About this podcast
Scratching the Surface is a podcast about design, theory, and creative practice. Hosted by Jarrett Fuller, each episode features wide-ranging conversations with designers, architects, writers, academics, artists, and theorists about how design shapes culture. Previous guests include architecture critic Paul Goldberger, MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli, architect and OMA partner Reinier de Graaf, Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, RISD President Rosanne Somerson, writer Kurt Andersen, and designer Jessica Helfand. Featured in Architectural Digest, Dezeen, Curbed, and Eye. New episodes every other Wednesday.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 330 episodes
- 296. Joseph Grima · 49 minJoseph Grima is an architect, curator, and editor. He is the co-founder of the design research studio Space Caviar and the itinerant design fair Alcova and was recently appointed…
- 295. Asli Altay · 47 minAsli Altay is the Head of Design, Communication, & Content at the Walker Art Center, where she also serves as the artistic director of the Walker Design Triennial. The first…
- 294. Jon Marshall & Piotr Woronkowicz · 1 h 7 minJon Marshall and Piotr Woronkowicz are industrial designers and partners at Pentagram. Jon, who joined in 2018, fuses product design with strategy, packaging, digital, and…
- 293. Graphic Designers After Graphic Design · 1 h 2 minJarrett’s new book Graphic Designers After Graphic Design was just published by Princeton Architectural Press! The book, which features interviews, profiles, and case studies of…
- 292. Will Hunter · 55 minWill Hunter is an Adjunct Instructor and Executive in Residence at New York University in the Schack Institute of Real Estate where he is leading the Building Better Cities…
- 291. Rathna Ramanathan · 1 h 2 minRathna Ramanathan is the Provost of Central Saint Martins and the Executive Dean, Global Affairs at the University of the Arts London. Over the last few years, Rathna has led a…
- 115. Kurt Andersen (originally aired 3/20/19) · 50 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. Today we're rebroadcasting our 2019 episode with writer…
- 213. Nicole Killian (originally aired 4/27/22) · 52 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. Today we're rebroadcasting our 2022 episode with Nicole…
- 187. Willo Perron (Originally aired 5/12/21) · 48 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. Today we're rebroadcasting our 2021 episode with Willo…
- 85. Mindy Seu (Originally aired 7/25/18) · 44 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. Today we're rebroadcasting our 2018 episode with Mindy Sue…
- 243. Nicholas de Monchaux (Originally aired 1/3/24) · 52 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. Today we're rebroadcasting our 2024 episode with Nicholas…
- 30. Abbott Miller (Originally aired 5/31/17) · 59 minWe're taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes in the archives over the next few months. First up is our 2017 conversation with Pentagram partner…
- 290. Giorgia Lupi · 1 h 0 minGiorgia Lupi is an information designer and partner at Pentagram. Her work synthesizes data and storytelling for clients such as Google, IBM, Gates Foundation, and the New York…
- 289. Marco Ferrari · 1 h 4 minMarco Ferrari is the co-founder of Studio Folder, an agency for visual design and spatial research based in Milan, and the head of the Information Design program at Design…
- 288. Alan Ricks & Sierra Bainbridge · 1 h 1 minAlan Ricks and Sierra Bainbridge are founding members of Model of Architecture Serving Society (MASS). Alan, an architect and co-executive director, and Sierra, director of the…
- 287. Jeremy Till & Tatjana Schneider · 57 minJeremy Till and Tatjana Schneider are architects, educators, writers, and researchers. With their research collective Mould, they are co-authors of the new book, Architecture is…
- 286. Heidi Korsavong & Benjamin Critton · 1 h 11 minHeidi Korsavong and Benjamin Critton are the founders of Marta, a Los Angeles-based, globally engaged art gallery. Founded in 2019, Marta makes space for “artists to experiment…
- 285. Giovanna Borasi · 1 h 1 minGiovanna Borasi is an architect, writer, and curator. She’s currently the director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where’s she previous held the positions of Chief…
- 284. Walter Hood · 1 h 1 minWalter Hood is a landscape architect, architect, artist, and urbanist. He’s the creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, CA and the former chair of the…
- 283. Oliver Munday · 1 h 3 minOliver Munday is a graphic designer and writer. His new book, Head of Household, is a collection of short stories that explore the conditions of modern fatherhood. Perhaps best…
- 282. Sonja Stummerer & Martin Hablesreiter · 1 h 2 minSonja Stummerer and Martin Hablesreiter operate under the name Honey & Bunny. Their work moves between art, photography, performance, video, and writing to explore our…
- 281. Otto von Busch · 60 minOtto von Busch is a designer and professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design. He has a background in arts, craft, design, and theory and his work focuses on how…
- 280. Sam Valenti · 54 minSam Valenti IV is the founder of Ghostly International, a music label and art company he founded in 1999 and known for experimental electronic artists like Matthew Dear, Tycho…
- 279. Thomas Weaver · 1 h 4 minThomas Weaver is an architectural writer, teacher, critic, and editor. He is a commissioning editor at Park Books where he cofounded and edits the Gumshoe series, and has…
- 278. Carlo Ratti · 43 minCarlo Ratti is an architect, engineer, author, and academic. He is the curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture, where he developed the theme Intelligens: Natural…
- 277. Maggie Gram · 58 minMaggie Gram is a writer, cultural historian, and designer. She’s the author of the new book, The Invention of Design, and her writing as appeared in n+1 and The New York Times…
- 276. Amale Andraos & Dan Wood · 1 h 5 minAmale Andraos and Dan Wood are the founders of WORKac, an architecture office working across a range of scales with an emphasis on public, cultural, or civic projects all around…
- 275. David Godshall & Kasey Toomey · 57 minDavid Godshall and Kasey Toomey are partners at Terremoto, a landscape architecture design studio based in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Founded by Godshall and Alain Peauroi…
- 274. Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby · 1 h 4 minAnthony Dunne and Fiona Raby use design as a medium to interrogate our relationship to reality. They are the authors of multiple books, including 2013’s Speculative Everything…
- 273. Nick Foster · 1 h 7 minNick Foster is a futures designer and author of the new book Could Should Might Don’t: How We Think About The Future. Trained as an industrial designer, he has spent his career…
- 272. Joel Towers · 1 h 5 minJoel Towers is the president of The New School in New York City. Trained as an architect, President Towers joined the school in 2004, first as a faculty member and director of…
- 211. Lydia Kallipoliti (Originally aired 3/30/22) · 50 minLydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, and scholar. She is an assistant professor at the Cooper Union School of Architecture, the author of the book The Architecture of…
- 194. Zak Kyes (Originally aired 8/4/21) · 42 minZak Kyes is the creative director and founder of Zak Group where he leads projects for cultural and commercial clients across scales and mediums. From 2006 to 2016, he was the…
- 226. Katherine McCoy (Originally aired 2/1/23) · 1 h 9 minKatherine McCoy is a graphic designer and educator. From 1971 to 1995, she was the co-artist-in-residence with Michael McCoy of the pioneering design department at the Cranbook…
- 241. Adrian Lahoud (Originally aired 12/6/23) · 46 minAdrian Lahoud is an architect, urban designer, researcher, and the dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art. Previously he was director of the MA program at…
- 74. Peter Mendelsund (Originally aired 5/2/18) · 1 h 17 minPeter Mendelsund is a graphic designer, writer, and musician. Until recently he was the associate art director at Alfred A. Knopf where he designed book covers for everyone from…
- 230. Sarah Whiting (Originally aired 3/29/23) · 1 h 0 minSarah Whiting is an architect, writer, editor, and the current dean of Harvard GSD. She is a design principal and co-founder of WW Architecture and from 2010 to 2019, she served…
- 271. Hans Ulrich Obrist · 53 minHans Ulrich Obrist is a a curator, critic, and art historian. He’s the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London and the author of many books, including Ways of…
- 270. Sarah Ichioka · 57 minSarah Ichioka is an urbanist, strategist, curator, and writer. She’s the author, with Michael Pawlyn, of Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency and the founder of…
- 269. Matt Owens · 58 minMatt Owens is co-founder and Chief Design and Innovation Officer at Athletics, a brand studio based in Brooklyn, and author of the book, A Visible Distance: Craft, Creativity…
- 268. Lara Lesmes & Fredrik Hellberg · 1 h 10 minLara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg are the founders of Space Popular, an architecture studio that explores relationships between media and the built environment through research…
- 267. Julian Bleecker · 1 h 3 minJulian Bleecker is a researcher, designer, engineer, and entrepreneur. He runs Near Future Laboratory, a platform and consultancy focused on design fiction. He is the author of…
- 266. Mike Pepi · 58 minMike Pepi is a critic and technologist who writes about art, culture, and technology. He is the author of the new book, Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia, which is both…
- 265. Elizabeth Diller · 50 minElizabeth Diller is a partner and co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro where she’s worked on a range of buildings including New York’s The Shed, the Highline, and an expansion…
- 264. Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin · 51 minAndrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are the founders of Formafantasma, a research-driven design studio based in Milan and Rotterdam that investigates the ecological, historical…
- 263. Nicolay Boyadjiev · 55 minNicolay Boyadjiev is an architect and creative director based between Copenhagen, Sofia and Mexico City. He is the Director of the Practice Lab at re:arc institute, where he…
- 262. Jack Murphy · 60 minJack Murphy is the executive editor of The Architect’s Newspaper. He studied architecture at MIT and Rice University and previously edited PLAT Journal and Cite, the publication…
- 261. Gregory Wessner · 52 minGregory Wessner is the Executive Director of the National Academy of Design, the New York-based non-profit founded in 1825 that promotes art and architecture in America through…
- 260. Noemi Biasetton · 1 h 3 minNoemi Biasetton is a design researcher, writer, and editor whose work focuses on design cultures and visual representation within the social and political dimension. She is the…
- 259. Federica Sofia Zambeletti · 1 h 2 minFederica Sofia Zambeletti is an architect, researcher, and storyteller. She’s the founder and managing director of KoozArch, a digital platform and research studio that explores…
