Panu Minkkinen talks about the deep links between architecture, law, and political power. From Brasília’s symbolic planning to Helsinki’s public spaces, the conversation explores how buildings and urban design embody political values, shape civic behavior, and reveal hidden structures of authority.

23.11.2022

Pedro Aibéo and Panu Lehtovuori discuss why cities should protect what already works instead of constantly replacing it. From Suvilahti and Lapinlahti to land policy, citizen participation, and the hidden carbon cost of construction, the episode explores how urban planning often limits grassroots uses while favoring large development logic.

25.01.2023

Architect and AEC-industry communicator Aarni Heiskanen explores how technology is reshaping architecture and construction. From the early days of CAD to BIM, IoT, and AI-generated design, the conversation examines how data, automation, and new tools may transform the profession.

22.03.2023

Marketing strategist Mark Linder discusses why cities need better ways for residents to participate in shaping urban change. From Finnish consensus culture to megaprojects and stakeholder alignment, the conversation asks how urban development can become more transparent, participatory, and democratically alive.

26.04.2023

Eero Lundén unpacks the hidden politics of architecture: how competitions shape who gets to build, why “starchitects” are a myth, and what it means to design in an age of climate crisis and globalisation. Can we create cities that are both systemic and genuinely democratic?

24.05.2023

Pedro Aibéo and Mark Linder speak with urban innovation researcher Petr Suska about mobility, climate adaptation, and the politics of public space. From Stuttgart to Kyoto, Kathmandu, and NEOM, the conversation asks whether streets, transport systems, and living labs can make cities more democratic, or merely more efficient. The quality of public space may be one of the clearest measures of democratic life.

23.08.2023

Pedro Aibéo and Mark Linder speak with Matti Kuittinen about life-cycle assessment, construction emissions, and the urgent need to rethink building itself. The conversation moves from concrete, EU regulation, and green finance to the deeper cultural question: can architecture stop treating new construction as the default answer?

22.11.2023

Architect and researcher Carlos Lamuela Orta discusses Helsinki, cars, bike lanes, consensus politics and why urban sustainability often collapses when it must confront power.

12.03.2024

Mona Schalin discusses Helsinki’s urban development, the legacy of collaborative planning in Finland, and how public participation is being sidelined by market-driven processes.

24.03.2024

Pedro Aibéo speaks with Finnish diplomat Antti Kaski about diplomacy as both a human practice and an institution of power. From Finland’s work in Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela to the role of secrecy, trust, negotiation and international law, the conversation explores how diplomats read societies and report hidden political currents.

03.04.2024

From re-greening Kumasi in Ghana to debates on museums, democracy, and participation in Finland, the conversation with Saija Hollmen explores how architecture can support communities, protect ecosystems, and resist abusive power. The episode reflects on research, teamwork, criticism, and the role of design as a value-based social act.

24.04.2024

Pedro Aibéo and Mark Linder discuss whether the future of construction will be democratic or autocratic. Moving from Riga to Doha, from public transport to housing design, they question whether participation truly gives citizens agency, or merely the feeling of choice. The conversation explores how feedback, gamification, and Architectural Democracy could become practical tools for better decision-making in the built environment.

29.05.2024

Pedro Aibéo speaks with urban planner and sustainability researcher Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé about the limits of planning in an age of ecological crisis. From Helsinki’s museum debate to growth-driven urban strategies, the conversation questions whether cities are over-planned, under-evaluated, and trapped in a system where environmental damage is treated as collateral.

28.08.2024

Fabian Dembski speaks about digital participatory planning, urban data, and the limits of old planning systems in a time of climate crisis. From Estonia’s digital twins to Helsinki’s museum debate, the conversation asks whether technology can genuinely open planning to citizens, or simply accelerate existing top-down habits.

25.9.2024

Architect and educator Henrik Ylvesmäki speaks about architectural trends, renovation, branding, and the shrinking agency of architects. From Finnish heritage to parametric design, competitions, timber, and climate anxiety, the conversation asks how architecture can avoid becoming merely a servant of capital or fashion.

30.10.2024

Venue development advisor Matthew Birchall talks about stadiums as more than containers for sport. From lightweight roof engineering and Olympic stadium design to revenue, reputation and results, the conversation examines how large venues are shaped by performance, branding, politics and public emotion. The discussion also questions the waste of underused venues and the democratic cost of turning collective experience into spectacle.

26.2.2025

After the 2023 wildfire erased much of Lahaina, rebuilding became a moral test as much as a technical one. In this episode, Kate Blystone and Jennifer Maydan reflect on leading recovery through what they call “infinite patience and unconditional friendliness.” In the face of trauma, planning meant listening, repeating, reassuring, and resisting the urge to impose quick solutions.

07.05.2025

Democratic innovator Perry Walker argues that democracy begins not with voting booths but with conversation. Through tools like the Democs kits and the “Win-Win Workout,” Walker has spent decades designing formats that help strangers explore shared values rather than simply defend positions.

28.5.2025

UN human rights expert Chris Sidoti talks about the destruction of Gaza’s cultural infrastructure. Drawing on his recent UN report, the conversation explores how architecture is weaponized in conflict, how memory and identity are erased through demolition, and why documentation is essential for justice and rebuilding.

29.08.2025

Newly appointed Academician of Arts Mona Schalin dismantles the lazy dogmas of growth, densification, and architectural novelty. A conversation about power disguised as planning, and why architecture cannot claim neutrality when the public is locked out of its own city.

07.11.2025

Pedro Aibéo, John Keane, Nicole Gurran and Dallas Rogers discuss how contemporary architecture is increasingly shaped by regulation, procurement, risk management, software, insurance, financial systems and delegated expertise in ways that remain formally legitimate but become publicly unintelligible. The episode examines “over-engineering” not as technical excellence, but as a democratic problem: systems meant to manage complexity begin to displace judgment, weaken accountability and make citizens spectators of the built environment that governs their lives.

13.04.2026