Ideal Spaces Working Group

In a podcast with Ron Cox, we spoke about the possibilities of building up concrete communities, and how to keep them resilient and stable. Ron Cox has over 40 years of professional experience as a leader, facilitator, consultant, and coach. Amongst other activities, he has been the CEO of a large U.S. company (the Kincaid Group) leading a transformational turnaround, and led large projects in both public and private sector development. He became a Hall of Fame Coach in 2018 and Amazon best selling author in 2023. Our discussion with Ron focused on aspects of resilience in relation to community, and on the mindset as a basic premise for community. An essential aspect regarding the mindset is to get the younger generation out of its screen-time culture and social media-induced isolationism, and to engage in real communities instead. Also, aspects of a more humane city had been addressed.    

In a look together with Martin Savransky, new informal or “unruly” ways of liveability are addressed. Martin Safransky is a philosopher and social theorist currently serving as Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Language, Literature and Anthropology (CSIC), the biggest public research institution in Spain, where he leads the Liveable Futures Project. He is author and co-author of several works devoted to such futures, and investigates what he calls “unruly”, informal politics of liveability amidst permanent planetary instability. These informal new ways to social change and liveable futures, and our podcast with Martin addresses them in comparison to traditional approaches in utopian concepts and ways of change.  

In a podcast with Natasha Sharma from Mumbai/India and Dee Moxon from Bristol/ UK, the role of art as a catalysator for building communities was addressed. Natasha Sharma is co-founder, creative director and curator of the Govandi Arts Festival in Mumbai. Dee Moxon is one of the directors of the Lamplighter Arts CIC in Bristol, making The Church Road Lantern Parade. Both Govandi and the Lantern Parade started under adverse conditions. The Govandi area in Mumbai is inhabited by the city’s largest resettlement population, has sanitary issues, lack of infrastructure, garbage, and crime. The Church Road Lantern Parade in Bristol began working across its local community which experiences socioeconomic problems.  They work with all residents, including refugees from different cultures, the event was started after racist activity in the area by non -residents. Marginalization was the common daily experience in both Mumbai and Bristol.        Both the Govandi Festival and the Lantern Parade, assisted by Jonathan Kennedy from the British Council, follow the philosophy that making art together, in a group, helps to connect people and through that, a sense of community is given purposefulness, and meaning. Installed in two different cultural contexts, Indian and English, and despite adverse conditions, the philosophy was highly successful: In its power of imagination, art is a strong catalyst in building communities, it helps to generate a space of belonging and identity.  

Ideal Spaces had an interview with Jonathan Kennedy, former member of the British Council, on the role of art in building communities. Two communities were examined, located in two different regions and cultures, India and England. Critical success factors for building up and sustaining communities were examined, and how to build them from scratch under unfavourable starting conditions.

The interview revisits a timeless question that has taken on renewed urgency: the idea of the ideal city. Far from being obsolete, the concept remains a vital source of inspiration—especially in the context of building a more sustainable and humane urban future.Drawing on historical models of planned cities, the conversation situates these ideas within a contemporary Canadian context. Two projects developed by Josephson and his team are presented as case studies: Innisfil and The Hearn.Innisfil can be understood as an “ideal city on the ground”—a masterplanned urban model that combines two classical frameworks: the utopian concentric circle (garden city plan) and the Roman grid. The project engages core questions of infrastructural integration, urban life, including building typologies, scale, density, and neighbourhood structure.In contrast, The Hearn—a former power plant once among the largest in North America—represents a different approach. Rather than expanding outward, it proposes a radical form of adaptive reuse: transforming a single building into a self-contained urban environment. In this sense, it becomes a vessel for cohabitation—a city within a structure. The project can be read in dialogue with the unrealized ambitions of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace—not as a direct lineage, but as a shared intellectual territory in which architecture operates as an open-ended framework for occupation, transformation, and collective life. Like the Fun Palace, The Hearn suggests a shift away from static form toward architecture as an enabling system—capable of hosting evolving programs, social dynamics, and forms of participation over time.Together, these two projects frame alternative ways of rethinking the ideal city today: one as a ground-up urban system, the other as an internalized, architectural one.

In our series about the younger generation, we had an interview with the young Ukrainian artist and music producer Syfromfaraway who also makes his own albums. We asked Sy about his view on society and its important trends according to his view, on the younger generation and their relations to social media, and how he conceives the recent situation in its total. We also asked him about his fears in regards to the future, and how to cope with fear in a positive, not fearful way.  [audio mp3="https://www.idealspaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Society-Social-Media-Trends-Syfromfaraway-youth-series-.mp3"][/audio]

Interview with Dr. Andy Harrod, human geographer with a therapeutic background and head of the research group for health and wellbeing. Andy speaks about community/individual today, the influence of nature for individual wellbeing and identity, and about  the positive effects of nature-related activities for communities. In these regards, the relations between the city, community and the individual today are looked at, and the role of green areas inside the city.

Interview with Ana Schluth, student of architecture, about the life of younger Americans in times of increasing economic pressure, compared to their parents’ generation; about the shift from online life to real life; about the city wanted and the need for a human-scaled city. 

In our series about the younger generation, Ideal Spaces interviewed Sarah Haeflinger, student of architecture and urban design at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. In the context of the Ideal Spaces workshop on Identity, Place, and Citizenship, Sarah speaks about her generation, how a humane city should look like, together with the need for a human scale and green areas, and what this would mean for citizenship.

In the context of our younger generation-series and the Ideal Spaces workshop on Place, Identity, Citizenship held in October 2025 with Jason Montgomery from the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. and Ettore Mazzola from the University of Notre Dame in Rome, Ideal Spaces interviewed one of Jason’s students, Luke Kelly. What is his view on his generation, on life in the city, future developments, and which kind of city he would like to see in the future.

In our youth-series, Ideal Spaces had a podcast with Jackson Truong Montgomery, son of Jason Montgomery with whom we made our Ideal Spaces workshop on Identity, Place, Citizenship in October 2025. Jackson, a student of architecture, gives his view on the city today, citizenship, improvements needed, and his vista of a good city.

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

Introducing dialogues on important topics as a new podcast format, we start with a discussion on the topics treated in our workshop on Identity, Place, Citizenship. Prof. Jason Montgomery/Catholic University of America will discuss with Prof. Ettore Mazzola/University of Notre Dame Rome, Prof. John Roberts/Brunel University London, and Dr. Ulrich Gehmann and Grant F. Raynham from Ideal Spaces.

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

In the context of our Ideal Spaces workshop on Place, Identity, Citizenship and Democracy we had a podcast with Prof. Ettore Mazzola from University of Notre Dame, Rome about the connections between urbanism, architecture, and art.

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

Identity, Place, CitizenshipWorkshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

In the context of the Ideal Spaces Workshop on Place, Identity, Citizenship and Democracy we had a podcast with Prof. John Roberts from Brunel University/London on these topics.

Workshop with Prof. Jason Montgomery, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C./Prof. Ettore Mazzola, University of Notre Dame, Rome/ Prof. John Roberts, Brunel University, UK/ Dr. Ulrich Gehmann, Grant Raynham and Ulrike Sattler from Ideal Spaces/international online participants.Held at the Ideal Spaces foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe, October 19 + 20, 2025

In moderating the Ideal Spaces workshop on Identity, Place, and Citizenship, Prof. Jason Montgomery from the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. presented his views on the topics of urban form today, together with the importance of places, community, and placemaking for citizens.

In our series about the younger generation, continuing what we started with Lia Macedo, we interviewed 18-year old student Anastasia Pawlik about her impressions of her peer groups, their mindset, fears, aspirations, and habits. Although Lia and Anastasia come from different cultures (Portugal, Germany), many of their observations are congruent. It is an indicator of what is going on in the Western younger generation, independent from different cultural backgrounds.   

In our series about the younger generation, continuing what we started with Lia Macedo, we interviewed 18-year old student Anastasia Pawlik about her impressions of her peer groups, their mindset, fears, aspirations, and habits. Although Lia and Anastasia come from different cultures (Portugal, Germany), many of their observations are congruent. It is an indicator of what is going on in the Western younger generation, independent from different cultural backgrounds.   

Digitalization and the Recent Western CityPedro Guimaraes and Daniel Paiva, University of Lisbon/Portugal

Younger Generation TodayLia Joana Macedo, Guimaraes/Portugal

Part 1, New Organizational Ecologies, Democracy, Art and Community an interview with Aviv Kruglanski, University of Hull/UK

Part 2, New Organizational Ecologies, Democracy, Art and Community an interview with Aviv Kruglanski, University of Hull/UK

Aysha Quinn is an internationally recognized, talented and vibrant video performance artist. Based in New York, her eco-feminist artwork has wonderful movement and structure that puts Aysha as a leader in the video performance art scene. We discussed her past and present work, and her thoughts of the art industry today with a view to the future.   

In a podcast with Prof. Jason Montgomery from The Catholic University of America, School of Architecture and Planning, Washington D.C., the need for public places was outlined, taking the example of the American city. A special emphasis was on the need for public squares, their positive influence on everyday quality of life, sociality, and citizen identity. New ways for revitalizing and improving the public realm were discussed, based on realized case examples.  

Karo Godles, an international scene painter and free artist trained in scenography painting and graffiti art, talks about scenography and atmosphere, and about the role of art today, in particular for the public space. Furthermore, she illuminates the role of art in a capitalist context, taking graffiti art and its evolution as a case example

Ideal Spaces did a podcast in Baden-Baden with David Vlachakos, a leading real estate business owner. We spoke about transformations of living spaces in cities, in regard to neoliberal socioeconomic conditions and their impact on housing, community and urban development in the present and in the future. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

In this new episode on the Ideal Spaces Podcast, co-hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack the topic ‘placemaking for communities’. They discuss with architect Sam Olshin FAIA, how architecture can be used to support and bridge the gap between different cultures, help people find joy in the everyday and feel safe and well-integrated in the places they live. Clearly, in architecture, there is no cookie cutter, ‘one size fits all’ model – and at AOS Architects, a wide range of social, cultural, economic and religious contexts are taken into account to ensure that projects can respond sensitively to local challenges, to add real long-lasting impact to communities. Sam tells us about the challenges of ‘town and gown’, and the success of an AOS student housing project that helped to bridge the two distinct communities of Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Our discussion also focuses on the firm’s recent project at Allentown Arts Park, where they worked with City Center Allentown and the City of Allentown to design a reimagined use for this green space that drew inspiration from the urban context. Samuel E. Olshin, FAIA, is a principal at Atkin Olshin Schade Architects (AOS) of Philadelphia, PA. The twenty-person firm specializes in a wide variety of institutional projects including university, museum, school, hospitality, and religious commissions. Olshin received a BA and Master of Architecture degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. While a student, he received the E. Lewis Dales Traveling Fellowship, the Arthur Spayd Brooke Bronze Medal, and the Paul Phillipe Cret Thesis Medal. He is the recipient of the Philadelphia Chapter AIA Young Architect Award, and has served as architectural critic at multiple architecture schools. Since 1989, Olshin has served as Senior Visiting Studio Critic for the Introduction to Architectural Design course in the Growth & Structure of Cities Department at Bryn Mawr College. He currently serves on the Board of Mural Arts Philadelphia, a local arts and community organization. For more information about Sam Olshin, AOS Architects, and any of the projects discussed on this episode, please visit: https://www.aosarchitects.com/ Lafayette College housing (Easton, PA) AOS Architects worked with Lafayette College and Radnor Property Group to plan and implement several new student housing projects to accommodate the College’s projected enrollment increase from 2,500 students to 2,900 students. Located in the College Hill neighborhood of Easton, the McCartney Street Housing Phase 1 project includes two linked 4-story, mixed-use structures containing a new bookstore and college diner, and 165 student beds. The two buildings are constructed of brick and cast stone with gabled, standing seam metal roofs that reflect the materials and residential character of the neighborhood. A spacious, landscaped terrace and public amphitheater form the centerpiece of the project. A future phase of the project on an adjacent site will provide the College with an additional 170 beds, a community-based wellness center, and additional retail space. AOS Architects worked with the City of Allentown to design a reimagined use of the Arts Park green space. Bordered by the Allentown Museum of Art, Miller Symphony Hall, and the Baum School of Art, the Arts Park is the starting point of the City’s Arts Walk, a developing corridor of art, history, and culture. The proposed renovation and addition to the Arts Park adds to its ethos of celebrating arts and culture by allowing it to function as a performing arts venue. The focal point of the Arts Park improvements is the Arts Park Pavilion, a new performance space and band shell that houses a green room and restroom for visiting performers. The Pavilion provides year-round accommodations for local and regional music and theater events including ticketed concerts, free public performances, and informal gatherings. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

Have we become too attuned to accepting throwaway, meaningless places and spaces that don’t really meet our needs? And have we been programmed to believe that a neat place is a good place, a tidy place is a healthy place, and a pristine clean surface is a sign of a well-designed building? Podcast hosts Flora and Ulrich unpack these complex questions with the help of Ian Boyd, an ecologist based on the Isle of Wight, whose mission is to to shape better places by conserving, reimagining and revitalising landscapes, places, communities and wildlife across the Island. They discuss the role of young people and the street-level democratic voice in placemaking today, and why communities should be encouraged to allow wildlife to flourish in and naturally colonise urban spaces. Finally, Ian reflects on how we can combine built and natural heritage, to create curated biodiverse spaces and places in which people and nature can thrive side by side in the future. Ian was born and raised in Birmingham, where he developed a passion for wildlife and city spaces that has never left. He spent a decade living and working on nature reserves around the UK learning how habitats work, before settling on the Isle of Wight and working to see it become a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2019. Ian has worked in the charity, public and private sectors, running landscape restoration, urban regeneration and environmental education programmes and advising on sustainable practice in development, asset management and urban design. He is a director of the consultancy Arc Biodiversity and Climate which includes the research partnership and ecological engineering practice Artecology. He is also a director of the public realm non-profit The Common Space. Arc Biodiversity and Climate is at the forefront of new thinking in environmental consultancy, integrating ecology, landscape, communities and development to shape better places for people and wildlife. Click the image below to read about the diverse range of projects delivered by Arc. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

In this new episode – the first of our 2023 series – Flora interviews Andreas Hofer, the Artistic Director of the International Building Exhibition or IBA’27, a company based in Stuttgart, Germany that provides advice, project support and networking opportunities to those interested in transforming cities and open spaces of the 21st century. Drawing on his rich experience in cooperative and new forms of housing and his training as an architect, Andreas does his utmost to promote dialogue between projects, experts and communities, not only in the Stuttgart region but all over the world. In this episode, Andreas describes the fascinating history of urban planning in the Stuttgart region, and how it developed into a highly industrialised metropolitan region with a population of 2.8 million. We explore the social, technological and ecological similarities and differences in urban planning in 1927 and today, and what challenges architects face today: what place do history and heritage have in architecture today, and how can architects build ‘future proof’ homes that are relevant to communities today and in decades to come? Andreas Hofer was born in in 1962 Lucerne. He studied architecture at the Swiss Institute for Technology in Zurich. In 2018 he was elected as artistic director for Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (International Building Exhibition, IBA’27). In Zurich, he mainly worked as a consultant and project developer for innovative cooperative housing projects as Kraftwerk1 and mehr als wohnen (more than housing). Andreas Hofer publishes regularly about city development and housing issues. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

In the fight against heat, drought, forest fires and heavy rain, every little green counts. In this brand-new podcast interview, Flora and Ulrich talk to German landscape architect and author Tim Kaysers about his vision of a world that is made up of green cities: human and climate-friendly spaces filled with plants and trees, and free from cars and concrete. With the irreversible effects of climate crisis an ever-present threat to the future of mankind, Tim explains why we must act quickly to make this vision a reality. We find out why plants are so crucial, and the practical steps involved in greening our cities – will it take a bottom-up, or top-down approach, or both? And what challenges will there be to changing people’s mentality in our technology-focused world, where convenience and speed rule the day? After studying Landscape Architecture in London and Berlin, Tim gained years of professional experience whilst working in Ecuador and China, before putting down roots in Lake Constance, where he’s worked as a landscape architect since 2007. Through his work at Planstatt Senner, a landscape architecture firm, Tim has developed and implemented in practice the topic of climate and green as part of urban planning, environmental planning, and landscape architecture projects. This work has culminated in Tim’s recently published book “Phyto for Future – with plants from the climate crisis”, in which he explores solutions that plants offer humans, the environment and biodiversity. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

Flora and Ulrich talk to the acclaimed artist and master sculptor Romolo Del Deo about making art that stands the test of time. Taking a stand against the fast, momentary and disposable ‘now’ culture of the present, Romolo instead focuses on creating enduring, sustainable, ‘long art’ for the 21st century. He tells us how his sculpture is preoccupied with two major aesthetic sources of inspiration; a fascination with the artefacts washed up upon the ocean shores of his native Provincetown and a natural affinity with the archeological ruins of his Italianate background and training. Romolo shares with Ideal Spaces an interest in creating spaces that work for the people, and express important and essential, historically tested ideas: something that speaks to long art’s interest in the historical record of how art is made and used. We discuss an upcoming collaboration between Studio Romolo and Ideal Spaces for “The Heavenly City and Paradise”, an Ideal Spaces event held in the Evangelical Church in Karlsruhe, Germany in September 2022, which explored through the medium of drawing, graphic design and video projection, the many forms a heavenly city can take. We also learn about Romolo’s sculpture “The Tree of Life Which is Ours”, an artwork recently installed at the Venice Biennale, whose part-ancient ruin, part-driftwood sea wrack yet distinctly contemporary appearance tells an interesting story about the fast-paced and often destructive world we live in today. After completing a distinguished career at Harvard and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Romolo turned away from his early successes and the artistic trends of the late 20th Century. For several years he isolated himself on a mountaintop in Italy, where he created a blueprint for an alternative future art. He foresaw that there would come a time when we would be saturated with disposable and ill-made things, While everyone else was racing to define the moment, Romolo dedicated himself to an art that expressed the eternal. His labor-intensive, thoughtful pieces have become a refreshing counterpoint to the ever faster, more trendy, more transitory art of his peers. Romolo envisioned a future where society as a whole would move beyond disposable consumerism, which was drowning the planet in waste, to re-embrace the value of thoughtful, skillfully handcrafted masterworks created over time from the noble natural materials the ancients used. This manner of working creates artworks which focus an artist’s creativity, into less wasteful use of resources. Romolo calls this enduring art for the new millennium, “Long Art.” www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

Flora Loughridge speaks with Delhi-based architect, urban designer and educator Tapan Chakravarty about building with true community impact. Tapan describes how traditional, vernacular housing in rural India mirrors the characteristics of the local environment, climate and natural materials – and how the lifestyle of villagers and their ways of using domestic spaces have been culturally inherited over many generations. Amongst other themes, Flora and Tapan explore how being curious about the past is key to understanding the built environment of today – this is a mindset that Tapan encourages in his students at the Pearl Academy’s School of Design in Delhi. Tapan completed his Bachelor of Architecture and Masters in Urban Design from School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi; and PG Certificate in Higher Education from Nottingham-Trent University, UK. Professionally engaged since 1984 with a number of Architecture/Urban Design firms in Delhi and prestigious organisations such as UNDP and INTACH, Tapan has run his own architecture practice and worked on several interesting & innovative projects in Residential, Industrial & Interior Architecture, City Architecture & Public Precincts and Furniture & Architectural Products. He also had an award-winning entry in a national level Urban Design competition for a commercial urban infill. Academically engaged since 1986 with a number of eminent Institutes in Delhi-NCR and in various capacities, such as Academic-Coordinator (TVB-SHS), HoD (Pearl Academy) and Dean (Sushant University), Tapan’s academic career covers many aspects of Architecture & Design Education including teaching & mentoring, curriculum development and pedagogical practices. He is also Visiting Faculty,Mentor & Examiner at several Institutes of Architecture & Design; including SPAs, IIT, NIFT, GGSIPU, DITU and ANU. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

In this brand-new episode, Flora and Ulrich speak to Ed Finn about the complex world of algorithms. Ed tells us about the ever-increasing role that computational systems play in the 21st century. We discuss the threat that our increasingly technology-focused lifestyle poses to imagination and creativity, and what the future might hold in a world where Apple and Google determine, and often dominate, our every move: from dating and shopping, to securing good A Level grades or choosing a film to watch on Netflix. What’s the difference between a useful algorithm and a damaging algorithm? And what responsibility do we have when it comes using algorithmic and computational systems? Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University where he is an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering. He also serves as the academic director of Future Tense, a partnership between ASU, New America and Slate Magazine, and a co-director of Emerge, an annual festival of art, ideas and the future. Ed’s research and teaching explore the workings of imagination, digital culture, creative collaboration, and the intersection of the humanities, arts and sciences. He is the author of What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing (MIT Press, spring 2017) and co-editor of Future Tense Fiction (Unnamed Press, 2019), Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers and Creators of All Kinds (MIT Press, 2017) and Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (William Morrow, 2014), among other books. He completed his PhD in English and American Literature at Stanford University in 2011 and his bachelor’s degree at Princeton University in 2002. Before graduate school, Ed worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH

Flora Loughridge and Ulrich Gehmann welcome artist-game designer Chris Solarski onto the Ideal Spaces Podcast in this brand-new episode on Experiencing Space. We explore how Chris’s sensory design approach Interactive Empathy and Embodiment (IEE) to interactive media heightens the player-audience’s physical experience of gameplay, making them feel totally immersed in the virtual gaming environment. Chris explains how his sensory design method relates to architecture, interior design and classical painting (as well as acting theory, neuroscience, psychology and disability aesthetics), with the atmosphere of a game similarly created through the careful placement of objects, colours, music and movement. We also learn how exactly video games succeed in evoking a wide range of emotions in their players. Along the way, we discuss fail videos, the rubber hand illusion, The Simpsons and Game of Thrones. Chris Solarski started out in video games at Sony Computer Entertainment’s London Studio as a character and environment artist before making a career-defining detour into figurative oil painting. The unusual mix of game art and classical art eventually resulted in Chris authoring Interactive Empathy and Embodiment (IEE)—a sensory design methodology that adapts traditional craft to interactive media with the aim of heightening kinaesthetic empathy and embodiment. Chris has authored two other books on game art and storytelling in games that are endorsed by the likes of Assassin’s Creed founding member Stéphane Assadourian, and Cyberpunk 2077 level designer Max Pears. Chris’ work has been described as gaming’s equivalent to Robert McKee’s screenwriting classic, Story, and compared to Joseph Campbell’s universal storytelling structure. Chris has had the pleasure of presenting at the Smithsonian Museum’s landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, Disney Research, SXSW, Google and FMX, to name a few. www.idealspaces.org/eepurl.com/dw7MLH