Talk Architecture
Hosted by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, Ph.D.
Malaysian Architect | Universal Design & Accessibility Expert (MS 1184 Specialist) | Former Associate Professor (28+ years) | Advocate for Inclusive Spaces & Women in Architecture
Launched in April 2020, Talk Architecture delivers intimate, reflective conversations on architecture education, practice, and human impact—hosted solely by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob. Rooted in Malaysia yet resonating globally, the podcast connects local insights with universal challenges faced by architects worldwide.
Every episode centres inclusivity, empathy, and equity, drawing on Naziaty’s expertise in universal design, ageing-in-place, sensory architecture, and professional well-being. Global listeners value candid critiques of education models, graduate employability hurdles, and practice realities.
Essential listening for architecture students, professionals, educators, and thought leaders everywhere who are shaping inclusive, resilient built environments in an era of technological and demographic change.
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Talk Architecture
Expert Overnight: Why Design in School Should Work Like Design in Practice
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I used to think designing in school and designing in practice were two different worlds. In this episode I argue the opposite: schools of architecture need to teach the same design process students will use when things actually get built. The test case? The dreaded overnight scheme — your boss tells you at 5pm that a design goes to the client tomorrow morning. No time for precedent studies, no lecturer feedback. So how do you become an expert overnight? The case study is the formula: that same evening, go visit a building of the type you're designing. Watch the users, feel how it works, note the construction, the ventilation, the thermal comfort — then ruminate, reflect, and draw your scheme. Skip this, and all you can offer the client is form-making: the latest style, a glass façade, and a superficial grasp of the actual subject.
This is also a case for visiting everything — not just award-winners to fanboy over, but mundane, straightforward buildings where you ask the unglamorous questions: how does the drainage work, where does the water tank go? An architect is the jack of all trades who can still be a master of many, and clients know it. So why isn't this learning the prerogative of architecture schools? School is where you can make mistakes without a real client — and if your building isn't pretty but it works, judge yourself: the tutor may give you a C, but your effort was an A. Get the process right in school, and you enter practice hitting the ground running.
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