MXD Podcast

AI isn’t making designers faster — it’s making everyone else a designer. A new AI-in-design industry report says product managers and engineers are doing design work now, and a randomized Figma Make trial put numbers on it. Then: Apple Music’s new logo was made by sound, Apple finally puts a touchscreen on the MacBook Pro, Teenage Engineering opens its first store in SoHo, Princeton names historian Sylvia Lavin dean of its School of Architecture, SOM draws a dome for the Bears in Bridgeport, and Cynthia Davidson hands Log — the theory journal she ran for 23 years — to Julie Cirelli.MXD News is your weekly download on architecture, design, and visual culture. This week with Caleb White and Matt Lopez. Make sure to follow us on our socials!https://linktr.ee/mxdsignalInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/mxd_signalTiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mxd_signal

This week: a quiet masterpiece at The Met by Young and Ayata, a hit documentary about concrete (plus the indie-film wave around it), Tesla's Roadster and the great car-person debate, a licensure rant over Lebbeus Woods, and Kyle Miller's living map of the discipline.

Milan-based designer Hazem Talaat — known as Hazem the Architect — trained as an architect in Egypt and Italy, then walked away from the discipline to build a multidisciplinary art-direction career spanning album covers for Griselda's Conway the Machine, creative consulting for Rick Owens, set design, and the Venice Biennale. In this first Season 3 MXD Signal interview special, he talks with Walaid, Caleb, and Christianna about failing into architecture, finding his tribe between experimental drawing culture and underground hip-hop, and how his unique and plural methodology has enabled him to bridge different worlds with his work. Guest bioHazem Talaat is a Milan-based multidisciplinary designer working across architecture, fashion, music visuals, and set design under the name Hazem the Architect. His clients and collaborators include Griselda (Conway the Machine), Rick Owens (as creative consultant), and musicians and fashion labels across Europe and the US; his work was shown at the

Venice Biennale in 2021. Portfolio: https://www.behance.net/Hazemtalaat

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The EU wants you to label your AI renders — and Caleb is not having it. "Get your hands off my images." This week: why a rule aimed at consumer fraud lands hardest on the small studios and students who finally got professional-grade imagery, whether the Neom era is really over (the money didn't disappear — it moved to data centers), and the hot take that Gehry's houses beat his museums. Plus NYC's 4,000-home bet at 100 Gold Street, MVRDV's street furniture, Google Japan's conveyor-belt keyboard, and Louis Vuitton's flying-car runway.MXD Signal — weekly news on architecture, design, and visual culture.

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We open with a striking construction stat: data centers are drawing around $725 billion in capital while home building and factory construction decline. We talk about what that means for architects and students entering the job market, whether “I won’t build data centers” is a meaningful ethical line, and why so much capital is now flowing into buildings almost nobody will experience.Then we get into the weirdness of the modern internet: Higgsfield AI’s push to mass-produce AI influencers, dead internet theory, OpenAI’s Dots campaign for 24/7 agents, and Meta’s Muse wearable, which people are calling the 2026 Tamagotchi. Plus a break from the screens with BuildFest at Bethel Woods, where architecture students designed and built timber projects around the theme “Acts of Construction.”We also look at Gen Z’s cyberdeck trend (genuine counterculture or just aesthetics?), a $60,000 castle for sale in Hokkaido and what it reveals about Japan’s attitude toward old buildings, a viral “meeting titles as YouTube titles” bit, and why subcultures are multiplying while going viral gets harder than ever.
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This week we start with a heavier topic: newly updated Google Earth satellite imagery exposing the scale of destruction in Gaza, paired with on-the-ground photos of a makeshift football pitch built where the main stadium once stood. We talk about the role images play in making distant devastation real, the practice of forensic architecture, and how communities rebuild function and daily life amid ruins.Then we lighten up with Amazon's new delivery drones — loud, clumsy, camera-equipped, and in desperate need of a personality upgrade — before diving into SpaceX's Starship reaching orbit and what that means for the economics of space travel, satellite deployment, and design in spacecraft interiors.We also cover the "Stools" furniture exhibition in NYC featuring architect-designed stools from firms like Norman Kelly and OMA, Costco's plan to build mixed-use housing on a former hospital site in LA, and the ongoing fight over Trump's threat to shut down or demolish the Kennedy Center.Make sure to follow us on our socials!Instagram - @mxd_signalTiktok - @mxd_signal

This week we start with the viral Lexus x MSCHF collaboration — two "twisted" concept cars that spark a bigger conversation about car-deformation art history, brand collaborations, and whether corporate partnerships can still produce legitimate fine art.

Then we dig into the escalating saga of Trump's DC Arch, which has evolved from a monument concept into a proposed military complex with drone launch capabilities and sniper positions — and what that says about the optics of power in public space. We also cover the leaked "I am the code" sketches from the ongoing ballroom architect dispute, the Supreme Court's ruling on the East Wing demolition, and the very online debate over whether the minimalist "bro home" aesthetic is actually the future of design.

The back half of the episode features an extended conversation with Casey Rehm, Director of the Architectural Intelligence program at SCI-Arc, unpacking the Hugging Face rogue agent story, OpenAI's Astra model, predictions about AGI timelines, Jensen Huang's "it's just software" framing, and what AI actually means for the architecture labor market.

Compiled Show Notes:

Segment 1: Lexus MSCHF Collab

Mschf Art Collective

https://mschf.com/

Chris Labrooy

http://chrislabrooy.com

Lars Fisk

http://larsfisk.com

Segment 3: Trump Arc

https://www.instagram.com/p/DdmAZIIlzPJ/

Segment 4: Trump Ballroom Sketches

Supreme Court Allows Construction of Ballroom to Continue:

.scotusblog.com/2026/08/supreme-court-allows-construction-on-white-house-ballroom-to-continue/

Segment 5: “Bro Home” Aesthetic

Aegment 6: Casey Rehm on AI Threats

The Diary of a CEO: ChatGPT Whistleblower Daniel Kokotajlo

https://youtu.be/_g4l7YkDQwA?si=kRNAI0bPtynirxIb

Jensen Huang Susiness.com/technology/nvidias-jensen-huang-rejects-ai-doomsday-fears-2030-not-going-end-world

SciArc _ Masters of Science in Architectural Intellegence

http://sciarc.edu/academics/postgraduate/architectural-intelligence

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This week we open with the University of Chicago pulling laptops and phones from its core social science classrooms — and New York City banning AI in elementary and middle schools. Is going analog the right call, or are blanket tech bans just fear of an unknown future? We get into how we handle it in our own studios and seminars.

Then: the US Space Force unveiled new uniforms, and the sci-fi references are doing a lot of work. We unpack the Starship Troopers connection, the uncomfortable fashion history underneath it, and why military design references are never really neutral.

Also on the docket — MOS Architects' new pavilion opening at Art OMI, Nike getting booted from the S&P 100 after a brutal run, IKEA's free Skyrim mod that turns the Kallax shelf into your companion, a suspicious "most climate resilient cities" ranking, Ye's unsettling new stage look, Boys Firm's dead-on "six types of architecture thesis" post, and a return to the 9/11 light memorial with a much darker reference point.

This week we get our first real look inside MAD Architects' long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening September 22nd in LA after a wild history that started in Chicago. We compare the polished press photos to the more candid, "banal" behind-the-scenes shots making the rounds — and talk about what actually happens when hype meets reality on a capital-A architecture project.

We also mark 9/11 with a look at a moving drone memorial over the NYC skyline, the debate over how younger generations relate to the day, and the bombshell records released by Mayor Mamdani confirming officials — including Giuliani — knew about toxic ground zero air and worked to cover it up.

From there: Brad Pitt is producing a film about Peter Zumthor directed by Wim Wenders (plus the real story on Brad's architecture background), the Empire State Building's surprisingly massive TikTok following, Archtober events to watch, Archisource's Drawing of the Year winners and what even counts as a "drawing" anymore, and why the architecture subreddit is full of people asking if the profession is dying.

We start with the shakeup happening across higher education — starting with The New School's mass faculty cuts and what it says about the future of architecture and design programs everywhere. We talk tenure, underenrolled humanities departments, and why architecture school recruitment is struggling.

Then we shift to AI: the Hugging Face "rogue agent" incident that's got security experts calling it a potential milestone in AI autonomy, why ChatGPT and Claude gave us wildly different answers about it, and Elon Musk's prediction that AI will outcode humans within two years — plus what that means for the already-brutal entry-level coding job market.

We close out with a look at BIG's new Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, why iconic "starchitect" buildings don't hit the way they used to, and a tribute to OMA co-founder Elias Zenghelis, who passed away at 89.

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What stories do architects tell themselves—and how do those stories shape the work they create?This week on Mixed Signals, the MXD crew is joined by Kristen Mimms Scavnicky and Adrienne Economos-Miller, educators, artists, and designers whose work explores the powerful relationship between narrative, identity, and representation in architecture.

We begin with a round of Cold Crits featuring student work from Texas A&M and the University of Pennsylvania before turning our attention to a curious trend in contemporary culture: the increasing tendency to flatten complexity into aesthetics. From the MET Gala's relationship to art and spectacle to the extraordinary mosaic-clad churches and sacred spaces built by German immigrant communities across the Midwest, we explore how meaning, authorship, and cultural memory become embedded in the things we make.

The heart of the episode centers on Kristen and Adrienne's research initiative, Narrative Terrains, a symposium and growing conversation dedicated to the role of storytelling in design. Together we unpack how architects construct identities through drawings, images, texts, and projects, and why narrative may be one of the most important—and overlooked—tools in architectural practice.

What is a drawing actually doing? How do personal histories shape design decisions? And can architecture ever be separated from the stories we tell about ourselves?A wide-ranging conversation about architecture, representation, memory, authorship, and the drawings we make for ourselves.

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The MXD crew welcomes Dr. Rebecca McConnell to the podcast! We discuss the evolving role of the rendering in Architecture in light of new Artificial Intelligence image generation techniques.We then move into a special edition of Cold Crits, featuring speculative Architectural projects from Artist Ismail Seleit. We then discuss some of the differences between education and Academia in the United States and the United Kingdom. We also discuss Crit Bay, the platform that Rebecca and Cathal founded to provide easy access to Architectural portfolio or even project feedback. Make sure to follow us on our socials!Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mxd_signalTiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mxd_signal

The MXD crew talks with Gary Polk (BIG, Penn, Pratt) to break down the boundaries of Architectural representation and drawing.We start by diving into previous year's Archisource' Drawing of the Year Competition finalists—debating the line between a "drawing of architecture" vs. an "architectural drawing"—and discuss why standard diagrams might be ruining the discipline. Plus, Gary shares how he balances high-level corporate architecture at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with his hyper-detailed, whimsical personal drawings born out of the COVID-19 lockdowns.If you're an architecture student surviving finals or a designer looking for creative inspiration, this conversation on lines, hatches, and non-human agency is for you!Make sure to follow us on our socials!Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mxd_signalTiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mxd_signalYoutube - @MXDSignal

The MXD crew welcomes Ryosuke Imaeda to discuss models, materiality, craft, and mysterious architectural objects! We start off the episode with a model-focused edition of Cold-Crits.

Ryo tells the MXD crew about his time at global design firms Zaha Hadid Architects and Reiser Umemoto Reiser. We also discuss his design-research through teaching and his perspective on materiality and craft in the production of a project.

In a new edition of Yay or Nay, we discuss diagrams and their roll in representation. We also debate whether metaphor has a place in architecture.

And finally, in Trending Topics we talk about "aesthetics-maxing", noticing new trends in design.

The MXD crew welcomes Brendan Ho from Kent State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design to the studio. We talk about the artist formerly known as Kanye West (Ye), his impactful and controversial career, his stunning SoFi stage design, and his April Fools / possibly real bid to redesign the West wing of the White House?

Matt springs a story on us of his IRL run in with Kanye West, we also talk about A24s upcoming film that forefronts Architecture as a major character, and we play a wacky Nihar game . . .

And then we get into Brendan's research at SciArc, how that has evolved since his thesis, and we compare notes on teaching architecture and integrating your own passions and interests into that process.

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The MXD crew is joined by Casey Rehm, Coordinator of the Masters of Science in Architectural Intelligence program at SciArc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). He is an expert in computation and a specialist in Artificial Intelligence and specifically a leader in speculation on its impact on Architecture. He is the perfect person to help us catch up on the state of AI and its impact on our culture. We start by looking at first fun then slightly disturbing examples of the proliferation of movie studio level AI production tools. We get Casey's take on some of the emerging concerns around security in AI - including propaganda, false information, and the frightening capacities of some emerging models like Claude 'Mythos'. We talk about Casey's program at Sci Arc, what brings students to his program, and what do some of their projects look like. We also unpack some of Casey's own work and discuss the emergent and evolving aesthetic of his practice being driven by system-thinking design. Make sure to follow us on our socials!Instagram - @MXD_signalTiktok - @MXD_signalYouTube - @MXDSignal

Joined by Architect and educator Andy Bako, the MXD crew unpack the controversy surrounding the accessibility failures of the Hunter’s Point Library by Steven Holl—and the shocking lawsuit that it has resulted in. Is this a failure of ADA compliance, or a deeper failure of spatial design and architectural thinking? And how does something like this happen at the highest level of practice?We also touch on "Architecture Against Architecture", the new manifesto / book by Reinier de Graaf, exploring its critique of the profession—from labor and authorship to the role of manifestos today. Is architecture losing relevance, or just caught in its own contradictions?The second half shifts into Andy Bako's body of work, starting with his exhibition of his studio's work at University of Texas Austin's School of Architecture. The exhibition, entitled "Waste Coats" focuses on the design thinking and culture of high fashion while displaying the studio's deep engagement with material re-use experimentation and the complex techtonics it produces.Other themes in the episode:-Architecture’s overlap with fashion, wearables, and the body-The legacy (and backlash) of parametric design-What a “soft digital” approach looks like today-How recycled materials and waste can drive new aesthetic languages-Why architecture might need to embrace the messy, ugly, and unfinished

The MXD crew dives deep into the World-making, Architecture, and game design of the viral Bungie video game Marathon with special guest Joseph Cross, art director behind the game’s bold and polarizing visual identity.We explore how Marathon’s aesthetic—what Cross calls “graphic realism”—blends architecture, product design, branding, and visual culture into a unified world. From construction-site graphics and industrial materials to high-fashion references like Virgil Abloh, the conversation unpacks how seemingly banal elements (drywall, tape, logos, thresholds) become powerful design language. The episode also connects these ideas to contemporary architecture, including parallels to Rem Koolhaas and OMA, where unfinished details and graphic systems reshape how we read buildings.We also get into:How video game worlds are designed like coherent architectural systemsWhy fan culture, cosplay, and screenshots are reshaping authorshipThe role of graphic design studios in world-buildingThe tension between aesthetic clarity vs. gameplay confusionWhy great design might need to be polarizing to matterThis is a conversation about architecture beyond buildings—where games, media, and design culture collide to shape how we see and understand space today.

Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu of Oyler Wu Collaborative join Mixed Signals to unpack a design approach that refuses to sit in one camp. From line-based experiments to volumetric assemblies, their work navigates between digital and physical, drawing and making, theory and play. Rather than choosing a singular architectural identity, they argue for operating across multiple “camps”—a position that reframes how contemporary practice can evolve.

The conversation expands through teaching, media, and practice: "Cold Crits" of student work reveal shifting attitudes toward legibility, tectonics, and one-to-one fabrication; reflections on sketching challenge the dominance of digital tools; and discussions on social media, books, and “side hustles” expose how architects communicate ideas across fast and slow platforms. At its core, the episode asks: how do you build a practice—and a point of view—amid information overload, shifting audiences, and an increasingly hybrid design culture?

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OMA’s new museum expansion becomes the focal point of this episode of Mixed Signals—not just as a project, but as a case study in how architecture is judged today. The crew unpacks the building’s spatial ambitions, formal logic, and urban presence before confronting a viral critique claiming that “OMA can’t detail.” What follows is a layered discussion on authorship, construction quality, and the growing gap between architectural intention and built reality.

Orbiting that central debate, the episode expands outward into the cultural conditions shaping contemporary architecture: the rise of social media critique, Gen Z design habits, and the idea of architecture school as a content engine. Conversations on Revit, AI, and “taste vs. skill” reinforce a larger question—if architecture is increasingly mediated through images, platforms, and automation, what actually defines architectural value today?