156. Bauhaus and the Anarchic City -- Robin Schuldenfrei

Explicit content warning

05/21/25 • 66 min

Robin Schuldenfrei joins me to discuss her new book Objects in Exile, which is about the many afterlives of the Bauhaus school and its practitioners. Robin and I particularly focus on the relationship between Bauhaus and city planning, especially focusing on Chicago and the work of Ludwig Hilberseimer. Key questions include:

How can societies ensure that everyone has at least enough space to live? How can cities provide for both growth and planning, and blend different kinds of buildings and spaces into an organic whole? And how can we see the rigid grid of American cities as a tool for anarchy?

Here's the information about Robin's book and an interview with her about the book

Robin Schuldenfrei, Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design across Borders, 1930–1960

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691232669/objects-in-exile

Interview, Robin Schuldenfrei on Objects in Exile

https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/robin-schuldenfrei-on-objects-in-exile

Here's the information about Robin's book and an interview with her about the book

Robin Schuldenfrei, Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design across Borders, 1930–1960

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691232669/objects-in-exile

Interview, Robin Schuldenfrei on Objects in Exile

https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/robin-schuldenfrei-on-objects-in-exile

Previous Episode

155. Baseball Utopia in Eephus -- Carson Lund

"What is joy when everything has been monetized and optimized?" For Carson Lund, the answer is rec league baseball, and his new film Eephus is about how a meaningless, anachronistic activity like a local baseball league can actually be the most meaningful and important thing you can do. The film is an ode to baseball, a comedy, and "an argument for democracy at a more human level, people just figuring things out."

You can find ways to stream Eephus or watch it in the theater here: https://www.eephusfilm.com/

And here's the Hawthorne quote I got totally wrong in the episode:

The novels of Anthony Trollope "just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting that they were being made a show of."