Chair Heather Flood was recently featured on The Midnight Charette Podcast by Marina Bourderonnet and SOA faculty member David Lee. Heather discussed how she began her path to architecture, touching on her belief in testing the edges through experimental teaching. The episode dives into Heather’s philosophies in architecture, studio culture, authorship and more. As Heather mentions, she hopes to establish a culture where there is a joy in making and the production of architecture.
After moving to New York, Heather began taking design classes at Parsons and landed a position at Murphy Burnham & Buttrick architects. From there, she moved to LA to study architecture and has been in the city ever since. Experiencing the shift form analog design education to digital design, Heather discusses how tools can become the conceptual genesis for a project. She places an importance on authorship, on how students and designers can author the method of production. By doing so, they can begin to design how they work and shape what they put into the world. She argues that teachers must help establish a mindset and care in student’s work.
The Midnight Charette is a podcast about design, architecture and people that features architects, urban planners, developers, fashion designers, teachers and other creatives. The show is unscripted and informal to give listeners the chance to explore ideas beyond the everyday conversation and 280-character quips. The Midnight Charette is available for free on iTunes, Spotify and nearly all of the other Podcast directories.