Shortly after starting out in Frank Gehry's office in the early 1990s, Clive Wilkinson founded his own firm in Los Angeles, and has since designed far-reaching workspaces for such big-name clients as Google, the BBC, 20th Century Fox and Microsoft. I spoke with Clive about the evolution from cubicle farms to “serendipity machines” in office design, and his thoughts on co-working spaces. Also turns out he’s not a huge fan of Apple's "spaceship" campus.

If the name didn't tip you off, CockyBoys is a gay porn studio based in New York. Jake Jaxson has been running it, quite successfully, since 2010, starting with implementing a major shift in the aesthetic and overall quality of its videos – not only to up the production value, but to communicate what Jake refers to as a "nostalgia," and a sense of place. In an industry awash with graceless, utilitarian money-shots, readily available for free, how do you justify that extra investment in design, and getting your audience to pay for it? 

Part of our special April focus on sex and sexuality in architecture, I spoke with Jake about the tandem inspiration between pornography and architecture, and how design-conscious porn can lead to a more sex-positive society. Jake also shares his dream house for a shoot – hint: it rhymes with "The Ass Mouse".

We visited Ray Kappe in his breathtaking home in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, to hear his thoughts on the shifting grounds of architecture education, and how architecture seems to always play catch-up to the historical zeitgeist. In a career spanning 60+ years and counting – including his roles as co-founder of Cal Poly Pomona's architecture department, and the founding-director of SCI-Arc – Kappe has not only been an impressive force of architectural practice (often referred to as an under-the-radar southern Californian modern master), but an educator constantly seeking to bring science and the world at large into architecture.

Richard Kim is a pretty busy guy – as the head designer at emerging electric vehicle company, Faraday Future, Kim is tasked with creating the company's very first EV for production, destined to compete with Tesla and, as he sees it, the airline industry. No public design is available yet, but Kim hopes to do the "impossible" and ready the car for production in 2017. We found some time in his tight schedule to discuss his role at Faraday Future and what's in store for car ownership and operation in the coming years, as automation and electric battery capabilities open up new paradigms for the humble automobile.