Architectural History

About Architectural History

This podcast deals with histories of architecture and the built environment. In this series, called Architecture and… we speak to a number of academics, architects, writers and thinkers to discuss space, buildings and cities, to think through contemporary debates and issues.

Publisher

The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Jun 2021

Latest episode

8 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

23 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Sept 2026

   The Public Architect 5: Expanded Role of the Architect

   In this final episode of our series on 'The Public Architect', we explored how architects have moved beyond designing individual buildings into planning, policy and landscape. Historian Otto Saumarez Smith joined city architect Finn Williams to discuss the rise of the postwar "architect planner," the exchange of ideas between the London County Council and Sweden, and how that role has fragmented in the decades since. We were then joined by landscape historian Luca Csepely-Knorr, alongside practitioners Kendra Inman and Maddy Gunn, to trace the shift from garden design to large-scale infrastructure work, and why collaboration, community and care remain central to landscape architecture today. Architectural History is the podcast of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. This miniseries, The Public Architect, was made possible thanks to funding from the Royal Institute of British Architects. It was hosted and produced by Claire Jamieson and Jess Kelly, with editing by Front Ear Podcasts and production support from Matthew Lloyd Roberts. If you enjoyed this series, please consider becoming a member of the SAHGB to support our work and get access to exclusive content. https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew (https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew) Contributors: Professor Luca Csepely-Knorr is a chartered landscape architect and art and architectural historian. She is research chair at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture, where she leads the Landscape || Gender || Environment Research Collective. Luca’s research is focusing on the transnational histories of landscape and environmental history with a special focus on women’s contribution to shaping disciplinary agendas and the evolving social and ecological discourses of the 20th century. She is co-convener of the European Architectural History Network’s Women and Gender in Landscape, Architecture and Urban Design Interest Group with Professor Svava Riesto. Maddy Gunn has worked across the public, private and charity sectors at the intersection of design, green infrastructure and climate adaptation. Her background spans landscape architecture, planning and strategy work focused on delivering great green spaces. She is a Public Practice alumni and has previously worked at the Design Council; most recently she has been leading on the delivery of urban greening projects at Islington Council. Kendra Inman works as a landscape architect and urban designer for Transport for London. She is particularly interested in mitigating the impact of climate change on cities with nature-based solutions and by using green and blue infrastructure to support active travel and liveable neighbourhoods. Otto Saumarez Smith is an architectural and urban historian, specialising in twentieth century Britain. He teaches at the University of Warwick, and is chair of the Twentieth Century Society Casework committee. Finn Williams has been the City Architect of Malmö since 2021. He previously worked to promote public architecture and planning in the UK through roles at Croydon Council and the Greater London Authority, and as the co-founder and chief executive of Public Practice. Finn is a Mayor’s Design Advocate for the Mayor of London, an international jury member for the NLA Awards, an independent expert for the EU Mies van der Rohe Awards and was a jury member for the 2024 Alvar Aalto Medal.

2. 

   21 Aug 2026

   The Public Architect 4: Colonial Contexts

   In this fourth episode, we explore the colonial context of the public sector and the place of the British architectural profession within it, spanning the Second World War through to decolonisation. We spoke to Harshada Deshpande about her father Sharad's career, from training as an architect in India to working in the Architects' Department of the Greater London Council in the 1960s. We were then joined by Ibiyemi Ola and Rixt Woudstra to discuss their research into architects working within colonial bureaucracies in British Africa, and how that experience of expertise carried through independence and into organisations like the UN and World Bank. Architectural History is the podcast of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. This miniseries, The Public Architect, was made possible thanks to funding from the Royal Institute of British Architects. It was hosted and produced by Claire Jamieson and Jess Kelly, with editing by Front Ear Podcasts and production support from Matthew Lloyd Roberts. If you enjoyed this series, please consider becoming a member of the SAHGB to support our work and get access to exclusive content. https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew (https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew) Contributors: Harshada Deshpande is an Urbanist with over 20 years’ experience of working in the built environment sector in the UK. A strong advocate of sustainable urbanism, she leads the Design, Conservation and Trees Team, made up of specialist within Sheffield City Council. Her expertise lies in leading and coaching, to achieve a place-led outcome through finding creative solutions, while establishing a positive, constructive dialogue, enabling delivery of high-quality places. Sharad Deshpande, her father worked in the Greater London County Council within the Architecture and Civic Design Department between 1965-1972. Whilst working, he studied Planning at University of London and was a Columbo Plan Fellow (1981) and Professor of Architecture. Ibiyemi Ola researched British colonial architecture in Nigeria between 1900 and 1960 for her PhD at the Liverpool School of Architecture, focusing on the colonial administration's Public Works Department and the architects who worked within it. She is a lecturer at the Global Banking School. Rixt Woudstra is an architectural historian focused on the intersections between modern architecture and planning, British imperialism and anti-colonial protest. She is an Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the University of Amsterdam, Co-Director of the Amsterdam Centre for Urban History, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Architecture Beyond Europe. She previously held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Liverpool, working on a Leverhulme-funded project on the architecture of the United Africa Company in British West Africa.

3. 

   7 Aug 2026

   The Public Architect 3: Identity of the Architect

   In the third episode of our series on 'The Public Architect', we explored how the professional identity of architects has reflected changing gender, class and race. We spoke to architect Kate Macintosh about her career and the fight for equal pay for women architects. We were then joined by architectural historians Karen Burns and Elizabeth Darling to trace the longer history of women entering the profession through public institutions, from interwar progressives at the AA to postwar civil servants navigating quiet discrimination. Finally, we spoke to Yẹmí Aládérun (Ealing Council) and Sarah Allan (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) about how moving between private practice and public service reshaped their sense of authorship, leadership and care. Architectural History is the podcast of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. This miniseries, The Public Architect, was made possible thanks to funding from the Royal Institute of British Architects. It was hosted and produced by Claire Jamieson and Jess Kelly, with editing by Front Ear Podcasts and production support from Matthew Lloyd Roberts. If you enjoyed this series, please consider becoming a member of the SAHGB to support our work and get access to exclusive content. https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew (https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew) Contributors: Yẹmí Aládérun is an architect and Head of Development at Ealing Council. She is a NED for Women's Pioneer Housing association, co-founder of Paradigm Network and core member of Part W. She was named in the Architects' Journal's 40 under 40 in 2020. Sarah Allan is an architect and Head of Architecture at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Before this she worked in local government as housing lead for an Ecotown in Hampshire. For over seven years at CABE, she was head of urban design and homes, helping to embed design quality tools and processes in large-scale government programmes such as the Thames Gateway. Karen Burns is an architectural historian and theorist, and Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne. She is co-editor, with Lori A. Brown, of The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960–2020, a two-volume survey with over 1,000 entries covering architects, designers, landscape architects, planners, historians and activists. Elizabeth Darling is an architectural historian, curator and writer specialising in histories of modernist cultures in Britain, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, and is an expert on women and architecture from the 1890s to the present day. She has published extensively in both fields and has also written a number of entries for the ODNB on key women architects who worked in the public sector, including Ann McEwen and Rosemary Stjernstedt. Her book, Palace of the Ether, Broadcasting House and the Architecture of the BBC, 1922-1932, will be published by Lund Humphries in June 2026. Kate Macintosh MBE is a Scottish architect known for her work for local authorities. She studied at the Edinburgh School of Art, now part of Heriot-Watt University. After graduating in 1961, she spent a year studying in Warsaw on a scholarship from the British Council, then worked in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki before returning to the United Kingdom in 1964, when she was recruited to Denys Lasdun's National Theatre Team. She designed Dawson's Heights in Southwark and Leigham Court in Lambeth.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.4 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

4.5 / 5

35 ratings

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