Architecture has long treated bacteria as an enemy to be controlled—dangerous foreign agents to be sealed out, sterilized, or erased. In their new book, We the Bacteria: Notes Toward a Biotic Architecture, architecture historians and curators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley turn that assumption inside out (literally,) arguing that architecture should not be bent on shielding and isolating humans from their invisible partners through hygiene protocols, ventilation, materials, light, and other forms of management and control. Buildings should instead be shaped by microbes as they have been for centuries, and humans should reconsider their role as participants in a much larger biological collective.

In this conversation with Paola, Beatriz and Mark explore how bacteria offer a radical lens through which to reinterpret architectural history and design practice. Rather than asking how architecture can protect us from microbes, We the Bacteria asks what it means to design for coexistence, and what political, ethical, and spatial fantasies are exposed when the dream of separation finally collapses.

You can find images related to this interview on our Instagram grid @design.emergency. Please join us for past and future episodes of Design Emergency, where we continue to speak with designers, scholars, and thinkers who are reimagining what design is for—and who it is really designed with.

Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every year, the second Tuesday in October is designated as Ada Lovelace Day as a tribute to its namesake, Ada Lovelace, the 19th century mathematician and pioneering computer programmer who collaborated with Charles Babbage on the design of his remarkable mechanical computer, the Analytical Machine. To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2025, Alice and Paola are dedicating this special episode of Design Emergency to celebrating her achievements and those of other remarkable women who have honoured Ada’s legacy in different ways, making crucial contributions to the digital age.

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Some of them have designed and delivered transformational advances in technology, such as Britain’s ingenious female code-breakers at Bletchley Park during World War II, Ida Holz, the Uruguayan computer scientist and engineer who pioneered the internet in Latin America, and Stacy Horn, who designed one of the first online communities in ECHO.

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Others have developed inspiring ways of improving existing systems: both by alerting us to new possibilities, and by identifying or defusing unexpected dangers, as the Chinese-born, US-based computer scientist Fei-Fei Li has done, and the Kenyan tech designer and activist, Juliana Rotich. While Jay-Ann Lopez, founder of the global network of Black Girl Gamers and new media pioneer, Lynn Hershman Leeson, are at the forefront of challenging stereotypes and championing diversity, inclusivity and equity within tech design, thereby helping to make it fitter for purpose and to realise its true potential.

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We hope you’ll enjoy this episode. You can find images of the projects Alice and Paola describe on our Instagram @design.emergency. Please join us for future episodes of Design Emergency when we will hear from inspiring global design leaders who are in the forefront of forging positive change.

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Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we empower more people, particularly young people from disinvested communities, to engage with architecture, and to use it as a tool to improve their daily lives and future prospects? Maya Bird-Murphy, the Chicago-based architect and educator, tells Alice Rawsthorn how she is addressing this through the Mobile Makers programme of youth workshops and community engagement projects.

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Maya describes how she launched Mobile Makers as a non-profit in 2017 and drove a retrofitted mail truck around Chicago to deliver after-school programmes, summer camps and field trips. Mobile Makers now operates from a permanent space in Humboldt Park, Chicago, and has launched programmes in Boston, Massachusetts and Aspen, Colorado. At a time of growing interest in socially engaged architecture and design, particularly among young designers, Maya describes the pros and cons of running a non-profit, and her plans to create a network of architects and social designers who are committed to developing radically new ways of working.

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We hope you’ll enjoy this episode . You can find images of the projects Maya describes on our Instagram @design.emergency. Please join us for future episodes of Design Emergency when we will hear from inspiring global design leaders who are in the forefront of forging positive change.

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Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.