This week on Burning Down the House, Curtis B. Wayne is joined by frequent guest Duo Dickinson of the Congress of Residential Architecture. Recently, Curtis moderated CORA's "The Great Debate"; tune into this episode for a recapitulation of the event's happenings. Learn about the inherent social contract that the architect has with the public, and how the built environment should not serve the designer's ego. Are architects artists, technicians, or both? Hear discussions regarding population density in relation to sustainability and environmental stewardship. How realistic is "the American Dream" from an architectural standpoint? Hear Curtis and Duo talk about licensing architects, and whether or not it is necessary for people building single-family residences. Want to know more about the future of architecture? Tune into this episode of Burning Down the House! This program has been brought to you by Fairway Market.

"If you have half a brain you know that 150 or ten years from now, whatever the increment is- and this hurricane makes it in stark relief- there's going to have to be a day of reckoning where the cost of the energy needed to sustain remote, isolated structures is just going to become too great in a free-market economy for any group except for the stratospherically wealthy- who are always going to have what they are going to have." [40:40] -- Duo Dickinson on Burning Down the House

On this week's Burning Down The House, Curtis calls up Duo Dickinson, architect, author, and co-founder of The Congress of Residential Architecture, to discuss CORA's 8-point plan for rehabilitating the profession (and combating the forces of High Modernism, Leed Accreditation, Governmental Intervention, and Academic Masterbation) . This episode is brought to you by Hearst Ranch (www.hearstranch.com)

This week on Burning Down the House, Curtis B. Wayne is joined by registered architect and landscape architect, Susannah Drake of dlandstudio. Curtis and Susannah are discussing eco-friendly urban landscaping, and what landscape architecture can mean for New York City's protection from future storms like Hurricane Sandy. Hear about sanitation issues that come with storm surges, and how innovations like sponge parks can deal with rising tides and currents. Where and how are architects building to compensate for the increasing number of tropical storms in the New York metro area? Later, Curtis and Susannah talk about the intersection of landscape design and architecture, and where one ends and the next begins. This episode has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.

"I think that a lot of our cities were set up on waterways to facilitate exchange. Going back to (dlandstudio's) MoMA project, we analyzed the coastline and the ways it has expanded to facilitate exchange... Now we don't have the same systems of exchange where we're translating goods at the water's edge- in part due to containerized shipping." [17:55]

-- Susannah Drake on Burning Down the House