Back to the Drawing Board - S4E3 - Partners in Design: Love and Legacy in Architecture

Can love and architecture really coexist in harmony? Journey with us this Valentine's Day as we unravel the fascinating stories of couples who seamlessly blend their personal and professional lives in the world of design. Discover how my accountant wife, despite not having a background in architecture, plays an essential role in our business and why the myth of course mates ending up as lifelong partners isn't always true. You'll get a peek into our transition from Patreon to "Buy Me a Coffee," which marks a new chapter for us and adds a touch of humor to our love story.

Our exploration leads us to the iconic Charles and Ray Eames, whose pioneering designs have left an everlasting impact on modern architecture. Get ready for a playful discussion about the cost and legacy of an Eames chair today, as well as a deep dive into the Eames House and its blend of functionality and aesthetics. We also pay homage to legendary couples like Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh, whose collaborations have shaped the course of design history. You'll hear about their artistic synergy and the cultural significance of their work.

As we navigate through post-modern architecture, we highlight the influential duo of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and their insightful criticism in "Learning from Las Vegas." The episode wraps up with a nod to New Brutalism champions Peter and Alison Smithson and contemporary architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey. Learn how these visionaries balance groundbreaking design with respect for existing environments, and get inspired by their passion and creativity. Whether you're an architecture enthusiast or simply a romantic at heart, this episode offers a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the intersection of love and architecture.

Transcript

Valentine's Day Special

Speaker 1 0:00

Probably start with some housekeeping. We've got rid of the Patreon and we're now moving into something more on-brand, which is buy me a coffee. Cheers.

Speaker 2 0:11

Can they see the coffee?

Speaker 1 0:14

Oh, that's hot. No, because if Mike sees it, he'll realise it's one that we've used and someone gifted us that we don't like as much as his. We love you, Mike. And so, in what is becoming an annual tradition, this is the Valentine's Day special.

Speaker 2 0:28

Ooh la la, we could put some sound effects. We won't, we won't, but we could. We know, how Do we you?

Speaker 1 0:35

do? I don't, and I'm the one editing Anyway.

Speaker 2 0:40

No, you're not.

Speaker 1 0:41

Ah, we did reveal it on the first episode, but anyway. Valentine's Day special Annual tradition, valentine's Day special. This one's a bit different from last year, but it still remains amongst the theme of love.

Speaker 2 0:54

We've binned off penis-shaped buildings For the most part, I'm pretty sure we said goodbye to them. I know I have it on good authority. That's not on this presentation. No, we've done we've been a little bit more mature. Yeah, yeah, but architecture and love, phil. What do we know about that? Quite a bit.

Speaker 1 1:34

Without further ado, my name is Phil, director at PWS Architecture and Design, and this is my work wife, theo, oh hello. And so today we're talking about life partners, slash business partners.

Speaker 2 1:50

So of course, as we all know, it's very common. You have a life in business, don't you A wife in business? I do A wife in life.

Speaker 1 1:57

But my wife is our admin because she has an extreme accountancy, whereas I think what we're focusing on today primarily is couples who do be designing together. They do be do. They do be do in the design, which I think is ironic, that I'm in the situation I'm in, where I have my wife working with me. Considering when I started university, I was in a relationship with someone on the same course and the tutors said oh, people on this course tend to end up getting together and staying together and getting married. There'll be people in this room that get married. You hate your job together. Yeah, we'll hate our job together, but that didn't work, did it? Because here I am married to an accountant.

Speaker 2 2:37

The person who you run your business with you. However, I do have a girlfriend on the course with me. You do, that's.

Speaker 1 2:48

I do have a girlfriend on the course with me? You do. Yeah, that's how we met. It was love at first sight. Meeting first sight, meeting yeah.

Speaker 2 2:53

That was a terrible joke. I'm sorry it's staying in, but yeah, no, I can't control that anymore.

Speaker 1 2:58

True, it is, though. Yeah, but it's funny because, after all of that, when the shooters were like, oh yeah, you'll end up being together, people, people will end up being together from this course, I can't think of a single couple that started during that course that is together now. So clearly they jinxed it. Well, that's good to know. Yeah even though several came and went. But, as I say, in my case I have my own wife working with us. She obviously helps me run the business.

Speaker 2 3:26

She's not a director, weirdly, but I'm sure she was. I thought she was, but she was meant to be Coffee.

Speaker 1 3:28

Do you know what Someone should?

Speaker 2 3:30

buy you a coffee. Someone should buy me a coffee. For the low price of however much they want.

Speaker 1 3:34

I think it's like $1 a month, or they can donate a random amount as they feel.

Speaker 2 3:38

You have it in British currency, because that's all I'm able to spend. No, apparently we have to do it through dollars. So we have to buy coffee from America. America, bald Eagle Coffee Probably put some tariffs on us. That's political, isn't it?

Speaker 1 3:51

So what we've done today is brought an example of a few architecture and design couples. No, we've got a few, We've done some work which is a nice change for us.

Speaker 2 4:04

Well, your idea, nice change. Well, your idea, whoa well, your idea was for us to do quite a lot of work and I said no well, it was either we.

Speaker 1 4:11

We compromised it was either inch deep, mile wide, or mile deep, inch wide, and I think we went more for some things somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 2 4:18

Yeah, inch deep, inch wide. Yeah, I've heard that before. I knew that was coming Our Valentine's Day, about the depth of doors and such. You know back doors.

Speaker 1 4:30

So I think we probably start with one of the more Well known and significant duos Charles and Ray Eames.

Speaker 2 4:37

And here they are. Now I should say Phil, because Did you do a screen?

Speaker 1 4:41

record. No, okay, so we're not going to have what we had last week for the awards.

Speaker 2 4:46

It'll be easy enough to pull together. That was really convenient, but it's not in that order on your notes. Oh God, okay, it's probably close. Okay, but I can tell you for a fact the next one isn't even on there.

Speaker 1 4:59

As we know, it's a husband and wife duo. We do, and they were significant contributors to modern architecture and design, and I think everyone knows them best for the chair.

Speaker 2 5:09

Yeah, which is on the screen.

Speaker 1 5:10

Now Case study eight, which is the house. The in-house is fantastic. You can buy one of those Eames chairs. Just take a. John Lewis is where I found a. Just a quick Google John Lewis appeared. Top of the charts. How much Hazard. A just a quick google John Lewis appeared top of the charts.

Speaker 2 5:25

How much hazard a guess?

Speaker 1 5:26

try to be reasonable it's plywood leather bit of stuffing 1,200 do you want to play hot or cold yes, I do okay, pick another number. I'll tell you if you're colder or hotter.

Speaker 2 5:38

Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 1 5:41

1,100 where did you start? 1,200, okay, cold, oh my days. 2,000 1,100.

Speaker 2 5:45

Where did you start? 1,200? Okay, cold, oh my days. 2,000. Warmer, 2,500? Warmer, oh no. 3,000? Warmer, oh no. 5,000? Warmer, oh no, um, six thousand, still getting warmer. Oh, this is horrible. Ten thousand, you're pretty much on the money no way, yeah, you're kidding me.

Speaker 1 6:11

It was like ten thousand six hundred pound plus delivery.

Speaker 2 6:14

We don't charge that much for an entire job I know it's mad, isn't it? Plus delivery plus delivery, but the delivery was packaging yeah post and packaging applies you're spending three quid on your ten thousand pound.

Speaker 1 6:26

That'd be where I draw the line, I think. Expedited delivery for £4.99.

Speaker 2 6:30

Imagine it's Royal Mail. You'd never get it. They'd leave it in a safe place around your neighbour's house.

Speaker 1 6:33

You'd get it but it'd be in pieces, which I found crazy. They invented Sorry, I just realised. After that I got quite a few adverts from Timu advertising one for £99. No, it was. I think it was £20. But they had a special deal on if we bought two we could have it for £30. And the temptation was unreal.

Speaker 2 6:57

Can you imagine just?

Speaker 1 6:58

sticking a couple of Timu Eames chairs in the office.

Speaker 2 7:00

Imagine the poor child that had to make that Bending the wood by hand instead of with the special patented machine or steam.

Speaker 1 7:07

Yeah, Just bending it by hand breathing on it.

Speaker 2 7:10

So they invented the Kazam machine, which is the machine that bends the wood, and that's kind of what gives them that style it's their ability to bend wood, because they were kind of the first to do it. They actually designed a splint that was used in World War II, and I'm pretty sure they patented the splints. They were like the people who made? Splints for broken legs in the war. It was just a single straight with a bend on it. They've done a lot of stuff. They've done photography, videography.

Speaker 2 7:37

Film Industrial design, art and obviously architecture, which is key for this, and I think they're very Bauhaus-y, dare I say that. I think they're what Bauhaus should have been Ballsy, I know, Because they're like it's the bright colours, it's the simple shapes and it's so fun.

Speaker 1 7:57

I think when someone paves the way first, like Bauhaus did, it's quite easy to kind of see it and go oh, this is how we actually do it better, or the technology advances. You find a lot of these early designers. They were ahead of the technology. When you look at the Villa Savoie, it was ahead of its time so far, so that the technology just doesn't work.

Speaker 2 8:19

I was talking to some of our audience about this and we were both saying about how the problem was like legit.

Architects and Furniture Designers

Speaker 2 8:25

Is this you talking to your mom? No, sophia, oh, it's the audience. They're in the office. Um, like the actual bow house of the bow house, time was all just kind of brutalist, but with extra steps, with more shapes, I think painted a bit green. But that's the thing. When you look at the, the external architecture none of it's colored and you kind of think, oh, that's like half of the fun of it. There's some bad house prints through there. Yeah, it's like the interiors are fantastic, but the exteriors just don't live up to it, just don't match up. No, but these guys, I think, do a really good job of it and I think their most famous work is case study house number eight or the eames house as it's been, which is a cracking bit of modernist.

Speaker 2 9:04

That was by, I think it was. Obviously it was their house, but it was designed for like an artist or something.

Speaker 1 9:10

I actually don't know that much about the background of it, so I'm hoping what you're saying is right. I'm sure we'll find out in the comments that I'll respond to with sarcasm.

Speaker 2 9:17

Yeah well, I was. I got my information from the Eames website and it's all like labeled as case study, this case study, that. Um, I see that house is the main one, um, but I think it was some artist who was doing a bunch of case studies on a series of work and was like I'm gonna use your house, yeah um, because it's Lucia Eames, the daughter, that's inherited it and has now turned it into that non-profit, the Eames Foundation.

Speaker 1 9:42

Right, um, but it's still a historic house museum maintained by the eames foundation, and it's been designated a national historic landmark in 2006 and serves as a pilgrimage site for nearly 20 000 visitors a year, and reservations are required this one's going to be such a change of tone for everyone because they're gonna be like why are they whispering?

Speaker 2 10:01

there is a baby next door and there is trying to sleep. She is trying to sleep, she. Sorry, I can't call phil's child it, yeah, or anyone's for that matter, I think I don't know.

Speaker 1 10:13

I've been told anyway, they're basically best known for their work with plywood, such as the eames lounge chair and the eames lounge chair with ottoman, which is the ten thousand pound one um how much is it without the ottoman?

Speaker 2 10:25

like eight grand, no, so it's different.

Speaker 1 10:27

I wonder how much the eames chair is different from the eames chair with ottoman well, like it's a different design.

Speaker 2 10:33

Yes, obviously the one on the screen. Yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 10:35

It's so that the other one doesn't have the leather. It's kind of like a bucket you shape with anyway. Yeah, but they've also worked in textile film and exhibition design. They've been busy.

Speaker 2 10:47

One thing I noticed on your extended list which doesn't really come through, which I've deleted on the notes yeah, a lot of the couples you found were all furniture makers as well as architects, and I find it really interesting. That's the thing they do together is the furniture. And it's also like your show of love is one of you might be an artist and the other one's an architect, and you go well, let's make a chair. Here's what.

Speaker 1 11:11

Here's something like a mid-ground well, I find a lot of people who like architecture, like product I nearly did product design.

Speaker 2 11:16

Yeah, I, I did a bit in my last project.

Speaker 1 11:18

We should maybe we should, that's what you do, I designed the entire vertical farming system.

Speaker 2 11:23

Nice, because I couldn't find it. So I was like f***, make it, I'll just do it myself.

Speaker 1 11:28

Maybe we should do that. We should design some chairs for the office, because you break all of the chairs and everyone in the office doesn't like standard chairs.

Speaker 2 11:35

Well, that's just offensive, because Sophia's broken more than me. That is fair she has. So next, the next one. Some of my Scottish pals say that they were dead long before I was born Charles Rennie McIntosh, braveheart, and Margaret MacDonald McIntosh. Oh yeah, this was funny. So all of the I'll get to the funny bit when we get to it, which is a few slides down the line. But they were married in 1900, exactly. Good year, yeah, good year, good, solid year, change of millennium. Let's get married.

Speaker 2 12:10

Margaret was an artist and charles was an architect. Um, they were part of, I think, the glasgow four, which is these four pals who studied at glasgow. Are they two of the four? Yeah, cool, yeah, they studied at the school of Art. Are they two of the four? Yeah, cool, yeah, they studied at the School of Art. They met there and this kind of this group of the four of them who just had this sort of similar design ethos, but they're all very naturalistic in a really weirdly like accentuated way. And you can see some of her art there the May Queen and it's all these really like elongated shapes. I think Charles is a little bit obsessed with the female parts because you can see this, you can see the inspiration in a lot of like the product design and woodwork that he has in certain elements of his designs. He designed a house for her, called House for an Art Lover, and it was a competition I think it was some Swedish competition and it never got built and then, maybe like 100 years after his death, these plans were found in.

Speaker 1 13:18

Scotland and they went let's build this Honestly, we've talked about that before.

Speaker 2 13:21

We've got a different podcast.

Speaker 1 13:22

I'm not putting a link in the bio because I won't remember which one it is.

Speaker 2 13:24

That'll be hard to find the School of Arts there on the screen. That's probably one of his more famous ones. It doesn't look like that. It's currently covered in scaffolding and ash.

Speaker 1 13:34

Oh yeah, because it burned down. Well, it burned. It didn't burn down, it burned down twice. No, we're not down.

Speaker 2 13:49

As in it's not rub. Well, I mean a school full of paper and flammable things. You think you would put some effort into making it less flammable, especially after the first time, yeah, and they say burn me once, burn me twice shame on me for burn me twice shame on you.

Speaker 1 14:01

No, it goes back around, but four times.

Speaker 2 14:02

Shame on me um, this number's definitely not spot on, but I think it's been close to like maybe between five and ten years of just under a tarp and just no one's doing anything about it. I remember one of my lecturers having a whinge on saying it's been like this for so long and the? Um notre dame cathedral was rebuilt in two years. I was like, come on, that's like a million times the size.

Speaker 1 14:27

And it's done by the French, who were, ironically, probably drunk the whole time.

Speaker 2 14:32

Also, they designed furniture Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 14:38

Where does that come from? It's worth the shock, worth the shock factor. So, as a couple, should we design furniture?

Speaker 2 14:42

If we make that our goal, we have to design some furniture. Good, I agree, but yeah, these, or should we design furniture? If we make that our goal, we have to design some furniture. Good, yeah, but yeah, these two are like, especially charles.

Speaker 2 14:56

He was one of, like, the architects of scotland and I hear margaret's uh paintings got found somewhere in like france in world war ii. I think they've been bought and then hidden and after the war, they peeled this wall back, peeled down this plaster and found this massive I think it might have been the may queen or another one of her really long ones and it was this massive kind of mural and they'd hidden it up so that, um, the uh baddies of the war can uh come and find it. The baddies, the baddies. I'm not sure who they were, my history is not the best and they're not very well represented in media. Anyway, yeah, I found, uh found this massive painting at first. That's one of those to fact check after I've said it, yeah, and not beforehand, obviously. Thanks for that. You're welcome. You should cut that. There's gonna be a massive disclaimer over the screen, so if you're not watching this, then just trust me, I'll just audio edit, yeah, edit, all right, who do you reckon is next?

Speaker 1 15:46

Well, I've got Robert Venturi and Denise Scott. Oh, thank God. Oh yeah, it's almost like we. Well, it's almost like you planned this. It's almost like we planned it, although if you'd planned it, it probably would have gone wrong. So these are a married couple and were influential architects and planners.

Speaker 2 16:07

They co planners. They co-authored the book learning from las vegas, which I'd quite like to read from its description um put it on the library list.

Speaker 1 16:12

We've got a to buy list for the library.

Speaker 2 16:14

That's good um, I've got a few books that I've brought home as well.

Speaker 1 16:18

Maybe I'll have them um because I think it's important that we bulk that library up a bit yeah and actually read the books.

Speaker 2 16:25

Then from what I could tell from the blurb of the book, they kind of are just calling out architects to kind of drop their ego and work more for the common person, which I find somewhat ironic when you look at their work um well, I can say, together they championed the idea of post-modern architecture apparently, and their stuff looks so I've said it feels Bauhaus-y. And then I've invented this verb, which is to Bauhaus. It could be used as an adjective which is designed with clear primary shapes and colours. So there you go to Bauhaus.

Speaker 1 17:00

I didn't realise they were American.

Speaker 2 17:02

Yes, which is odd.

Speaker 1 17:04

I don't know why it sounds kind of Italianian, I reckon yeah, I thought venturi. I thought venturi might have been european, sort of central european, and scott brown might have been scottish. For some weird reason, maybe because it's scottish and maybe because I can think when I see the name brown, I think gordon brown, the scottish mp, or whatever is the pm even we used to have I haven't met a lot of Scottish people with the surname Scott.

Speaker 2 17:26

That would kind of be like having the surname of Brit if you were from the UK, from England.

Speaker 1 17:32

I do know someone whose surname is Britain.

Speaker 2 17:35

Oh, dear me, yeah, but yeah. So they're American architects, or they'd be called John. Usa which is the most.

Speaker 1 17:42

American name John Smith. If you've not watched American Dad, oh yeah. Which is the most American thing, john Smith? If you've not watched American Dad, oh yeah, but yeah. So their work has influenced how architects, planners and students think about architecture. So Venturi was born in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, on the 25th of June 1925, and died there on September 18th 2018. And Scott Brown was born in oh wow, northern Rhodesia, now Zambiath 2018. And Scott Brown was born in oh wow, northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Oh wow, in 1931. They married in 1967. And their works include the Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery Impressive.

Speaker 1 18:18

Which is a lovely. You can't see it on your screen, ta-da, it's an impressive bit of impressive bit of kit. That one.

Speaker 2 18:25

To be honest, compared to the things I've pulled up for them, the Venturi house, I think, is kind of their staple. I've been shown it a few times before. Anyway, yeah, I tried to pick some less known ones.

Speaker 1 18:35

I think he designed that for his mum, yeah and then there's the Heinz Architectural Centre in the Carnegie Museum.

Speaker 2 18:41

Oh, neat.

Speaker 1 18:42

Very pretty. Yeah, and I've gone the wrong way around. That's the one I just showed you, sorry, was the Nikko Hotel, spa and Resort in Japan and then the Heinz Architectural Center. It's kind of got to zoom in a little bit to see it properly. But that's a nice bit of kit as well. So the writings include Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1968 and again Learning from Las Vegas in 1972.

Speaker 2 19:08

And Venturi. They co-authored it with a third person whose name I can't remember, but it's probably important to credit them.

Speaker 1 19:13

One thing that I've heard a lot of is less is more. Usually, when someone says the words less is more, someone pipes in with less is more. Didn't realise that was actually a phrase by Venturi himself, was it? Yeah, as a post-modern alternative to Mies van der Rohe's this is more.

Speaker 2 19:31

I like the Children's Museum of Houston which I've got up there. I've realised a lot of their well-known stuff is. They take very classical elements and just blow them up.

Speaker 1 19:39

Yeah, that's like the first one. I showed you the.

Speaker 2 19:42

Sainsbury's way. Yeah, slap on a colour that even I can see.

Speaker 1 19:45

They've got like a proper set of fancy columns going on. I think it's Corinthian columns Someone's going to correct me or not, because I'm terrible at remembering Doric Ionic and Corinthian but then they've just churned a couple of holes through it.

Speaker 2 19:55

Yeah, it's just, it'll be taking the piss out of the fact that they're not necessary.

Speaker 1 19:59

Yeah, and then they considered amongst the most influential and visionary architects of their time, which I think is objective rather than subjective, obviously, and Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 1991, but denise's name was not. Uh, it's not included which I think is a bit of a shocker I don't think.

Speaker 2 20:23

I know he was an architect with his firm. I think she was a planner and I know they both worked at planners and I think I've found their current um company. Actually, it's kind of obviously these two aren't working there anymore but they still try and play off all of all of the things they did and I've tried to google it and of course I've unplugged the wi-fi to plug in um, but yeah, they still have an entire planning department somehow, which I find interesting.

Speaker 2 20:54

Um, I'm sure there's no conflict of interest in that? No, definitely not. Imagine. Imagine if I was a planner Working at this firm. I'd just approve everything. It'd be helpful. What a lie. It would be incredibly helpful. Maybe the Americans have an interesting way of doing it.

Speaker 1 21:11

Possibly.

Speaker 2 21:12

Anyway.

Speaker 1 21:13

I thought it would make sense to have architects working and planning.

Speaker 2 21:16

Yeah, can you imagine that Someone who? Knew what they were doing, to actually see into the merit of the design rather than going, understood the context of everything as well and had seven years of training on everything they look at every day. Crazy, oh, that sounds preposterous next I've. So I've got allison and peter smithson I had a randa at one point in this and then forgot to keep taking notes. I'll be honest. Okay, fair enough, that's fine, it's going on the screen. I'll just keep rolling.

Speaker 1 21:47

So Alison and Peter Smithson.

Speaker 2 21:50

I started this one off with the simple sentence and setting the tone. I'm being held against my will and forced to learn more about brutalism. Yep, that's my boy. Yeah, was it Peter that studied at Newcastle? Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 22:04

I kind of decided when I was reading through To have a local. A local, yeah, exactly. So they're prominent figures in the British brutalist movement and the Smiths are known for their innovative approach to architecture and urban planning. They are credited with developments like the Robin Hood Garden housing complex in London.

Speaker 2 22:20

so, Alison, were you taught about them at uni? No, were you not no, because they went to Newcastle.

Architectural Partners in Modernism

Speaker 1 22:24

Yeah, I didn't go to Newcastle, I went to Northumbria. I went to Newcastle for my part 3 only, which is more the practice management rather than designy stuff. So Alison Margaret Smithson, born 1928, I'm not going to read the full dates born 1928 until 1993. Excellent year, I might add. And Peter Denham, which is a cracking name, smithson, born 23 until 2003. English architects who formed architectural partnership and often associated with the new brutalism movement, especially in architectural and urban theory. Peter was born in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham in the northeast of England, whichees in County Durham in the northeast of England, which, in case anyone's wondering, we are in County Durham in the northeast of England. Yeah boy, yeah boy. And Alison Margaret Jill obviously maiden name was born in Sheffield in the west riding of Yorkshire. West is best, as I always say, being from West Yorkshire, originally of Yorkshire.

Speaker 2 23:18

West is best, as I always say, being from West Yorkshire originally, you're going to start a Yorkshire, lancashire, lancaster. I don't know, they can fight me, I don't care, they can fight me, I'm not from there, I don't care about that little feud.

Speaker 1 23:27

Let's have a war. Alison studied at King's College, which is now Newcastle Uni, which is where I went for my part three. King's College is now in London, which was then part of the University of Durham, between 1944 and 1949. And Peter studied architecture at the same university between 1939 and 1948. Along with a programme in the Department of Town Planning, also at King's, between 1946 and 1948. His studies were interrupted by war from 1942 and served in. He served in the Madras sappers and miners in India and Burma.

Speaker 2 24:02

Marion 49. They supposedly helped develop brutalist architecture in Britain post war frowny face. As we've already said, peter studied in Newcastle and explains why they all thought the streets in the sky would be good and he actually is somewhat responsible for that. And just so you all know, 1960s brutalism can be directly attributed with destroying half of the 19th century buildings in Newcastle City Centre. Yeah, okay, as a good way for a corrupt politician to fill up his ego. What a good mayor. But that wasn't peter, that was someone else.

Speaker 1 24:43

But, um, yeah apparently one of their children, simon.

Speaker 2 24:49

They have three children, all simon, samantha and suraya down gray street to put a concrete cube in the way.

Speaker 1 24:55

Great I'm gonna have to beep that out. What concrete cube.

Speaker 2 24:58

Yes, every time you say brutalist, I'm just gonna put a little thing over the top of you going, oh we should put a trigger warning at the start of this for people who don't like brutalism, brutalism, I can't even say it, I can't even bring myself to say it anyway, allison.

Speaker 1 25:13

Allison smithson published a novel, a portrait of the female mind, as a Young Girl in 1966. And I have for you a selection of their build projects, although I didn't put an image to them yet because I forgot, and that was what I was meant to do last night. So Smithson High School in Norfolk, which is a grid 2 listed building, which I find interesting that it's grid 2 listed. But here we are the House of the Future Exhibition in 1956. Family House for oop, acoustician and Engineer Derek Sugden in Watford, upper Lawn Pavilion in Wiltshire, office Tower for the Economist and Members Accommodation for looks like it says bodies Bank and Art Gallery, blah, blah, blah garden building. So they seem to have quite a lot of built things and I'm going to assume they're all of the same ilk in terms of their design, with it being all about brutalism. But their last project was the Cantilever Chair Museum.

Speaker 1 26:16

Cantilever Chair Museum yes, is it because it looks like, does it design?

Speaker 2 26:20

company in germany I have a mate who's going to study at the bauhaus really well, he's going to study at the bauhaus university, which, amusingly, isn't the university that the bauhaus. Yeah, I know it's called the bauhaus, but it's about it's a couple. It's a mile or miles away from the actual Bauhaus, unfortunate. It's quite funny that I've put links on all of the slides.

Speaker 1 26:46

Yes, I know, but I turned the internet off.

Speaker 2 26:48

No, I just mean so that, when it comes to it, you can very easily find the links.

Speaker 1 26:54

No, that's fine then.

Speaker 2 26:58

But the links to like the's website if I could find it. And then here I've got a link to Ark Daily's thing about them.

Speaker 1 27:09

Yeah, excellent, sheila O'Donnell and John.

Speaker 2 27:15

Tone. Well, that's what it's going to be.

Speaker 1 27:18

Aren't.

Speaker 2 27:19

I good, I only put the two of the photos of the same building on here, which was the something SE Student Centre, which is a student union in London. I think from the ground it looks kind of cool. Excuse me, but from that rooftop shot it looks so cool and it highlights one of the biggest things about them they won. Are these the ones who won the RIBA gold award?

Speaker 1 27:44

The Royal Gold Medal awarded by the RIBA?

Speaker 2 27:46

yes, in 2015. And I wrote, one of the things that they were really credited with doing was doing kind of really elaborate culturally sensitive designs, that kind of grab everyone's attention without pissing off the neighbours. And you look at this one it's absolutely mental and bonkers. But when you look at the context you're like, yeah, I could see how they did that. It's all very simple tones of the same material palette surrounding it and they've just used perforated where all of the openings are yeah, and it's just.

Speaker 2 28:19

It's very um, uh. It could be a massive model, true, but at the same time that simplicity kind of stops it from being too attention seeking. Yeah, and it's just because it's all about the form and less about the details going on inside it, kind of just. I really like them. I think that's quite an elegant design. They've got loads of other stuff that follows a similar sort of vein and I think they're really impressive I think sometimes it just takes one.

Speaker 1 28:46

Sometimes you can do the same thing over and over again, but it takes sometimes I find it's one client who really buys into that style to kind of push it to the extreme, and that's when it starts to really take off I should say with these two and all of the other ones that have a marriage date.

Speaker 2 29:02

I can't find that on here and it's not for us to pry into everybody's life, but I can tell you that they established their company in 1988 one thing, though how are we pronouncing john's surname to? My, that's my guess. Uh, there, I was gonna say to owe me. Well look, I'm pretty sure they're both irish, so we'll probably get it wrong I know, I know, fine.

Speaker 1 29:23

Well, I've heard his name said multiple times where I've never heard it said the same way twice. So I'm just gonna wing it and hope for the best it's kind of.

Speaker 2 29:30

I'm sure sometimes irish names can give you the same uncertainty, not to the same extent as a welsh certain yeah Fair, where it's just vowels yeah, and none of them sound the same as they're spelled.

Speaker 1 29:42

Yeah, but they both previously worked for Sterling Wilford in London.

Speaker 2 29:46

I'm sorry to interrupt you again, but I love watching a lecturer squirm whenever they spot a Welsh name. I'm going to try and pronounce this and whoever it is already knows it's them.

Speaker 1 29:55

It's probably how they feel when I start talking. Yeah, it's them. It's probably how they feel when, uh, when I start talking. Yeah, I just cannot seem to pronounce names. The pair formed part of a group 91 architects and master planners the master planners for the regeneration of dublin's temple bar district in the early 1990s.

Speaker 1 30:10

Both directors teach at the university of college dublin and have lectured as schools of architecture in europe and uk, including harvard graduate school of design, princeton university, cambridge university and the, and have lectured at schools of architecture in Europe and UK, including Harvard Graduate School of Design, Princeton University, Cambridge University and the Architectural Association School of Architecture. What that's all right. I suppose They've been busy, haven't they? In 2010, they were elected honorary fellows of the American Institute of Architects. In 2013, the practice received the Icon Architecture Practice of the Year Award 2015,. They got the Royal Gold Medal awarded by the RIBA. There you go, got it right the first time. And when asked about their work on the occasion of their Royal Gold Medal ceremony, Tuomi Tuomi. Tuomi Tuomi stated I fundamentally think that we believe architecture is to give shape to everyday routines of society and make a society out of those everyday routines. To have a building that feels like part of the fabric of social life is second nature to us. Beautiful, Truly, beautiful, Truly.

Speaker 2 31:12

I got distracted after the list of schools. Yeah, I figured you did, but it sounded good. Thanks, mate. Yeah, I figured you did, but it sounded good, thanks, mate. Yeah, I got you Sick as heck. That runs through. I said five, did we do five?

Speaker 1 31:29

That was it. I know we did short and sweet. Short and sweet, that's fine. But those are examples of partnerships within architecture and how personal and professional relationships can create outstanding work in the field of architecture and design. I like that we've just put a closer. Where we show a bunch of buildings that look suggestive might be a bit much, what do you think? Question mark I like that we talk to each other in our notes.

Speaker 2 31:55

I think our logo has a slightly suggestive looking thing in it. Have you extended the microphone just for the Valentine's episode? I think our logo has a slightly suggestive looking thing in it. It does. Have you extended the microphone just for the Valentine's episode? I think we should rebrand yeah, what? Just one giant mic. Yeah, as in Mike the coffee guy. A picture of Mike. Yeah, yeah, but he's giant.

Speaker 1 32:09

He's like 6'4", isn't he?

Speaker 2 32:11

Imagine a giant mic. Is he be?

Speaker 1 32:13

it could be, I could see that we're gonna have to go get some coffee and find out.

Speaker 2 32:17

I think that's the only way to do this leave sophia with a sleeping child um, we ran out of coffee at home this morning and both my parents went the last time you brought coffee. When are you gonna do that again?

Speaker 1 32:28

well, I need. I need to take coffee to my consultancy role, thing that I do on a wednesdays and fridays for sure. I can't keep drinking instant. I need, we need coffee, any coffee for home.

Speaker 2 32:41

We need coffee for the office and what leave you without no take, buy another machine, a better one, and leave that here or people could buy us coffee.

Speaker 1 32:52

Link in the description below Buy us a coffee.

Speaker 2 32:56

We love you viewers.

Speaker 1 32:59

Phil, we're doing well in terms of actually getting things recorded and getting things out.

Speaker 2 33:02

Yeah, like we said we would. I mean, we missed two weeks in a row, but that's not the point.

Speaker 1 33:07

No, we've been busy. Yeah, we've been look, we've had a lot going on. We've set aside time to do it.

Speaker 2 33:10

Phil doesn't have cancer, okay, and that's one thing we've been busy with.

Speaker 1 33:16

Are we going to put that one out there today? Today I found out I have beaten cancer.

Speaker 2 33:20

Yeah, that was my morning sorted. Make it all about you.

Speaker 1 33:24

You've just mentioned it. I wasn't gonna. I just thought it didn't need to be I like the.

Speaker 2 33:28

I like the idea of just wording it as um. Today we found out Phil doesn't have cancer With no precursor. That you might have had it in the first place. I'm pretty sure I don't either, but we don't know that for certain. We know for certain that you don't, for now anyway. You might be more healthy than me in terms of cancer. I doubt it. We don't know, that is true. We know for a fact you're healthy physically.

Speaker 1 33:54

But not mentally. Welcome to architecture folks.

Speaker 2 33:57

I was very careful with my wording.

Speaker 1 33:59

Well, that about wraps up episode three for this year. The life partner over business partner conundrum, the Valentine's Day special from Back to the Drawing Board. Don't forget to like, share, comment and subscribe. We'll see you next time when we return Back to the Drawing Board.

Speaker 2 34:14

Together, rawr, when we return back to the drawing board together when you're going through some of the lists of projects I was thinking about. Skye's been telling me about this place. She's hoping to get some part one experience?

Speaker 1 34:51

Are we hard dropping the name because it's still recording?

Speaker 2 34:54

Chill, this might be a story you guys want to hear, and they do a lot of historical buildings. And she was showing me through the list and she went. I don't think they've done anything too major, Was it? Mies van der Rohe? The third building on their list was the National Gallery of London. Oh right, yeah, nothing major, that old chestnut. The fifth building on the list was you might have heard of this one Durham Cathedral. You viewers may know it as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Do you know it? I didn't know that. I don't like Harry Potter. To be fair, I heard the other day that you have actually watched it.

Speaker 1 35:42

I have. Yes, hannah made me watch them both. She still hasn't watched Lord of the Rings. Well, listen, something needs to be done about that. We've done a Valentine's Day special, all about people in relationships, and then revealed how that's a all our partners might be.

Speaker 2 35:56

Hogwarts is the courtyard of Durham Cathedral, so whenever you see them in the courtyard, that's that's what that is was there not one up in Nellie? They've got a few castles that they use for different shots yeah, they did.

Speaker 2 36:06

I'm sure it was the Quidditch thing they did in the Annick, castle Gardens, I'm sure, but I know there's the train, the railway in Scotland. But yeah, the courtyard, durham Cathedral, oh nice. So that's one of the things that they've worked on. The list was actually massive. I'm pretty sure they did a bit of UCL. You know the world's best architecture school. I applied for that.

Speaker 1 36:31

How'd that go?

Speaker 2 36:33

They gave me an offer, did they yeah? Then they sent me a message saying oops, that wasn't for you. Oh bit devastating really, guys. That's pretty sad, but it's pretty bad. But then you'd have never met and I would have never met Sky, and this would have never happened because we wouldn't have been talking about Sky right, I'm cutting it there because it will cut, like all of your voice on the top side of the line and all of mine on the bottom side yeah, that's what it's doing.

Speaker 1 37:34

It's recording. By the way, is that recording?

Speaker 2 37:36

yes, red light. It means recording the. By the way, is that recording? Yes, red light, it means recording.

Speaker 1 37:39

The red light doth mean a recording.

Speaker 2 37:41

The red light doth mean we going in there.

Speaker 1 37:46

We are. We appear to be moving.

Speaker 2 37:49

We're good to go. Quick quick tash Quick, tashy Cool, so We'll.