062: What Happens When An Anthropologist Studies Architects at Work? with Dr Thomas Yarrow
Channel: Business of Architecture
Date: 2019-09-02

I was absolutely delighted and fascinated to meet this week's guest on the Business of Architecture UK. Dr Thomas Yarrow is an Anthropologist at the University of Durham, who has recently completed an ethnographical study of architects at work, through an intimate observational collaboration with architecture practice, Millar Howard Workshop. 

Dr Thomas Yarrow completed his undergraduate degree in archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University before undertaking his PhD in social anthropology also at Cambridge University, completed 2006. After completing his PhD he held a Leverhulme fellowship in anthropology at the University of Manchester. He has also lectured in anthropology at the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham and at the School of Environment Natural Resources and Geography, at the University of Wales, Bangor.

His book 'Architects: Portraits of Practice' explores the ‘struggle & doubts of the design process’ &  'explores the architect's world of anxiety, exhilaration, hope, idealism, friendship, conflict & personal commitment that feeds creativity'.

In this Interview the following themes are explored and reflected upon
- The Revolution of the Everyday - how our sense of a utopian future can obscure the utopias of the everyday
- The potential for the future of the architect is lies in our ability to thoughtfully reconcile complexity
- Why the real power of the architect is our confidence in dealing with the uncertainty of 'not knowing'. 

TODAY'S RESOURCES
Architect's Marketing Institute 1-2-1 Breakthrough Call Application
www.businessofarchitecture.co.uk/marketing-breakthrough

Architects: Portrait of a Practice
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Architects-Portraits-Expertise-Technologies-Knowledge/dp/1501738496

Millar Howard Workshop
https://www.mhworkshop.co.uk

Dr Thomas Yarrow
https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?id=9727