Architecture Off-Centre

In our previous episode, we spoke to the team from Better Shelter about their kit-of-parts approach to providing emergency shelters in crisis situations. Today, we continue that line of inquiry and look at the work that Pop-Up Housing has been doing in India by deploying an industrial and modular construction system. Sampat Althur is the founder of Pop-Up Housing, a social innovation organization working on improving sustainable housing and infrastructure in low income communities in India. Using latest advancements in industrial construction, sustainability and hands on volunteering, Sampat is simplifying housing and enabling infrastructure development in marginalized communities. More on Pop-Up Housing: https://popuphousing.org/

The very first episode of our podcast focused on the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh and highlighted the role of designers in alleviating the living conditions of the refugees. Today, we speak to Better Shelter about their work in providing shelters to refugees and displaced people around the world. Better Shelter is an independent Swedish non-profit without political or religious ties. They design and provide temporary shelters to help people live safer and more dignified lives until they can return or move to a new permanent home.  About Better Shelter: https://bettershelter.org/ And their photo project What Makes a Home: https://www.whatmakesahome.org/

We have been talking extensively about housing this season but have not really looked at the identity of the cities within which it exists. In today's episode, we zoom out a little to take stock of new capital cities and discuss their planning through the theoretical lens of feminism. Dorina Pojani is Associate Professor of urban planning at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her latest books are Trophy Cities: A Feminist Perspective on New Capitals (Edward Elgar, 2021) and Alternative Planning History and Theory (Routledge, 2023). Her forthcoming book is Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique (Anthem, 2025).  About Dorina: https://about.uq.edu.au/experts/11894

For those of us who have grown up in India, we were introduced to the concept of segregation and apartheid very early on as we were taught about the discrimination Gandhi faced while living in South Africa and how that marked the beginning of the independence movement in India. In this episode, we speak to Adi Kumar about the history of apartheid in South Africa and how those land policies continue to affect the supply of affordable housing in Cape Town today. Adi Kumar is a trained architect and seasoned land and housing activist. Over the last two decades, Adi has been leadership positions in several civil society organisations working across the globe in India, Southern Africa, Lebanon and United States on development programmes. He is former Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. Adi's current work: https://www.seeingtheother.org/

In this episode, we speak to Yutaka Sho about working in a context that has a history of genocide and colonization, and we discuss the challenges of working on ground, at the grassroots level.  Yutaka Sho is a partner of nonprofit architecture firm General Architecture Collaborative  (GAC) that has been working in Rwanda since 2008, and a professor of architecture at Meiji University in Tokyo. GAC works with underrepresented communities to build sustainable and aesthetically engaging spaces while using the construction sites for end-user training.  About GAC and their work: https://www.gacollaborative.org/

We are no strangers to the AirBnB phenomenon – and how it has revolutionized the travel industry. Over the last two episodes, we have been focusing on the rental housing markets in Kenya and India, and today we'll take pan over to Australia to see what the short-term rental market looks like.  Dr. Thomas Sigler is an academic researcher in urban and economic geography. He holds a PhD and MSc from the Pennsylvania State University, and a BA from the University of Southern California. He is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and a Guest Professor of Geography at the University of Luxembourg. About Dr. Sigler: https://environment.uq.edu.au/profile/9602/thomas-sigler

Bandhu is an AI driven urban-tech startup that is solving for India's rapid urbanization by enabling low-income workers to access urban jobs along with housing and thereby directly addressing the roadblocks that rural migrants face while entering the urban workforce. Rushil Palavajjhala is Co-founder and CEO of Bandhu, and holds a Master's degree in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on finance and technology for urban development in the Global South.  Jacob Kohn is Co-founder and COO of Bandhu, where he heads product development and data science. Jacob holds a Master's degree in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on technology integration in informal urban economies.  About Bandhu: https://www.bandhu.work/

When we talk about discourses on housing, we usually draw references from the western context. It is only in the last few decades that developing countries have come to the forefront of housing dialogues owing to their growing economies and increasing populations. Today, we take a closer looking at the housing market in Kenya, especially in Nairobi. Etta Madete is an architect, sustainable design expert, and developer passionate about sustainable real estate development in emerging markets. Passionate about advocacy, Etta previously taught at the University of Nairobi, is an EDGE Expert, Aspen and Mandela Washington Fellow. She has co-led acclaimed exhibitions at the Barbican and at the Guggenheim with Rem Koolhaas and has over 15 publications in Aljazeera and Architectural Record, amongst others. Etta's affordable housing initiative: https://zimahomes.co.ke/

Toolshed is a platform, a project and a place in Hudson, New York, where artists Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris collect and share tools for ecological living. They have categorized these tools into four distinct groups: food, kin, shelter and magic. Today, we speak to Susannah and Edward about what ecological living means and how Toolshed plays into it. Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris (Sayler/Morris) work with photography, video, writing, installation and open-source projects. Of primary concern are contemporary efforts to develop ecological consciousness and the possibilities for art in support of social movements. From 2006 – 2020 they co-directed The Canary Project, a studio that produced media and art to deepen public understanding of climate change and other ecological issues. More on Toolshed: www.tool-shed.org

People are increasingly making the conscious choice to live alone and it just so turns out that the number of people living alone in Europe has doubled since the 1980s. We speak to architects Maria Vittoria Tesei and Flavio Martella about the social, economic and architectural implications of living alone.  Founded by Maria Vittoria Tesei (architect and urban planner) and Flavio Martella (PhD architect), m²ft architects is a multidisciplinary firm working in the fields of architecture, urban planning, public space and research. Through design by research, they propose to produce architecture through the understanding of new contemporary lifestyles. Living Alone on Future Architecture: https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/9e224ad4-acb9-411f-86ff-29c1fc97ff2b/ Their work: https://m2ft-architects.com/