S3 2: ALLEYS | NILI PORTUGALI Architect . Filmmaker . Author
A seventh generation descendent of family who lived in Sefad, Israel, the city where mystical scholars of the Kabbalah found refuge in the 16th Century; Nili Portugal is an architect, author and filmmaker. We discuss her film “And the Alley She Whitewashed in Light Blue”, a stunning, poetic, visual masterpiece of the seasonal rituals in her Grandmother Rivka’s hotel, at the end of an alley in that old city. The film is one of her many works which seek to find a universal answer to the question “What is the basis of all those places in which one feels at home, and wants to return to, again and again?”
S2 E6: THE FIELD OF DECONSTRUCTION, RESISTANCE, DISCOURSE: A German Legacy Response | DAGMAR RICHTER | Architect and Educator
Born in Germany, post World War II, as part of the generation with the ‘grace of late births’, DAGMAR RICHTER describes the impact of that context and time on her work, identity and places she has since lived.
She talks about engagement and discourse in her work as an architect and educator, as the necessary antithesis of the wall of silence she experienced when young. Her work deconstructs, exposes and reveals what is often uncomfortable, or what she calls ‘not smooth’.
S2 Ep.4: TO MARK. TO GROUND. THE SHADOWS OF PLACE: BOEDI WIDJAJA | Artist
BOEDI WIDJAJA is a prolific international artist whose work is deeply tied to his personal experience of being a migrant child in Southeast Asia. Impacted by the region’s complicated entangled histories, his poetic art explores themes of diaspora, memory, cultural hybridity, identity and space.
Episode 15: INSIDE THE WHEREING PODCAST | Nina Freedman|Host
This is the FInal Episode of Season 1! To all listeners, THANK YOU! From starting this naive experiment, during the pandemic, from my home, it amazes me that I have listeners all over the United States and the world. Wow! I am taking a break over the summer, and will return in September. This episode gives you some short Season 1 highlight clips, and ‘behind the scenes’ info about the Whereing Podcast. It is part of a recent talk about the podcast I was invited to give to the Pratt Institute School of Design, Department of Interior Design INT Talks.
Episode 14: A LIVEABLE PLACE FOR ALL | Karen Kubey |Urbanist and Houser
I speak with Karen Kubey, who is an urbanist and ‘houser’ with an enduring passion and commitment to affordable housing as the generative factor in social equity and justice. We speak about the ways to engage residents in the decisions for the design of their homes, and the need to push for generous, transformative policies, because housing is a human right.
Episode 13: MOTHER TONGUE | ፈለማ የማነበርሃን| Felema Yemaneberhan |Architectural Designer
Felema Yemaneberhan grew up in Los Angeles, but throughout her childhood she was brought back to another home, in Eritrea, north of Ethiopia, a country traumatized by Italian colonization and Civil War. Before the age of 5, she only spoke Tigrinya, the language of her ancestral home, a place where her parents still anticipate returning. When we say mother tongue, what does it mean? ‘Mother Tongue’ merges the past and present, a sometimes invisible gift of identity, particularly when displaced in another land.
Episode 12: ELASTIC | ABSORBABLE | SPACE: Loukia Tsafoulia, Architect
The conversation with Loukia Tsafoulia covers her various multi-disciplinary projects. We first speak about the book she has edited and curated, titled 'Transient Spaces', and her devotion to exploring belonging for migrant and refugee populations. Her other works examine the connections between design, technology and science, specifically the human body, and its sensory interactions with objects and place. A project we speak about is an installation now being exhibited at the the Venice Biennale, called 'Synesthesia'.
Episode 10: MOVEMENT CREATES SPACE Sofia Kondylia: Choreographer | Performer | Architect
Sofia Kondylia is an award-winning choreographer, performer and architect. Motivated by the simple truth, that ‘movement creates space’, her work, through dance, performance, physical theatre and film, explores intersections between choreography and architecture and its impact on emotional self transformation.
Episode 09: SPATIAL FICTIONS | FROZEN DAYDREAMS Clement Luk Laurencio
Clement Luk Laurencio is a storyteller and master of pencil drawings. His surreal, poetic drawings capture the dreams, inventions, memories and flashbacks of places he has lived, visited and cherished. He calls them ‘spatial fictions’. He says they are an invitation for pause, and wandering, in its timeless labyrinth. He probes the question ‘How is the dwelling a place of reverie and protection for the dreamer?’
Episode 04: HOME AND HOMELESSNESS |BUILDING SMARTER
What might resolve the challenges of sheltering the homeless? Kishani De Silva envisions a pilot scheme to test a smarter, faster, cheaper methodology. Bridging government, design, technology, and community resistance, she speaks, with hope, to the urgent need for alignment, partnership and the intangible meaning of community and belonging.