matthew blunderfield

Bordeaux-based architect Duncan Lewis joins us this Thursday 14 May to share recent work, with a focus on his Ekko housing project. The lecture, called “The Untamed Dwelling”, is part of the ADS1-led annual research programme Lives in Common, supported by the Royal College of Art @rca_soa Thursday 14 May 2026 Kensington Gore, Darwin Building Auditorium 13-14hr Open to the public with advance registration - DM for details. Pictured - Ekko housing by @duncan_lewis_architecture - photographs by @blndrfld

“The potential of AI is on the data side — to be able to track and understand, to notify, to have the potential to improve processes … How do you assess performance in real time? It’s more about finding the right info to make informed decisions at the right time, very fast, and then achieving the outcome you want to have.” Listen to Michael Drobnik, Associate and Lead of Design Technologies, discuss how AI is used at Herzog & de Meuron — from its use in practice, to its aesthetic impact, to how it can be leveraged for architectural education. The podcast is now available at hdm.com (link in bio) and builds on a conversation held last year on stage at the Barbican. Hosted by Matthew Blunderfield of the Architecture Foundation, it also features Shajay Bhooshan (ZHA) and Martha Tsigkari (Foster + Partners). #herzogdemeuron #designtechnology #artificialintelligence #architecture #design

Vincenzo Latronico comes on the pod this week to talk gentrification, squatting and the plights of the ageing millennial expat. Recorded live at the Barbican Centre, the episode marks the publication of “Order Prevails in Berlin” for the first time in English - an essay by Vincenzo that sheds light on the personal experiences that led to the writing of his acclaimed novel Perfection. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and buy a copy of Order Prevails via the AF shop - link in bio

In and around the opulent @bloomberg hq today 💦 The building acts as a laboratory for testing work and social layouts, which apparently are constantly changing. Pictured: Olafur Eliasson’s rippling atrium Magnified glazing at the canteen level on to St Paul’s Bespoke petal lighting and airflow system Salt water and freshwater exotic fish tanks Central stair ramp takes the place typically held by lift cores, which are moved to the facade and customised as glass boxes with no visible mechanics Fully equipped broadcasting studio A generous arcade Bespoke soffit detailing Chess between work Nice banquettes Bathroom Boardroom - Mics in the lighting / soffits of boardrooms and auditoria to amplify conversation Neighbouring 60 Queen Victoria Street by the great Peter Foggo Associates (1999)

Ivry sur Seine, Jean Renaudie and Renée Gailhoustet, 1969- with @rca.ads1

Le Vaudreuil, 1967-68, Atelier de Montrouge, partner-in-charge Jean Renaudie. Revisiting @irenee.scalbert ’s incredible A Right to Difference (2004) en route to Ivry sur Seine, for which the utopian Le Vaudreuil was the spark: “Renaudie’s proposal for the new town of Le Vaudreuil was one of those rare projects which rest on a sudden and far-reaching intuition. It brought no answer to past or even present preoccupations. Rather, to Renaudie’s partners at the Atelier de Montrouge,’ it was a call towards something foreign to the office, a provocation bound to exasperate the ties which, for ten years, had bound them together. In hind-sight, it is clear that the project shares many of the formal and utopian concerns displayed in the architecture press during the 1960s. It is clearer still that it already contained, in its polemic and in its configuration, the seeds of all subsequent projects by Renaudie, of the mounds of Ivry and the slopes of Givors.” — Irénée Scalbert

Gustave-Eiffel boarding school, Jaques Hondelatte (1991). Pictures 3 and 4 are by Vincent Monthiers & Philippe Ruault.

Architectural references from @daryanknoblauch - gathered from the most recent episode of @scaffold_podcast Diller Scofidio — Bodybuildings exhibition (1987). Kurt Ackerman — Marienhof wastewater treatment plant, Munich (1988). Bernard Khoury — B018 nightclub in Beirut (1994) Future Systems — Hauer King House, London (1993) Jan Kaplicky — Various drawings Bernard Rudofsky — and now I lay me down to eat: notes and footnotes on the lost art of living (1980)

Yufei He, a director of @dorsa.collective , joins us tomorrow to present recent work in a talk titled “Accelerated Landscapes” Thursday 5 February 13-14h Lecture Theatre 1, RCA Kensington Campus Guests welcome.

Making something out of nothing much 03.02.2026 @rca.architecture With: Toby Baring Marina Bebana Marje Leonie Büttner Richard Neil Evans Charlie Fox Nalinee Hanpiyavatanasakul Georgia Helme Jessica Hollis Bengu Isik Kuru Poppy Levison Harry Nicholson Ioana Oprescu Charlie Smale Daphna Turbowicz & Summer

Listen to our memorial episode on the graphic designer John Morgan, with contributions from Tom Weaver, Shumi Bose, Kieran Long, Ros Barr, Nick Hill, and Tom Emerson. Images shown are drawn from projects discussed in the episode: 1-5 Redesign of AA Files. Ed Tom Weaver (2008—2017) 6-8 Dirty Old River, 6a (2025) 9-10 Never Modern, 6a (2013) 11-14 St Augustine’s Church, Roz Barr Architects (2018)
 @johnmorganstudio @tontita00 @long_kieran @roz_barr_architects_ltd @nick_hill_architects @6a__architects All images © John Morgan studio

This new series from @architectureexchange , reflecting on a generation of contemporary American architects, is very good! Plain spoken, deeply researched and impeccably edited. A podcast worth paying attention to (if you exist in the niche intersection of architectural teaching and practice). Interviews with 33 (!) contemporary American architect / academics by Joseph Bedford @joseph__bedford , hosted by Tim Cox @timc019 , whose concluding episode argues, among other things, that “The pluralist ideology that has become so generally adopted by this generation of academic architects, while well meant, is ‘ultimately compatible with the privatizing, commodifying, and productivity boosting goals of the neoliberalizing academy.’ Pluralism facilitates each person doing their individual work and promoting their individual projects in a friction free environment. At just the time when architecture is becoming more difficult to produce, the academy demands of its members that they churn out a discourse in relationship to their work. “Tim sees this generation as ultimately deeply disciplinary in their orientation […] searching for a way to express a real world engagement with pressing issues yet unable to leave behind architecture as a cultural enterprise in order to do so.” Architects featured in the series include @mmmosarchitects @kylejamesmiller @stewart_hicks @distantbuffalo @central_standard_ conescubes @afterarchitecture @young_ayata @outpostoffice @0super @extents.us @archiveofaffinities @andrewjamesholder @current_____interests @tpluseplusaplusm @d.esk @ja_ja_co @jon.lott @clarkthenhaus @hanstursack @roth.curtis @nemestudio @new_affiliates @bryony_roberts_studio @k2reynolds @jhaferd