The burst of Covid-19 pandemic has brought the World to the acceptance of a new reality in many aspects of our lives. Everyday routine has shifted from public performance to the distance isolation. The pandemic has brought changes to many fields like country’s economies, local businesses, hospitality and tourism industry, and healthcare. In the Unit 2 I researched the impact of Covid-19 on architecture field, how architects reacted to a new environment and their possible respond to the pandemic in the form of future buildings. I have decided to share my research and concerns with the public. Of course, it would be a more productive discussion with the fellow architecture students, but I wanted to bring out my views and discussions to a larger audience not related to an architectural field specifically. I wanted to make sure that risen questions about possible future changes in architecture would concern and be interesting not only for field professionals, but their parents, spouses, and friends.
The Unit 3 assignment made me a bit nervous in the beginning as we have to describe a researched topic in a new informal genre we have never experienced. In high school I had an experience to work with Literature genres as a reader and never dared to write something by myself as writing was never my strongest skills. So after some research of different genres, I marked out the main ones, which would interest my specific audience, and I would like to test them. The first choice was a science-fiction article for a magazine or newspaper, but after some consideration on how many people actually read articles nowadays, I’ve decided to let this idea go. The second choice of writing was more, in my opinion, academic oriented. The curatorial statement good be very technical and somewhat boring, and hardly would interest my target audience. I started thinking how I can cover a larger scale of people in their 20s to 50s, what can genre can actually interest audience with such an age gap. And new social media movement gave me an idea. I’ve decided to introduce my researched topic as an episode of a Podcast series, hosted by an architecture student. The Podcast streaming is a fairly new movement which covers different age categories of listeners with various background.  Instead of long-form reporting or solo-cast, I’ve chosen to perform it a conversational genre. It is hard to have a conversation with yourself, so my next step was to think of guest I could invite for the series. My research in Unit 2 covers opinions and views of many professionals of the architectural field, so I’ve decided to invite the brightest representatives of the industry. I didn’t want my Podcast to be lecture-oriented conversation. So, the entire episode is arranged in the way that the host presents the topic for a discussion and asks leading question to make Podcast more fluent and interactive. In order to avoid boredom in the answers the host asks some provoking and kind of trigging questions (f.e. “What about the cities? Would they have to disappear?” ) The guests answer those questions from their own rich experience and possible visions of the situation resolution. An especially important concern for my episode was the timing. We all live in a busy environment, and hardly my audience would have an extra hour to listen to the episode, when, on the other hand, everyone would find 15 minutes while snacking or driving to listen to the full episode.
After my Podcast was scripted and finished, I can say I quite satisfied with the completed project. I was a bit worried about the special terminology my guest would use in their answers, which could be confusing for the listeners without architectural background. I wish I could bring more humor in the episode, but after some thinking, the conversation was based on Covid-19 circumstances, which took lives of many people, and humor might not be appropriate. I am also glad that conversation turned out to be coherent and respectful. With many people at the table, it is quite hard to maintain a disciplined conversation without interruptions and yelling. I think the main goal of my Podcast to engage a larger audience succeeded. Such episode could interest not only the students of architecture and architects, but also people surrounding them. It gives a vivid example of how the housing industry, for example, could change, providing a valued information for real estate investors for example, or how a family can finally make that choice to move to suburbs.
In general, I really liked the experience of creating a Podcast episode. It made me want to spend more time to listening to different podcasters and drink in their techniques and tactics. I would really like to try to air a podcast episode as a host or a guest. And I really enjoyed the experience of bringing the stars of world architecture in an imaginary conversation.
