Main content

The Age of Spectacle?

Cultural discussion programme. Andrew Marr discusses fashions in architecture and food with Tom Dyckhoff, Takeshi Hayatsu, Anissa Helou and Charles Spence.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr explores the fashions and fads in architecture and food over the last fifty years. In 'The Age of Spectacle' the design critic Tom Dyckhoff explores how consumer culture has impacted on the building of our cities, from iconic architecture on a grand scale to soulless shopping centres and designer homes. The average life span of a family home in Japan is just 25 years: although the architect Takeshi Hayatsu regrets the destruction of so much of Japan's architectural heritage, he reflects that it's created a boon in innovate designs on a small scale. Innovations also abound in food technology and the experimental psychologist Charles Spence reveals how chefs can use science to influence diners and their taste buds, but the food writer Anissa Helou asks for a return to simplicity, away from the latest trends of 'molecular' techniques and foraged ingredients.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Image: Kiko Mozuna's model of 'Anti-Dwelling Box', late 1970s. Photo by Keizo Kioku. Collection of Norihito Nakatani.

Available now

43 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Apr 2017 21:30
±«Óătv Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Christianity: Luther's Legacy

Next

Eliza Carthy and Nicholas Hytner: Art for All

See all episodes from Start the Week

Tom Dyckhoff

is an architecture critic and broadcaster.

The Age of Spectacle: Adventures in Architecture and the 21st-Century City is published by Random House Books.

Takeshi Hayatsu

is an architect.

The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 is on at the Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, London until 25 June.

Charles Spence

Professor is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford.

Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating is published by Viking.

Anissa Helou

is a chef and food writer.

Credits

Presenter Andrew Marr
Interviewed Guest Tom Dyckhoff
Interviewed Guest Takeshi Hayatsu
Interviewed Guest Anissa Helou
Interviewed Guest Charles Spence
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 17 Apr 2017 09:00
    ±«Óătv Radio 4
  • Mon 17 Apr 2017 21:30
    ±«Óătv Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday