Interview with Shelley McNamara

'Architecture Is About Humanism'

John Hill
12. September 2023
Photo: Screenshot from “Shelley McNamara: Architecture Is About Humanism”

The wide-ranging interview, seventeen minutes in length, touches on a number of subjects, from the crises architecture addresses these days and learning from architects like Francis Kéré, to listening to the communities where one works and working on their Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan decades ago. Pervading the interview are optimism and, as the title indicates, the architect's belief in humanism: “In a way, you can’t be an architect without being optimistic. You are making something that is going to happen tomorrow. It is not there today, so you are thinking about the future… It’s about humanism in the end.”

See also: "Architecture is a process of translation," our 2022 interview with Farrell and McNamara at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona after they received the EUmies Award for Town House – Kingston University.

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