{"id":2424,"date":"2026-05-03T19:59:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petermbach.com\/?page_id=2424"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:43:42","slug":"064-alexander-josephson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/petermbach.com\/index.php\/podcast\/064-alexander-josephson\/","title":{"rendered":"TGC Podcast Episode 064 – Alexander Josephson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Grand Challengers Podcast Episode #64<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When Architecture Misbehaves, from Spreadsheets in the Sky to Digital Tombs<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Guest: Alexander Josephson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

June 2nd, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Why is our architecture not as diverse as our culture is progressive?” That’s the question Toronto-based architect Alexander Josephson keeps asking. On this episode, he doesn’t pull punches. Alex is the founder and creative director of PARTISANS, the studio behind the Grotto Sauna, the masterplan to resurrect Toronto’s gargantuan Hearn power plant into a cultural district, and The Orbit, a radial reinvention of the Garden City for a transit-oriented future. He’s also founder and CEO of Cumulus, an immersive digital memorialisation platform born from his father’s brush with death during COVID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across two decades of practice, Alex has staked out a position that’s part critique, part call to arms: that the condo towers crashing into Toronto’s skyline are “spreadsheets in the sky”, that greenwashed sustainability mandates have made architects pawns of capital, and that buildings should be designed to be “thousand-year worthy”. In this conversation we trace Alex’s nonlinear journey from a rebellious Canadian kid into the world of architecture (the University of Waterloo, Rome with Massimiliano Fuksas, the AA in London which he dropped out of), the founding of PARTISANS in a Toronto storage locker, his Jewish master’s thesis that radically redesigned Mecca around a singularity, the Grotto Sauna’s pre-fabricated arrival by barge, the wild story of an 8-metre disco ball that helped ignite the Hearn’s cultural revival, and what it actually takes to design a “complete community” against the headwinds of Canada’s worst real estate downturn in a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also wrestle with the disruptive force of AI in design (as Alex puts it, “it’s just a tool, like a pencil”), the case for interfaith architecture as a path to peace, and how personal grief gave rise to Cumulus, his “digital tomb” for the family memories trapped on our devices. A spirited, irreverent and sometimes uncomfortable episode for anyone who builds, designs, or simply lives among buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episode Teaser<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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