Architecture w/Stewart

 

YouTube’s algorithm is unnervingly effective at suggesting which videos I am most likely to find interesting. My viewing history and preferences include a healthy dose of architectural content, so it isn’t surprising when YouTube occasionally introduces me to new channels devoted to architecture. Such was the case just yesterday, when several videos with the tagline of Architecture w/Stewart suddenly popped up on my YouTube list of recommendations for the first time.   
 
Stewart Hicks is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Additionally, he and Allison Newmeyer are the cofounders of Design With Company, whose work “explores the territory between the architectural and the literary, real and unreal, mundane and fantastic.” I was previously familiar with the firm because of its playful Porch Parade project in my hometown of Vancouver, B.C. Stewart began his YouTube journey just a little over a year ago. Since then, his weekly entries have attracted an impressive 102,000 subscribers (as of this writing) to the Architecture w/Stewart channel.  
 

Porch Parade (photo from Design With Company)

 
Stewart describes Architecture w/Stewart as an exploration of “architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory.” His goal is to increase the general understanding of architecture and its importance in shaping the world we inhabit.   
 
I quickly recognized the reasons for Stewart’s success with his channel. The production values are high. Stewart himself is a genial and well-spoken host. Most importantly, the channel’s content is at once both wide-ranging and in-depth. A quick scan of the entire Architecture w/Stewart playlist, you can find videos on subjects as diverse as why it is architects insist on using flat roofs, how buildings are making people sick, what kind of architect George Costanza would be, and the lessons to be learned from the architecture of LEGO.
 
So far, I’ve watched the following videos:

• What’s it Like Being an Architect? Here’s a Typical Day. - YouTube
• The Architecture of Liminal Space - YouTube
• Exploring Louis Kahn's LOST Unbuilt Masterpiece [Goldenberg House] - YouTube
• Architectural Design Starts with a TIC TAC TOE BOARD - YouTube

Stewart is obviously an instructor and designer immersed in the culture of architecture, design, and building, not simply in terms of how architecture simultaneously reflects and influences our ways of life but also how the discipline comes with its own peculiar rigor, sets of rules, and traditions. I especially appreciate Stewart’s attentiveness to topics related to how architecture is conceived and perceived.      
 
As I mentioned above, the cadence of new Architecture w/Stewart videos seems to be one per week, which, given the obvious thoughtfulness, quality, and effort required by each, is prodigious. Stewart enlists the assistance of several people, which helps to explain how this is possible. I suspect he may also receive support from UIC’s College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.
 
It’s true YouTube can be an enormous waste of time, but I allow myself this indulgence when the content is very good and there is something new to learn. I watch very little television anymore, aside from live sporting events and news, as the variety and quality of YouTube videos is the increasingly attractive alternative. I’m pleased to add Architecture w/Stewart to my roster of favorite YouTube channels for architects.