Archinect - News

99% Invisible gets acquired by SiriusXM

2021-04-26T16:26:00-04:00

One of the first architecture-centric podcasts that got onto the radar of the general population, 99% Invisible, has been sold to SiriusXM. Roman Mars, the founder and host of the podcast, broke the news on Twitter stating, "You’ll never notice the sound of anything different, except I get to be involved more in the stories. So much of my job had become running a business and not making a podcast. I desperately needed that to change."

And more about my amazing colleagues at Radiotopia/PRXhttps://t.co/m8cRhfg2QK
— Roman Mars (@romanmars) April 26, 2021

While terms of the deal are not getting disclosed, it would be safe to say the purchase price was hefty as Roman has committed to donating $1M to PRX/Radiotopia, Roman's network of podcasts and a non-profit media company specializing in audio journalism and storytelling.

"The tyranny of bad doors must end."

2016-02-26T20:35:00-05:00

The podcast devoted to all things design, 99% Invisible, collaborates with Vox Media on a video explaining the backstory to "Norman doors". You know, those infuriatingly unclear doors where you can't tell if you should push or pull. The name honors design kingpin and advocate of human-centered design, Don Norman, for defining the problem that plagues these doors: they lack "discoverability", that is, their function isn't made obvious and "discoverable" to the person wanting to use it.

h/t user "go do it" in the Forum

Brutalism: the great architectural polarizer

2015-08-14T19:57:00-04:00

Goldfinger’s [brutalist] buildings were decreed “soulless.” Inhabitants claimed to suffer health problems and depression from spending time inside of them. Some of Goldfinger’s buildings were vacated because occupants found them so ugly. Yet, architects praised Goldfinger’s buildings. [...] This divide—this hatred from the public and love from designers and architects—tends to be the narrative around buildings like Goldfinger’s. Which is to say, gigantic, imposing buildings made of concrete.

Roman Mars, host of the design-centric podcast "99% Invisible", blogs for Slate on the polarizing quality of brutalist architecture – beloved by architects and hated by pretty much everyone else. Discussing the history of concrete in building architecture, Mars also puts brutalism in perspective as a contested term, one that architects are still arguing about, and that is commonly interpreted by non-architects simply as "gigantic, imposing buildings made of concrete."