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About Buildings + Cities: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Luke Jones & George Gingell Discuss Architecture, History and Culture
A podcast about architecture, buildings and cities, from the distant past to the present day. Plus detours into technology, film, fiction, comics, drawings, and the dimly imagined future. With Luke Jones and George Gingell.
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- 1 weeks ago59 min
138 — Piranesi 3 — Ichnographiam Campii Martii
In the penultimate episode of our series on Giovanni Battista Piranesi, we discussed his Ichnographia Campii Martii, one of his stranged and most inventive projects, a vast reconstruction of Ancient Rome, which blends together a little bit of archaeology with a massive injection of fantasy, plastering much of the open countryside around the city with endless, fractal Beaux Arts geometries. At around 30 minutes George can't remember the name of a large multi-vaulted commercial/light industrial antique building, it is in fact the Porticus Aemilia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porticus_Aemilia Follow along with the images by watching this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zqTH3-GPyzQ Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Mixing by Lewis Todd. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Apr 23, 202656 min
137 — Piranesi 2 — The Antiquities of Rome
In the second episode of our series on Giovanni Battista Piranesi, we discussed his multi-volume project, Le Antichità Romane de' tempo della prima Repubblica e dei primi imperatori, a deep study and representation of Roman Antiquity, channelled through his vivid imagination, mixing rigorous archaeological measurement and close attention to constructional details with romantic and fantastical visions of the ancient world. To follow along with the images, check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/o9FUgUOgYy0 Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Mar 27, 202653 min
136 — Piranesi 1 — Prima Parte
In the first part of our new series on Piranesi we discussed his upbringing and background in Venice, his earliest travels to Rome and first work with Giuseppe Vasi and Tiepolo. We talked a little about the historical and cultural context of Piranesi’s work, before getting stuck into his Prima parte di Architettura e Prospettive (1743) and Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna (1745), and start to map out the rest of his oeuvre that will form the rest of the series. This is the first episode of a four part series about Piranesi, and there will be bonus episodes forthcoming on Patreon about his legacy and works of art and literature inspired by it. You can watch this episode on YouTube to follow along with the images: https://youtu.be/QUY4Yw2kxmk Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Mixing by Lewis Todd. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Feb 18, 20262 min
*Preview* Show and Tell Bonus — Santa Maria del Naranco & Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park
To get full access to this episode, please consider supporting us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/about_buildings Taking cues from the 'Show and Tell' main episode, Editor Matt joined us for a bonus and brought along a couple of interesting buildings to discuss. The first, Santa Maria del Naranco, in Asturia Northern Spain, was built as a summer palace for King Ramiros I in 842 CE. It is a surprising building in many ways, precociously Romanesque and highly resolved by 9th-century standards, its proportional logics give the building a profound presence, especially its end facades. We then discussed the sprawling, accretive mass of Frank Lloyd Wright's House and Studio in Oak Park, Chicago. This was his home and place of business from the late-1880s until the mid-1900s, and it grew substantially from modest gable-ended suburban cottage to hulking compound as his family and business grew. We also discussed the surrounding neighbourhood of Oak Park, which contains many idiosyncratic domestic designs from the pen of this erratic giant of American architecture. Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Jan 29, 202650 min
135 — Show and Tell — Enigmatic Ancient Pavilions
This episode takes a new format! Instead of fitting into a larger series or a particular theme, Luke and George simply chose two interesting pieces of architecture each that they wanted to discuss and draw out particular ideas or themes from. Let us know if you liked this format, and we will consider doing more of them in between regular episodes! In this episode, we discussed the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, the Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga, the Mausoleum of Theodoric at Ravenna and Lutyens' Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, London. You can follow along with images of the buildings dicussed on our Instagram feed or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/N9o4-pz4dM0 Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Dec 18, 20251h 2m
134 — William Golding's 'The Spire'
In our final episode of 2025, we discussed William Golding's 1964 novel 'The Spire', a deeply psychological portrayal of the construction of a cathedral spire in the 14th century, heavily influenced by Salisbury Cathedral. One of the great architectural novels, this episode contains extensive spoilers, so we recommend reading it or listening to the audiobook before you listen to this episode! Find this episode on YouTube to follow along with the images: https://youtu.be/Z2bjd950HOQ?si=yZ0nUn31nYVtLkvg Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Dec 3, 202543 min
133 — Sigfried Giedion's Space, Time and Architecture — 4/4
In the finale of our series on Sigfried Giedion, we discussed the bait-and-switch coda of the book, where Giedion unexpectedly addresses questions of urbanism and town planning, via Haussmanisation, designs for Lyon by Tony Garnier, the Garden City movement, slab block modernism and Manhattan. Follow along with images on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1d8rDIt0mIw We hope you enjoyed this series. We will be back soon with a discussion of William Golding's 'The Spire'! Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
- Nov 28, 20254 min
*Preview* — Giedion's 'Mechanisation Takes Command' Bonus Episodes
Some clips from our Patreon bonus episodes on Sigfried Gideion's 'Mechanisation Takes Command'. If you've enjoyed the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon for full access to these bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/c/about_buildings Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
About About Buildings + Cities
A podcast about architecture, buildings and cities, from the distant past to the present day. Plus detours into technology, film, fiction, comics, drawings, and the dimly imagined future. With Luke Jones and George Gingell.
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