Sep 25
James Benedict Brown & Derek Jones: The design studio.
In the newest episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I got to speak to Derek Jones and James Benedict Brown, two of five scholars responsible for the very recently published Studio Properties: A Field Guide to Design Education, published by Bloomsbury this year and also av ... Show More
1h 7m
Jul 2024
Episode 212: National President Elect of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Adam Haddow on the future role of architects
Adam Haddow has been a director at well-known architecture firm SJB since 2002. Adam is a Churchill Fellow who is known for his study of alternatives to conventional models of urban design. As NSW Chapter President of the Australian Institute of Architects, Adam leads the Institu ... Show More
19m 2s
Sep 2024
#412 - Muyiwa Oki, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design are joined by Muyiwa Oki, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 2023-25 and a senior Architect at Mace. The three discussed Muyiwa’s background and influence; his education in Architecture; his ... Show More
1h 22m
Sep 2024
London Feeds Itself: Jonathan Nunn & Owen Hatherley
Born in the pandemic lockdown of 2020, when Britain’s restaurants had closed their doors, Jonathan Nunn founded the online newsletter Vittles, which rapidly established itself as the premier platform for exploring food cultures in Britain and around the world. Out of Vittles was ... Show More
1h 7m
May 2023
Where to find ugly architecture in the World Capital of Architecture?
In 2023 Copenhagen is named the World Capital of Architecture by UNESCO due to the city’s livability and architecture which is renowned and praised by internationals as well as locals. But not all architectural realities deserve an award, and in this episode, we take a hard look ... Show More
30m 46s
Jul 2024
#404 - Eddie Jones, Founding Principal of Jones Studio
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design to discuss his childhood influences; passion for hand sketching and architecture; his educational background; the business operation of Jones Studio; the Land Ports of Entry project; architects in politics and public sector ... Show More
1h 25m