Ep. 214: Architect & Designer Marc Thorpe on Relationships, Responsibility, and Uncertainty

Interior designer and lifestyle expert Kerrie Kelly is known for her distinctive California-inspired design philosophy. She got her start at Ralph Lauren Home and then moved to Del Webb Corporation where she was a boots-on-the-ground high-volume designer of homes, before founding her multi-faceted design studio, Kerrie Kelly Design Lab, in 1995. A graduate of both design and business school, she blends both of these skill sets in her work as an interior designer, trendspotter, and brand partner. She’s driven by a commitment to bringing thoughtful design into everyday life, which for Kerrie means blending beauty with functionality and translating that through a palette of luxurious and organic materiality.Images and more from Kerrie on cleverpodcast.com.Thanks to Westlake Royal Stone Solutions, home of premium stone brands Cultured Stone and Eldorado Stone for sponsoring this episode.Please say Hi on social! Twitter, Instagram and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers,If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artist, creative technologist, and educator, Idris Brewster grew up in Brooklyn, being filmed for a documentary about his education as a black student at a prestigious, primarily white, school. His coming-of-age, only partially caught on camera, included a lot of basketball and hands-on artistic development. A grant awarded in college gave him early access to VR technology which opened a path to combining all of his talents and interests and expressing them through new media. Now, as co-founder and Executive Director of Kinfolk Foundation, he’s harnessing augmented reality, location-based technology, and community to engage in placing digital monuments in public spaces, memory building, and foregrounding the Black, Brown and Queer histories that have been intentionally silenced. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Architect & designer Marc Thorpe spent his youth, just outside of Washington DC, drawing and learning to navigate a destabilizing home environment. The son of two academics, he learned discipline, rigor, and resilience from his mom, while his dad, a critical thinker, taught him to challenge and interrogate everything. Always knowing he’d be an artist, he studied Industrial Design and Architecture, and instinctively flexed his ability to seize every opportunity, as well as create them from scratch. Now, as the founder & principal of Marc Thorpe Design, a multidisciplinary studio, and (along with Claire Pijoulat) Edifice Upstate, a design & build architecture agency, he’s worked with world-renowned designers, led groundbreaking projects, and is leading the charge toward more responsible architecture. And while he has always been certain he’d be a professional creative, it is uncertainty that is his greatest inspiration.Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natsai Audrey Chieza spent her youth in Zimbabwe in a close-knit extended family where she and her cousins were “in each others’ pockets.” In her teenage years the national economy crashed, necessitating a family relocation to the UK, and she began learning the skill of “not belonging.” Architecture studies proved alienating so she found a way to combine them with her love of fashion (to the consternation of her professors.) Rejecting the prescribed path of a professional architect, she instead pursued a postgraduate program in Material Futures that set her on a path of designing with bacteria. Now, she’s founded Faber Futures, a biodesign studio, and Normal Phenomena of Life, an artful lifestyle and fashion brand that also functions as a working prototype of a new model bioeconomy. She’s spent her whole life quietly not doing what was expected of her, and in this space of outsiderness she’s been very busy creating new paradigms for how we might collaborate with nature and new models for the equitable stewardship of these new biotechnologies. So, in terms of cultural infrastructure, she is an architect after all! Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more evergreen episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sharing a preview of Tools and Weapons, the podcast hosted by Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. Brad speaks with leaders who are at the intersection of the promise and the peril of the digital age, exploring the role technology plays in helping to solve some of society’s biggest challenges. This episode features Yves Ubelmann, a technologist, artist, and architect who is on a mission to digitally preserve the world’s cultural and natural heritage. He is the founder and CEO of Iconem, a company that creates stunning 3D models of endangered sites and environments. In this episode, Brad and Yves take a boat trip through Venice, touring the subject of his most ambitious project: an AI-generated digital twin of one of the world’s most magnificent cities. Inspired by his grandfather’s work to restore war-damaged heritage sites in France, Yves shares how he is using AI to memorialize the world’s heritage in 3D and raising awareness of the effects of climate change on our planet. Find more episodes of Tools and Weapons at https://link.chtbl.com/clevertoolsweapons  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Clymer grew up in a New York suburb, raised by middle-class public school teachers and enamored by his grandfather’s swagger and style. An Omega Speedmaster, a gift from said grandfather, is the piece that captured his heart and sets his story in motion. A painstakingly shy student, he began to gain self-confidence in high-school and a need to differentiate in college. In 2008 he started a tiny blog, HODINKEE, a passion-project about watches that gained traction and sent him on a mission to get a Master’s in Journalism. Since then, HODINKEE has led to creative collaborations with the most prestigious watch brands and famous rockstars, and grown into a multi-channel platform that has transformed the world of luxury watches. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more evergreen episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Co-founders of House of Rolison, Amanda Leigh and Taylor Hahn, grew up on opposite coasts but were both self-described angsty teens. Both had a deep love for art and architecture, choosing different professional paths before they met online and their fates intertwined. Their first date turned into a road trip and then quarantine-based cohabitation. Since starting House of Rolison, they’ve renovated a number of forgotten old homes into warm, elegant, modern beauties. Their complementary strengths and deep reverence for their crafts and trades crew, ensures that each new project has room for magic and a whole lot of soul.Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Frequently referred to as the godmother of Italian design, Marva Griffin Wilshire, grew up in a large family in Venezuela, reading House & Garden and rearranging the furniture. Drawn to Italy in the 1970’s, she landed a job as a secretary for Piero Busnelli, founder of B&B Italia, which opened up her entire world. She was introduced to architects and designers, getting a first-hand look at the inner workings of Italian design. Since then, she’s committed herself to giving young designers a chance to showcase their creativity – most notably by founding the wildly successful SaloneSatellite which welcomes emerging designers worldwide. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Polymath Holly Howard has lived many lives. A former professional ballet dancer, bassoonist, medical researcher and board-certified music therapist, she’s pulled from science, art, and design to create a one-of-a-kind path for herself. Now, she runs the successful culture-first business consultancy, Ask Holly How, to help creative entrepreneurs grow personally and professionally, and better understand that business and creativity are more powerful when wielded together. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversIf you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lionel Ohayon was born in Canada to a family spanning Morocco, Israel, and Spain. This multi-cultural upbringing armed him with the ability to synthesize different inputs and understand complex topics from an early age, and an innate appreciation of hospitality. He founded ICRAVE as a design-build startup in 2002, and several ground-breaking projects later, is now leading the charge in reinventing hospitality experiences like the immersive and otherworldly Las Vegas Sphere, and the anxiety-reducing David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever ResourcesSpecial thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydeversClever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.