Ideals Made Concrete

A special edition of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking explores how visions of a better future are realised through architecture and design.

Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE and Director of LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at LSE which received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2016-18. At LSE he teaches in the Executive MSc in Cities and other courses and co-directs the Urban Age programme.

Liza Fior is an award-winning architect and designer; founding partner of muf architecture/art.

Des Fitzgerald (@Des_Fitzgerald) is a sociologist at Cardiff University and AHRC\BBC New Generation Thinker. 

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (@alexandradaisy) is an artist exploring the human values that shape design, science, technology, and nature. Through artworks, writing, and curatorial projects, Daisy examines the human impulse to "better" the world.

Edwin Heathcote (@edwinheathcote) is architecture and design critic for the Financial Times.

Anne McElvoy (@annemcelvoy) is one of the regular presenters of Free Thinking, Radio 3's arts and ideas magazine. Anne is Senior Editor at The Economist, and writes columns for the London Evening Standard and The Guardian. She appears on news broadcasts, as a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze and has presented radio documentaries and series including Across The Red Line, British Socialism: The Grand Tour, British Liberalism: The Grand Tour, British Conservatism: The Grand Tour for BBC Radio 4.

This programme will be broadcast on 3 March 2020 and available to download as a BBC Radio 3 Arts & Ideas podcast.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEFestival

This event forms part of the “Shape the World” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 March 2020, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social sciences can make the world a better place. The full programme will be available online from January 2020.