Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt (Podcasters & Authors, The 99% Invisible City)

Moderated by Michael Piper (Daniels Faculty)
In conversation with Daniels Faculty students

A collaboration of the School of Cities and the Daniels Faculty

99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.

Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.

Michael Piper, Director of Master of Urban Design Program is joined by Daniels Faculty students from across the design disciplines to delve into this recently released book with the authors, Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt.

Copies of the book are available at the U of T Bookstore.

Graphic by Chris Lee

Roman Mars is the host and creator of 99% Invisible, a short radio show about design and architecture. With over 400 million downloads, the 99% Invisible podcast is one of the most popular podcasts in the world. Fast Company named him one of the 100 Most Creative People in 2013. He was a TED main stage speaker in 2015. It is currently the most popular TED Talk about design with over 6 million views. His crowd funding campaigns have raised over $4 million and he's the highest-funded journalist in Kickstarter history. He is also a co-founder of Radiotopia, a collective of ground-breaking independent podcasts.

Kurt Kohlstedt is a writer, editor, and producer at 99% Invisible, a radio show and website about design hosted by Roman Mars, with whom Kurt recently authored the New York Times best-selling book: The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. Kurt has also gone on tour with the show, given talks and participated in panels on various subjects from how Kindergartens shaped Modern art and design to creative adaptive reuse strategies for big-box stores.

Michael Piper is an Assistant Professor of urban design and architecture and director of the Master of Urban Design program at the University of Toronto. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between urban design and urban planning with particular attention on the transformation of the suburbs. Current projects and coursework include analysis and design proposals for single family homes, proposals for reimagining the regional transit and urban structure, and analysis of suburban arterial roads. The goal of this work is to better understand the built form and lived experience of suburban areas in order to inform design speculation for their retrofit and transformation.

Alex Sheinbaum is in her second year of the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the Daniels Faculty and has previously completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Urban Geography and Planning from the University of Toronto. Alex’s research interests are focused on the intersection of urban green and social capital, imagining new ways to improve urban metabolism and resiliency through landscape interventions.

Ophelia Lau is a second year Master of Architecture student at the Daniels Faculty with an interest in spaces of leisure and recreation. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh and has a background in interior design.

Phat Le is a Master of Architecture candidate at the Daniels Faculty. Le’s work explores architectural and urban collectivity in relation to queer placemaking and the Vietnamese diaspora.