The Architect's Rolodex – Details, episodes & analysis

STOP BUILDING IN CONCRETE! Dive into the ultimate urban design challenge: Black Rock City, the 80,000-person temporary metropolis that pops up in the Nevada desert only to disappear just as quickly.

We sit down with the visionary co-founder and Chief Culture Officer, Harley Dubois, who steered this massive, innovative community for decades. Harley unveils the rigorous process of trial-by-error and human-centered design that established the city's unique architectural structure, including its circular shape, calculated street widths, and the specific scale required to activate its central plazas.

Learn the unexpected journey of how Harley became the de facto city planner: After graduating from art school and being dropped into the chaotic, artistic Cacophony society, she discovered her true strength was not only painting, but administration, realizing she needed to step in because "stuff wasn't getting done". She details her pivotal shift from artist to city manager—a demanding role covering everything from infrastructure to life safety for over 35 years.

Find out why this highly successful pedestrian-only city provides critical lessons in impermanence and civic-mindedness for architects and designers shaping the built world.

Harley’s social:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/harley-dubois-82150921/⁠

Burning Man website:

⁠https://burningman.org/⁠

Other links for more info:

8 Ways to Make Your City More Like Burning Man

⁠https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-burning-man-takeaways.html⁠

What Cities Can Learn From Burning Man

⁠https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-burning-man.html⁠

There’s a city in my mind 

⁠https://theconversation.com/theres-a-city-in-my-mind-78337

Daniel A. Barber is an American architectural historian and theorist who is currently a professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Barber shares insights into hisbackground, the evolution of his academic work, his current installation at the Venice Biennale addressing the waste heat of air conditioning systems, and the need for architects to embrace reuse and discomfort as part of a collective effort toward sustainability. This episode touches on themes of climate equity, the cultural role of thermal comfort, and the ethical responsibilities of the architectural profession in addressing the climate crisis.

Daniel's social:

https://www.instagram.com/abdbcb/

Read more from Daniel:

After Comfort: A User's Guide

Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning

Enough? Architecture and the Sufficiency Imperative

In this episode of The Architect’s Rolodex we land in the middle of a conversation featuring the incredible Harley Dubois, a co-founder and Chief Culture Officer of Burning Man who has stewarded Burning Man's rich cultural history for decades. Harley, the former city manager for over 10 years, offers a unique perspective on this pedestrian city where circles are better than angles when it comes to bringing people together.The episode explores the unique urban and community design of Black Rock City, Nevada. Each year, this desert region is where a temporary city is built for the music and art event known as Burning Man, one of community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. Harley explains how the city's circular layout evolved through trial and error, prioritizinghuman interaction and community needs over traditional architectural principles. She highlights the significance of "theme camps" as the core fabric of Burning Man, fostering participation and engagement through a low barrier to entry for creative expression. Finally, the interview touches upon the profound impact of the Temple, a central and iconic part of Burning Man, as a community-driven sacred space for healing and processing emotions.

Harley describes how Burning Man's innovative, human-centered approach to temporary urbanism and community building has inspired initiatives beyond the event, including disaster relief efforts. This isn't just a conversation about architecture; it's about how a community works, how serendipitous opportunities are designed into a city, and the profound impact of impermanence and human-centered design.

Harley’s social:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/harley-dubois-82150921/

Burning Man website:

https://burningman.org/

Other links for more info:

8 Ways to Make Your City More Like Burning Man

https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-burning-man-takeaways.html

What Cities Can Learn From Burning Man

https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-burning-man.html

There’s a city in my mind 

https://theconversation.com/theres-a-city-in-my-mind-78337

Lola Ben-Alon is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP and director of the Natural Material Lab and the Building Science and Technology curriculum. She specializes in earth and bio-based building materials.

Lola has a background in biomedical engineering, civil engineering, and curatorial design, and she shares her experience cofounding a lab at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology called the Experimental Art and Architecture Lab. She shares how her experiences formed the basis for who she is today, how she found her lexicon for working in a site-specific, participatory practice, what is currently happening at the Natural Material Lab, and how we can implement changes in our architecture practice to include earth and bio-based materials.

Lola's Links:

lolabenalon.com

Columbia GSAPP

Instagram: Natural Materials Lab

Laurel Chądyzński came to talk with us about healthy materials and her work within the mindful Materials team, her sustainability consultant work at Parallel, being an architect at a minority lead firm, but also being a mom. We discussed how she followed her passions to becoming who she is today and how she juggles all her hats.

Laurel's Links:

mindful Materials

Parallel

Dyer Brown & Associates

Poem by Frank X Walker (click on 'Read the Poem'), Love Letter To the World

visit us at COOKFOX Architects

In this episode, we're talking to members of our Studio in the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

We discuss Pride Month — from what it means to each person, how they celebrate, and what historical events are important to them. Other topics revolve around their personal experiences with work and life in New York City.

We all need places of refuge, places to recharge and heal. We talk queer spaces and what they mean to the individual and to the broader community. Today we have four guests from our COOKFOX studio in NYC: Jared, Associate Partner and Director of Communications; Liam, Associate; Michael, Associate; and Luca, Associate Partner.

This episode was recorded in the beginning of August 2024. Having recently hosted a Pride celebration in our Studio, conversations surrounding these topics were front of mind, and those personal stories turned into a podcast. We hope you enjoy listening to some of the shared stories from our office.

In our inaugural episode, COOKFOX Senior Associate Patricia Lozano and Associate Agathe Ceccaldi sit down for a candid conversation with Julie Rosen, a preservationist at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners.

Julie Rosen is an associate at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, where her work is informed by her background in historic preservation, facade restoration/conservation and construction management. From her thesis work on 20th century brick at University of Illinois to her work on 378 West End Avenue with Higgins Quasebarth & COOKFOX, she tells us her unique journey to becoming a preservationist. Throughout her story, the discussion revolves around what is preservation, what do we preserve, how do we preserve it and why.