The 10 best design and architecture podcasts

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” said Frank Zappa. Or rather, the comedian Martin Mull. Hang on, it might have been Elvis Costello. Or maybe Laurie Anderson, or Thelonious Monk…
Whoever first uttered it, the meaning of the now-legendary phrase is quite clear: certain languages cannot be translated into others, and any attempt to do so risks looking ridiculous. Yet design and architecture – disciplines made up of forms, materials, light and surfaces – have, in recent years, found one of their most vibrant channels in precisely the medium that would seem least suited to describing them: audio.

Podcasts exclude sight and touch, forcing us to think differently and to engage our senses in other ways. They require us to reconstruct objects through words, to follow a designer’s train of thought, rather than scrolling through a gallery, and to take on board processes, doubts and contexts that glossy photography tends to obscure. Paolo Ferrarini has turned this constraint into the manifesto of his Parola Progetto, design told “without objects or images, just in words.”

Our selection of the 10 best podcasts on design and architecture brings together a wide variety of voices: institutions such as Harvard and the Triennale di Milano, publications such as Monocle and Il Post, internationally renowned curators and independent projects. There are podcasts in Italian and English, ongoing series and back catalogues to explore, hour-long conversations and bite-sized segments lasting just a few minutes. Some focus primarily on architecture and cities, others on product design, interior design, graphic design or the vintage market. The common thread is the idea that a project does not end with the finished object, but is made up of people, choices and stories waiting to be heard.

Design Emergency: design in the face of crisis

Launched during the pandemic as an Instagram project, Design Emergency has become a podcast hosted by two of the sector’s most authoritative voices: the critic Alice Rawsthorn and MoMA curator Paola Antonelli. At its heart are designers tackling the major emergencies of our time, from the climate crisis to social and technological issues. The seventh series kicked off in September with David Chipperfield; recent guests have included Francis Kéré and Irma Boom.
 

Cosa c’entra?: objects as starting points

Produced by Il Post and hosted by Chiara Alessi, Cosa c’entra?  was “a daily podcast about things that are connected to other things.” Each episode started with an object and led somewhere else. A wonderful exercise in grounding the history of objects within that of our society. The series concluded at the end of 2023 after more than two hundred episodes, but the archive is well worth exploring, starting with the very first episode, dedicated to Bruno Munari.
 

Caffè Design: design at the bar

Notching up more than four hundred episodes, Giuliano, Nanni and Riccardo get together every Monday to talk about “design, marketing, innovation, the future and a million other cool things.” Caffè Design has the feel of a chat amongst friends at the bar, but behind the light-hearted tone, they discuss industrial design, companies and the profession in earnest. It is one of the most popular Italian design podcasts and serves as a welcome antidote to the seriousness that often afflicts the sector.
 

Talking Practice: Inside Architectural Practices

Grace La, Head of the Department of Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, interviews some of the most influential figures in contemporary architecture on what it means to practise today: how a practice is organised, how an idea is born, and how to deal with clients and uncertainties. Episodes are few and far between, but Talking Practice is an architecture podcast with a back catalogue of the very highest calibre: Kersten Geers, Johnston Marklee, Pier Vittorio Aureli and Sheila O’Donnell.

Space Between: architecture beyond its boundaries

Produced by KoozArch and hosted by Federica Zambeletti and Shumi Bose, Space Between brings architecture into dialogue with art, bridging anthropology, geography, poetry and science. Each episode brings together two guests from different fields to discuss a particular theme, e.g. walking, archives or presence. Supported by the Graham Foundation, the second series features guests such as Paulo Nazareth and Stéphane Kabila, Gus Casely-Hayford and the Space Popular studio.