S3 EP 16 — John McAslan

Amin Taha is making the ancient business of building with stone seem positively disruptive. He takes Tim Abrahams around Groupwork’s ten-storey housing project on Finchley Road in London to discuss construction, carbon and the strange beauty there is in following economic and planning logic.

John McAslan is the Scottish architect behind the transformation of King's Cross, Sydney Central and now the Osney Power Station in Oxford. He spoke to Tim about the disappearance of architectural invention, the challenges facing younger architects and Britain's increasingly generic buildings.

Paul Finch has spent more than four decades at the centre of British architectural culture, editing key publications, chairing CABE and co-founding the World Architecture Festival. Tim spoke to him about architectural criticism and about his friend the late Jeremy Melvin

Fernando Sordo Madaleno de Haro is a principal at Sordo Madaleno, the third generation of his family to work in a practice founded by his grandfather Juan Sordo Madaleno. In 2023 he established its London studio. Tim spoke to him about their work in Mexico, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.

Manifesta is an itinerant European Biennale and art-as-catalyst-for-development event that launched in 1996. In its 30th year, it arrived in the Ruhr Valley. Its founding director Hedwig Fijen and its first creative mediator and architect / planner Josep Bohigas spoke to Tim Abrahams.

An Fonteyne is the Brussels-based co-founder of noAarchitecten and a leading light in the design consortium that is designing Kanal Centre Pompidou. In the second part of their interview, she spoke to Tim Abrahams about the origins of retrofit.

Liam Young is an Australian-born architect, film director and artist who co-runs the M.A. in Fiction and Entertainment at Sci-Arc in Los Angeles. He spoke to Tim about his new show at the Barbican and the death of 60s environmentalist utopias.

Kanal Centre Pompidou in Brussels is one of the most important art museums built in Europe in the last couple of decades and will draw huge attention across the world when it opens later this year. Tim spoke to An Fonteyne, co-founder of noAarchitecten and a leading light in its design team alongside members of noArchitechten, Sergison Bates and EM2N.

Tobias Walliser is a director of LAVA Architects: an international network of offices known for their research on the combination of technology and the built world. LAVA’s global work spans architecture, interiors and master planning. Tim spoke to him about their work at the Dubai, Osaka and Riyadh Expos.

Niall McLaughlin is an Irish-born British architect whose work has been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize four times, winning in 2022 with the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is this year's RIBA Gold Medal winner. McLaughlin is also a professor at the Bartlett at University College London.