'An Architect's Perspective' on Can Lis
The first episode of the new An Architect's Perspective series finds architect and host James Hamilton visiting Can Lis, the house Jørn Utzon built for his family on the island of Mallorca.
Although it is billed a podcast, the high production values courtesy of OneFinePlay's production and the episode's on-location filming make An Architect's Perspective recall such televisions series as Channel 4's Grand Designs and PBS's Cool Spaces! as well as the documentaries of Bêka & Lemoine. If Hamilton, an architect with offices in London, Belfast, and Turks and Caicos, had used his expertise to include floor plans or other architectural visualizations alongside footage of him at Can Lis and the nearby town of Santanyí, the series would also resemble the excellent Architectures/Baukunst documentaries developed by Richard Copans and Stan Neumann.
What separates An Architect's Perspective from those earlier productions is the incorporation of the podcast format that has blossomed over the last decade or so. The second episode—to be released next Tuesday, with the remaining 15 episodes released every Tuesday after that—will find Hamilton in the office of John Pardey, speaking with the architect and “close friend of Jørn Uzton” about Can Lis. The two episodes combine to give viewers two architect's perspectives: one of an architect experiencing the building firsthand, and one of an architect with firsthand knowledge of the building providing additional insight on the house.
Future episodes of An Architect's Perspective will venture to the Czech Republic to visit Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat and speak with architect Eva Jiřičná, and France for a visit to Eileen Gray's E-1027 and a discussion with historian Tim Benton and architect Carmen Espegel.