July 2026: The Power of Print
Plus a special roundup of architectural reviews of the Obama Presidential Center
We’re taking the summer off and rebroadcasting some old favorites from the archives over the next few months. In June, we went all the way back to 2017 to revisit our conversation with Pentagram partner Abbott Miller and to 2024 for our conversation with the newly appointed dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design Nicholas de Monchaux.
EDITOR’S NOTE
We’re now in the first month of our annual summer haitus, the few month stretch every year where I can both reflect on the show and what I want for it for the coming year while also devote time to non-podcast projects. As our Substack has grown, this hiatus has become a time to focus on other publishing outputs; though we didn’t release new episodes, we do have two new features to share. First up, I interviewed Robin Sloan again — the first time since 2018! — to talk about his recent work in printing. This one is for members only (you can join our Substack for just $5/month to get access) and it’s a long, windy conversation about notebooks, digital culture, and what we can do in print.
Then, I wrote a review of BIG Atlas, the new monograph from Bjarke Ingel’s studio that focuses on their built work. I was struck by how, frankly, boring, the monograph was, especially compared to the firm’s previous books. In the review, I tried to contextual what they were doing with each monograph and how each book helped shape a particular narrative around BIG and Bjarke. The boringness of the new monograph, perhaps, is also a form of branding; a way to say: we are dependable, we build things, we’re not distracting.
Taken together, both these features speak to the power of print — whether that’s postcards or books, printed material still, in 2026!, has the power to shape narratives, to critique, to brand. I suspect we will see more, not less, experimentation around using printed, physical objects, materials, and branding over the next year.
As always, if you like what we do here and want to support this work, you can upgrade your subscription for just $5/month or $50/year for full access Paid members get bonus interviews each month — like this month’s interview with Robin Sloan — and help keep the show free for everyone, all the time. Thanks for listening.
See you next month,
Jarrett
SCRATCH
Recent essays, interviews, and stories published on our Scratch platform.
How Robin Sloan is using printing to critique this current tech moment
For our members-only bonus interview, we caught up with Robin Sloan to talk about his experiments in printing, critiquing this current digital era, and new ways to think about media invention.
PAST GUESTS
Recent work, writing, and news from former guests of Scratching the Surface.
👏 Congratulations to Christopher Hawthorne, whose Punch List Newsletter is the recipient of a Graham Foundation Grant. (Graham Foundation)
(Read our conversation from May with Hawthorne about his goals for Punch List here.)
🤔 Reinier de Graaf writes that architects ought to find meaning in how they work, not where or for whom. (The Architect’s Newspaper)
🚞 Somehow Trump just might deliver the Penn Station we’ve been waiting for, writes Justin Davidson. (Curbed)
🏛️ Kate Wagner on how Trump got his tacky arch approved. (The Nation)
🖥️ Kyle Chayka on the AI design aesthetic that is taking over the internet. (The New Yorker)
🍄🟫 Jenny Odell on living in an alive world. (Longreads)
🪑Glenn Adamson profiles Minjae Kim, the Korean-born furniture designer creating some of the most memorable furniture you’ve ever seen. (Puck)
🚙 Carlo Ratti thinks the critics are wrong about the new Ferrari Luce. (NYT)
🎆 To find the heart of America’s 250th anniversary, writes Alexandra Lange, get out of Washington. (CityLab)
😴 Against the Clock: Elvia Wilk on remote work, stolen sleep, and the limits of extraction. (e-flux)
PAST GUESTS: OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER EDITION
The Obama Presidential Center officially opened to the public this month. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in Chicago, the campus features a park, public library, NBA-sized basketball court, and a central tower. Many of our former guests toured and reviewed the new campus, we compiled their reactions here.
🏞️ Michael Kimmelman describes its two sides: a lovely park and a forbidding tower. (NYT)
🪟 Oliver Wainwright says it’s “like a Klingon prision” when he goes inside the windowless library. (The Guardian)
🛝 Alexandra Lange writes that the Presidential Center wants to be everything but a library. (CityLab)
🪨 Christopher Hawthorne writes that it is a return to idiosyncrasy for its architects, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. (Punch List)
❓Edwin Heathcote wants to know what the center is trying to say. (Financial Times)
🚫 Justin Davidson thinks we didn’t need an Obama Megalith. (Curbed)
THE BOOK REVIEW
Reviewing the latest books in and around design, architecture, art, and culture.
How Books Built Bjarke’s Brand
Welcome to the Book Review, a new monthly column from Scratching the Surface on books in and around design, architecture, and culture. Each month, we’ll do a deep dive into a new book or publication, either in the form of a review, an interview, or roundtable and share round ups of new books that arrive in the studio each month.
READ/WATCHED/HEARD
Articles, books, videos, and other ephemera that caught our eye this month.
😱 MIT Museum announces landmark acquisition of I.M. Pei’s archive. (MIT Museum)
🐍 The glitchy, gloppy look of now. (NYT)
JOB WATCH
People getting new jobs in and around the design world.
Makeda Best, deputy director of the Oakland Museum of California, is the new Chief Curator for Photography at MoMA. (NYT)
Carnegie Mellon School of Design names Jonathan Chapman as New Head of School. (CMU)
Design Museum of Chicago names David Salkin as Executive Director (Design Museum of Chicago)
Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design appoints James C. Stevens as dean. (Archinect)
Anijo Mathew, dean of IIT Institute of Design, named dean of USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy. (USC)
POSTSCRIPT
To continue the Obama Presidential Center theme, while I have not seen the completed building, I did have the pleasure of touring the site when I was in Chicago last year for the Chicago Architecture Biennial. In the photo above, architect Tod Williams, is showing us a model of the site and describing the evolution of the structure. We spent some time walking the grounds and climbing to the top of the building. I’m excited to get back to Chicago to see the finished site but to be honest, my impression, while touring the half-finished site, seems to mirror the early reviews: I was much, much more interested in the garden than the building itself.
