Send us Fan Mail Continuing the exploration of Vitruvius's Venustas, Firmitas, Utilitas, host Naziaty turns to Utilitas — usually translated as function or commodity — and asks what it really means in the 21st century. Drawing on a RIBA article, Accessible Architecture: How Today's Inclusive Spaces Can Help Solve 200 Years of Accessible Design Challenges, we trace the long, uneven history of disability in the built environment, from Victorian asylums and Gordon Cullen's 1931 awareness work, t...
May 28
27 min
How architecture students study 'business' in school - similarities in practice and entrepreneurship
Send us Fan Mail In this follow-up to the introduction on How Architecture Students Study Business in School, host Naziaty digs into the three skills the original Threads question raised: running a firm, pricing a project, and negotiating a contract, where each one can be quietly built into the five years of architecture school — leadership and team dynamics through first-year group furniture builds and peer reviews, costing through site visits, bills of quantities, and a thesis cost-benefit ...
May 27
18 min
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Talk Architecture, host Naziaty tackles a question that's been making the rounds on Threads: should architecture schools teach business and financial literacy? After six years of study, many graduates step out into practice with no real sense of how to run a firm, price a project, or negotiate a contract — and the conversation online has struck a nerve. Naziaty pushes back on the idea that business education is only about money, arguing that it sits much cl...
May 27
22 min
Send us Fan Mail The Timeless Principles of "Venustas, Firmitas, and Utilitas" (Vitruvius, 1st century BC) is one way to analyse any product, may it be craft or architecture, in terms of the quality and how good that design is. In the history of architectural theory, few ideas have proven as enduring as the Roman principles articulated by Vitruvius: Venustas (beauty or delight), Firmitas (firmness or structural strength), and Utilitas (utility or function, sometimes called commodity). These c...
May 19
22 min
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the Talk Architecture Podcast. I’m your host, Naziaty. After a difficult hiatus since our last episode on March 28—marked by a bout of illness and the heartbreaking loss of my mother last month—I’m slowly returning to the mic with renewed purpose. Though my voice may sound a little rough today, I’m excited to share that the show is very much alive and moving forward with fresh interviews featuring international voices, including a longtime collaborator from In...
May 12
5 min
Send us Fan Mail Naziaty will discuss on the need to address the intersecting sections of the sets of "architecture practice", "architecture education" and "disability". This is an introduction to the gaps that needs to be addressed. © 2026 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob. Support the show Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processe...
Mar 28
21 min
Send us Fan Mail Kevin Mark Low and Naziaty Mohd Yaacob both sees Malaysian architecture education as deeply flawed, producing graduates who are technically competent but philosophically and ethically underprepared. Discussion on these sub-topics / key points are found in this episode: 1. Systemic failures and "dumbing down" 2. Critique on formalism and form-first approaches 3. Need for critical inquiry and balanced models 4. Relevance to Malaysian / Tropical context 5. Shift towards pr...
Mar 19
17 min
Send us Fan Mail A Commentary on the March 2025 episodes on the Balanced Education Model, an interview with Kevin Mark Low, with an eye towards writing thoughts on this to be published. Important core quotes and key statements from Kevin Mark Low: 1. On the obsession with formalism and branding 2. On the power of relationships 3. On guidance and mentorship 4. Broader critique of current systems 5. On diversified education and first-principles These statements and quotes would form the basis o...
Mar 19
28 min
Send us Fan Mail The first episode in a two-part series on designing from first principles (as suggested by Kevin Mark Low). The concept of “first principles” in architecture can be understood in two main ways: 1. The most fundamental, timeless truths about what makes good architecture (the Vitruvian foundation that has survived 2000+ years) 2. First-principles thinking as a problem-solving method (breaking architecture down to basic physical/human truths and reasoning up from the...
Mar 18
17 min
Send us Fan Mail Second episode of a two-part series we dive deep into how architects such as Kevin Mark Low design from first principles. Analysis from literature search shows that Kevin Mark Low has 5 main core elements to his first principles-inspired design process: 1. Primacy of Context Specificities 2. Radical or Critically questioning and identifying problems 3. Details as the Resolver of Relationsips 4. Embracing Imperfection, Time, Ageing and Decay 5. Focus on Small Scale and Tectoni...
Mar 18
29 min
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