GSAPP Student Podcasts consist of student-led conversations with designers, practitioners, and scholars in the field.

Student Podcasts

In season 4 of rAADio, we start with the question WHAT IF?
We delve into narratives, challenge historical legacies, amplify marginalized voices, explore imaginative methodologies, and reimagine our realities with a critical lens. We talk about speculation and how it can become  a tool to create alternative realities grounded in truth, while also questioning the very nature of the truth.

rAADio is an investigation by Advanced Architectural design students in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. 
As a cohort from a plurality of diverse backgrounds, we aim to observe the many polycentric entanglements of architecture. We explore the questions of how we expand the traditional role and associations of architecture between assemblages, interrelationships, bodies, and technologies; beyond simple scalar translations.

Season 4 of rAADio is produced and directed by: Hadass Rozental, Vaishnavi Chandra Kumar, Harshini Ashok, Manfei Shi, Preethi Ganesh and Ammar Rassai.

Learn more: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/raadio

rAADio

In this season's first episode, death is posed as a question through the dematerialization of the body. Pabla Amigo ('21 AAD) and Gabriela Junqueira Franco ('21 AAD) try to understand the implications of the dematerialization of bodies with our final resting places. Does the state of being alive only relate to the physical body? Can our bodies metamorphose into other forms? The praxis of understanding physical and digital space is complemented by an interview with Jorge Otero-Pailos, conducted by Ali El-Sinbawy ('21 AAD). 

Jorge Otero-Pailos is Professor and Director of Historic Preservation at GSAPP. Otero-Pailos works on the intersection of art, architecture and preservation and as an artist he has been exploring the temporality of dust, pollution and their relationship to life, human activity and architectural legacy.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by:
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design, Editing
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer
Timothy Jacob Kwasny: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 1: 101 Dematerialization of the Body: Jorge Otero-Pailos

Have you ever asked Mycelium what it wants to be? In Episode 002, Devansh Mehta ('21 AAD) and Benjamin Akhavan ('21 AAD) question the materialization of death through the demonstration of humans exercising control over their own deaths. The materiality and deaths of other species to manipulate our death is complemented by the analysis of understanding the systems required to support the externalized material processes of bodies which humans use to avoid death. Marie-Christine Dimitri ('21 AAD) interviews David Benjamin to understand the ethical implications of using other species in our architecture.

David Benjamin is founding Principal of The Living and Associate Professor at Columbia GSAPP. Benjamin’s work combines research and practice, and focuses on the intersection of biology, computation, and design. His MoMA PS1 pavilion “Hy-Fi” changed the way architects think of organic matter (particularly mycelium) as a building material.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by:
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design, Editing
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer
Timothy Jacob Kwasny: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 1: 102 Materialization of Death: David Benjamin

Cultural perspectives of death have changed over time. This week, Michelle Clara ('21 AAD) and Joel McCullough ('21 AAD) investigate how built environments have intersected with last rites ritual and the cultural associations. Philosophical notions of death and global views are explored across Benares, Copenhagen, and Pittsburgh. Michelle Clara interviews Karla Rothstein to understand new ways of understanding and experiencing cemeteries.

Karla Rothstein is an architect and an educator. Teaching graduate design studios at Columbia GSAPP for over eighteen years, Rothstein is Founder and Director of DeathLAB, a trans-disciplinary research and design initiative focused on reconceiving how we live with death in the city. Her areas of inquiry span the intimate spaces of urban life, death and memory, to intersections of social justice and infrastructure.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by:
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design, Editing
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer
Timothy Jacob Kwasny: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 1: 103 Death Environments: Karla Rothstein

What makes an architect an architect? What are architects without buildings? The third episode of this season, "Misfits in Practice," is conceived around the question: Do we really need to build to be an architect?

In Part 2, we discuss what might be role of the architect beyond the building. We explore some examples of architects rising above conventional architectural practice and finding success in other fields, while using the skills developed in architecture as a crucial edge.

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 207 Misfits in Practice Part 2

What makes an architect an architect? What are architects without buildings? The third episode of this season, "Misfits in Practice," is conceived around the question: Do we really need to build to be an architect?

In Part 1, we talk about the "paper architects" that left a mark in the field, images as tools, and the long lasting debate about architects being generalists or specialists. 

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 206 Misfits in Practice Part 1

In "Resistance in Practice" we circle around the question: Do we really need to accept precariousness to produce good architecture? This episode explores the many faces and consequences of the well established dichotomy between passion and profit in architecture. 

In Part 2, we shift our attention towards the work place. We talk about transitioning from academia to "the real world," recent controversies in architecture offices, and unionizing as a crucial mode of resistance in an increasingly exploitive industry.

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 205 Resistance in Practice Part 2

In "Resistance in Practice" we circle around the question: Do we really need to accept precariousness to produce good architecture? This episode explores the many faces and consequences of the well established dichotomy between passion and profit in architecture. 

Part 1 focuses in the realm of academia, where we usually first encounter the idea that architecture is not work if you are passionate enough. We also recollect the most recent attempts by student workers to achieve better labor conditions at universities. 

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 204 Resistance in Practice Part 1

"Sleepless in Practice" revolves around the question: Do we really need to be sleep deprived to produce good architecture? 

In Part 1, we talk about the historic relationship between inspiration and sleeplessness, from the Greeks to the utopia of the sleepless soldier, and how these different ideas about sleep deprivation eventually get interwoven with issues of individuality and the consumer society we live in today. 

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 202 Sleepless in Practice Part 1

As an extension of Episodes 006 and 007, "Resistance in Practice," we speak with two admins of Dank Lloyd Wright (DLLW), one of the most well-known architecture pages of the digital realm. They have been relentlessly exposing issues of labor exploitation and unionization in architecture through a language that connects a multigenerational crowd: memes. We ask them why they think it is so difficult to unionize in architecture, their thoughts on the dichotomy between teaching and office work, and how they see DLLW's role within the current climate of crisis and change.

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 208 Bonus Episode: Dank Lloyd Wright

In this second season of rAADio, we want to open the conversation about the expectations of architectural practice in academia and the workplace to show that a non conforming practice has many faces, and can be enacted in many ways. We centered the season around 3 questions: 

Do we need to be sleep deprived to produce good architecture?
Do we really need to accept precariousness to be a good architect? 
Do we need to build at all to be an architect?

Our best hope is to begin to expose how we play a part in the networks that exploit our bodies, our labor, and our resources in order to fulfill the expectations of an increasingly demanding world.

Season 2 of rAADio is produced by Aahana Banker, Daniela Beraún, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, León Duval, Dhruva Lakshminarayanan, Malavika Madhuraj and Hein Song.

This episode of rAADio was brought you by: 
Max Lauter: Director and Creative Producer, Sound Design
Alex Hamadey: Sound Designer & Composer, Lead Audio Engineer 
Anthony Sertel Dean: Recording Audio Engineer

rAADio Season 2: 201 Dissecting Conformity in Architectural Practice

“The Opener” episode of rAADio sets the stage for the third season's exploration of ethics in architecture. The hosts discuss the significance of biennales and their themes, expressing a desire for these events to be more in touch with current politics and ethics. We reflect on the 2000 biennale's theme of "Less Aesthetic, More Ethics" and emphasize the need to revisit and redefine ethics in architecture. Throughout the season, we aim to uncover ethics in various aspects such as labor, technology, and disciplines, addressing topics like the Biennales and their pomp and show, gap between academia and practice, the unethical side of AI, the invisibility of labor, and the struggles of unions. We invite listeners to join them in exploring the meaning of ethics in architectural practice, profession, and academia.

Season 3 of rAADio is produced by Andy El Set, Alejandro Marin, Armita Peirovani, Francisca Alliende, Maria Candelaria Ryberg, Simran Raswant & Zhoufei Tang.

This episode of rAADio was brought to you by the guidance of Dean Andres Jaque and AAD assistant director Xiaoxi Chen, director and producer Max Lauter, composer and audio engineer Alex Hamadey, and recording engineer Alana de Vito.

rAADio Season 3: 301 Opener

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