Episode 18: Amy Brookes, Architecture and Speculative Fiction

We begin Season 3 of the Utopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast by chatting with Amy Brookes, an architect and Associate Lecturer at the University of Reading.In our conversation with Amy, we turn our attention to the intersections between architecture, utopianism, and speculative fiction. Drawing on literary texts, theoretical ideas, and real-world practice, we have a far reaching discussion in which we discuss the utopian impulse behind architectural practice (and the debate within the field of architecture about whether architects are utopianists) and the insights that reading speculative fiction may reveal to architects, among other topics.Amy's love for speculative fiction really comes across in this interview, with her interview possibly containing the most varied list of references to speculative texts to date!You can find out more about Amy and her work here.And you can read her most recent paper, 'Held in common: science fiction and collective spaces' here.If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know! You can follow and rate the podcast, leave us a comment, or email us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]