Unfrozen

Intro/Outro: “The Boys are Back in Town,” by Thin Lizzy

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Discussed:

Olalekon Jeyifous – winner of the Silver Lion for “The African Conservation Effort”

Killing Architects + Buzzfeed + local Chinese journalists: “Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps”

Wilson, Yoon, Howeler, Begley, Han – Unknown Unknown: A Space of Memory

Albanian Pavilion: Untimely Meditations

Looty – LIDAR scanning objects of art and selling NFTs against them – expand access to works of art that had been stolen = digital repatriation

Liam Young – The Great Endeavour

Big Shovel – Daniel Yergin

Robots of Brixton – Kibwe Tavares

Forensic Architecture – The Nebelivka Hypothesis

The Dawn of Everything – David Graeber & David Wengrow

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

The Economy of Cities – Jane Jacobs

Sweet Water Foundation – “chaord”

DAAR – winner of the Golden Lion for “Ente di Decolonizzazione — Borgo Rizza” 

Black City Astrolabe – J. Yolande Daniels

Saudia Arabia – “Irth” – material focus

UAE – Aridly Abundant

Bahrain – Sweating Assets

NEOM <> Zero-Gravity Urbanism

–          Opening talk with Sir Peter Cook – Archigram

• What the Biennale criticizes is what NEOM is built on…
• Parallel: Brasilia – 50 years of progress in 5
• Contrast: V & A’s exhibition on Tropical Modernism
• Edifice Complex / The Myth of Tabula Rasa:   You can’t build your way out of a lack of institutions – it leads to disastrous consequences. 

Contrast with Canada Pavilion’s “Not for Sale!”

Rating the Tote Bag Designs:

No. 5 – Saudi Arabia

No. 4 --  Hungary

No. 3 – UAE

No. 2 – Switzerland (“Neighbors” with Venezuela)

No. 1 – Canada – AAHA!

Oliver Wainwright’s review for the Guardian

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Intro/Outro: “Blockbuster,” by Sweet

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Discussed:

• Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid, Beijing
• SOHO Jianwai, Beijing
• Hutongs, lilongs, and other older “gated communities”
• Design and Solidarity > Megablocks functioning under zero-Covid lockdowns
• Neighborhoods > Defined by walls
• KPF 
• “66” Projects
• Roppongi Hills
• New Songdo City
• Hudson Yards
• Lincoln Center
• Pacific Park / Barclays Center
• Flushing, Queens as an export investment market for Chinese developers
• Jiading – Yun Ho Chang

Jeffrey Johnson is Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Kentucky College of Design. He previously taught for 10 years at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where he was the founding director of Asia Megacities Lab. Unfrozen interviews Johnson about his work at the Asia Megacities Lab, including the “China Lab Guide to Megablock Urbanism,” exploring the most persistent typology of China’s urban expansion, domestically and internationally.

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Intro/Outro: “Blockbuster,” by Sweet

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Discussed:

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KPF:

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Intro/Outro: “Plug In!” by Porci Scomodi

Discussed:

• John Habraken: “Supports” 
• Places article
• The New York Housing Compact
  Prefab Problems: Pacific Park B2 Project – Forest City and Skanska
• Tim Swanson, Inherent Homes, Chicago
  People’s Architecture Office: Plug-in Houses 
• Gans & Co.: Build it Back Modular
• Nakagin Capsule Tower > Unfrozen episode “1972: A Spatial Oddity”
• Levittown
  MoMA: Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
• Herman Hertzberger
• Baugruppen R50, Kreuzburg, Berlin
• San Riemo, Munich
  Kooperative Grosstadt
• Top Up and PATCH22, both by Lemniskade Projecten (Developer) and Frantzen et al architecten (Architect)
• Lewis Mumford Lecture: “Pressing Change in the Increasing Inflexible City,” Featuring Emily Badger (April 27, CCNY)
• Lacaton & Vassal
• Elemental

Intro/Outro: "I'm Alive," by Electric Light Orchestra