The Future of our Cities featuring Karin Templin

Описание: “Cities are not historic objects; they are places we live in right now.” Karin Templin

In this episode, I sit down with practitioner of architecture and urban design, academic, design lecturer, writer, editor, and urban historian, Karin Templin, for a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation about cities, housing, and what it means to truly live in Florence today.

Karin has played a behind-the-scenes role in shaping Florence’s urban landscape, from
her involvement in the Novoli regeneration project to teaching generations of architecture students how cities are formed by social, political, and economic forces, not just buildings.

Having lived and worked between Florence, London, and beyond, she brings a rare international perspective to the challenges cities are facing right now.

Together, we explore Florence’s housing crisis, the impact of overtourism and short-term rentals, the transformation of neighborhoods, and the growing disconnect between city centers and the people who once called them home.

Karin speaks candidly about Airbnb, influencer tourism, wine windows, golf carts, and the erosion of Florence’s social fabric, while also reminding us why this city still matters, and why it’s worth fighting for.

We also discuss Karin’s lifelong fascination with urban housing, her books on street architecture and London mansion blocks, and her current work on a new atlas of London housing.

Finally, she shares the thinking behind Salon Urban Architecture, a community-driven initiative bringing residents, architects, scholars, and curious minds together to talk about cities at the human scale.

This conversation is a call to awareness, and to action, for residents, visitors, policymakers, and anyone who cares about the future of our cities.

Biography
Karin Templin is a practitioner of architecture and urban design, academic, design lecturer, writer, editor, and urban historian. Her work focuses on the development of urban form through architecture with an emphasis on the research and design of urban housing types. As a practitioner in architecture and urban design, she has worked
internationally on large-scale urban regeneration projects and is an expert in urban housing.

Karin has taught at a number of universities, most recently as a Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna (Cesena), Senior Lecturer at Kingston University, and a Design Fellow at the University of Cambridge. She currently leads the architecture summer course at the Florence Institute of Design International (FIDI). She has lectured and
served as a guest critic at universities in Europe including USI Mendrisio, RWTH Aachen, TU Eindhoven, Rotterdam Academie van Bouwkunst, University of Liechtenstein, and EPFL Lausanne.
Karin is the author of Street Architecture: Work by Hans van der Heijden and At Home in London: The Mansion Block, commissioned by The Architecture Foundation and published by Mack Books.

Links
  / karintemplin  
  / karin.templin  
  / studio.templin  
https://www.salonofurbanarchitecture....
  / salon.of.urban.architecture.it  

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Podcast Producer: Andrew Niklas Curtis 
Production Intern: Nicole Stevens
Recording and post-production Lorenzo Maiani, Faminore Sound Agency