For our final Mini-Session from the Next Up series, Nicholas Korody interviews TOMA, a Santiago-based collective. TOMA build politically-charged social spaces, using design as a strategy for bringing people together rather than as an end in itself. With their installation for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Escuelopolis, the Chilean architects catalogued and mapped the connections between their home-base and the Midwestern metropolis, honing in on the exportation of neoliberalism to South America by the University of Chicago-trained “Chicago Boys.”

Regularly printing newspapers to document their research as it occurred, TOMA invited visitors and participants to the Biennial to actively participate in their architectural research, gathering people together to consider the processes that keep us apart.

'Tis the time of year for reflections and speculations – and 2015 was a big one for Archinect Sessions. We launched our first ever live podcasting series, Next Up, at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles and at the first Chicago Architecture Biennial; we started a brand new interviews-only show, One-to-One; and we spoke with some of the biggest names and most compelling up-and-comers in the profession.

On this episode, we revisit our predictions from last year's final episode, reflect on the past year in podcasting news, and share theories for what may come in 2016.

Over Skype from their homebase in Beijing, WAI Architecture Think Tank partners Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski spoke with Paul Petrunia, on our latest Mini-Session for the Next Up series. Their contribution to the Chicago Architecture Biennial, a rumination on manifestos, looks to the potential forms of architectural persuasion in any medium.

On the happy and historic occasion of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi being jointly awarded the 2016 AIA Gold Medal, we speak with Brown about whether this truly is a watershed moment for architecture, and the long road that she and Robert took to arriving here. We last spoke with Brown on episode #39, when the Vanna Venturi house hit the market.

If we accept that accolades like the Gold Medal have the influence to (potentially) nudge the profession in certain directions, then this time – the first the award has been given jointly, and to a living woman – could signal a movement towards increased inclusivity, and reevaluations of collaborative agency.

Nicholas Korody interviews architect Andreas Angelidakis for our next Mini-Session, originally part of our Next Up event at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Trained at SCI-Arc, Angelidakis is perhaps better known in contemporary art circles than architecture's (as pointed out by Nicholas in a previous feature here on Archinect), but as proved in his contribution to the Biennial, the context and concerns of his ideas rely on, and contribute to, architectural discourse.

At least once in their professional life, every architect is likely to ask themselves, "Should I start my own practice?" From there, there are countless aspects to weigh against one another, but it begins as a very personal question – what do I want to create, and where?

Longtime Archinector (and tiki-drink enthusiast) David Cole began a discussion in the forum to mull over such questions for himself, as he considers whether to start a firm in his hometown of Cincinnati, or brave new territory in Seattle. We invited him onto the podcast to talk about the process behind such a momentous decision, and swap personal stories from Donna and Ken's experiences working in new cities and running their own practices.

Architect and experimental preservationist Bryony Roberts joins us for our next Mini-Session, a continuation of our Next Up event staged at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. While Roberts' interview at the Chicago Cultural Center unfortunately didn't make it to tape, I called her up for a do-over interview in Rome, where she is currently residing as a winner of 2015-2016's Rome Prize.

Roberts' contribution to the Biennial – a drill team performance entitled "We Know How to Order," staged in downtown Chicago's Mies van der Rohe-designed federal center plaza – was performed for a limited run during the Biennial's opening weekend. Check out a video of the performance here.