Unfrozen

Think of Tokyo less as a "chaotic" than as an "emergent" city. This means spontaneous, self-organizing aspects create order from the bottom up. That kind of emergence can be, if not designed, then facilitated. Unfrozen interviews Jorge Almazan, Associate Professor, Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, and author of ?Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City.?

Intro: Woman from Tokyo, by Deep Purple

Discussed:

Yokocho Alleys

Zakkyo Buildings

Ankyo Streets

Complexity Science ? Geoffrey West

Luis Bettencourt

Cellular Automata ? Stephen Wolfram

The Uses of Disorder ? Richard Sennett

Rather than a Unified Theory of Emergence applicable to all cities, there are transferable principles:

Bar recommendations:

- Bar Usagi, Shibuya

- The Greek Bar, Suginami

Made in Tokyo, Atelier Bow Wow

Outro: Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult

For a truly philosophical take on the role of the architect in the post-truth era, Unfrozen interviews Richard Francis-Jones, author of Truth and Lies in Architecture.

Intro: ?Telling Lies,? by David Bowie

Discussed:

Architecture?s ambiguous relationship to truth.

The criteria that make a building worthy of love.

How can architecture bring us closer to nature?

Architecture is ?never neutral nor innocent. There is a mutual interconnection between architecture and the events around it.?

?Eternal principles? or a classicist, colonialist trap?

Ex Machina and the consciousness of materials

Locaton and Vassal

Tsien and Williams

John Keats

Aldo Rossi

Richard Lepastrier

Louis Kahn

David Chalmers

The EY Centre, Sydney

The negative critique culture.

Outro: ?True,? by Spandau Ballet

Unfrozen interviews Stefan Al, author, Supertall, founder, Stefan Al Architects, designer of Canton Tower, Guangzhou with Information Based Architecture (IBA).

Intro/Outro: ?History Rhymes,? by Empty City Squares

Discussed:

Technology: The role of technologies: concrete, elevators, air conditioning and dampers

Society: Culture, social preferences, zoning, aesthetics

The succession of events that led to today?s skyscrapers

New York ? zoning

London ? view corridors

Hong Kong ? transit-oriented development

Singapore ? vertical greenery

?History rhymes?

?Progress traps?

Easter Island, Prometheus, and Pandora?s Box

Irregular paths to inventions

Carrier inventing air conditioning when trying to solve printing issues

Using an Oregon optometrist?s office to test potential swaying of the World Trade Center, New York City, in 1965

Rafael Vinoly ? 432 Park and the boat-pilot sway / chandelier test

Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra-Thin by Matthew Soules

Digital Monuments by Simone Brott

Reflexive practitioners

Unfrozen interviews Stefan Al, author, Supertall, founder, Stefan Al Architects, designer of Canton Tower, Guangzhou with Information Based Architecture (IBA).

Intro/Outro: “History Rhymes,” by Empty City Squares

Discussed:

Technology: The role of technologies: concrete, elevators, air conditioning and dampers

Society: Culture, social preferences, zoning, aesthetics

The succession of events that led to today’s skyscrapers

New York – zoning

London – view corridors

Hong Kong – transit-oriented development

Singapore – vertical greenery

“History rhymes”

“Progress traps”

Easter Island, Prometheus, and Pandora’s Box

Irregular paths to inventions

Carrier inventing air conditioning when trying to solve printing issues

Using an Oregon optometrist’s office to test potential swaying of the World Trade Center, New York City, in 1965

Rafael Vinoly – 432 Park and the boat-pilot sway / chandelier test

Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra-Thin by Matthew Soules

Digital Monuments by Simone Brott

Reflexive practitioners

Greg reports from Houston, where he and Richard Florida had some stage-sharing to do. Dan recounts a jaunt to the Canadian Riviera and Pacific Northwest, where mass timber is on the rise. Then on to demolitions, what’s on the bookshelf, future guests, future guesses….

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Intro:

“Livin’ on the Edge (of Houston),” by Reverend Horton Heat

Discussed:

Richard Florida's slightly altered new jam: Live Work Play Connect. Build multifamily, family-oriented apartments of appropriate size, while you’re at it.

NEOM

Mass Timber Conference: Jeanne Gang can hack it – literally

Explore ‘22 – Expedia Conference at Aria, Las Vegas

Band recs (or wrecks)

“Durbin Renewal” – The US Government’s landlord, GSA, wants to demolish two buildings from the 1910s because they present a “security risk” to the Dirksen Federal Building, which has been there since 1964. An Illinois senator just found $52 million to make it happen.

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, finally bites the dust.

The stolen bicycle is in the basement of the Ford Foundation, with the built-in brass ashtrays in the auditorium…

This kerfuffle in Northwest Arkansas

Green Obsession – Stefano Boeri Architetti

Celebrating Public Architecture – Success of open architecture competitions in Flanders, Belgium

Supertall – Sfefan Al

Truth and Lies in Architecture – Richard Francis-Jones

Crypto-Schadenfreude and the Electric Bull

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Outro: “Song for America,” by Destroyer

Greg reports from Houston, where he and Richard Florida had some stage-sharing to do. Dan recounts a jaunt to the Canadian Riviera and Pacific Northwest, where mass timber is on the rise. Then on to demolitions, what’s on the bookshelf, future guests, future guesses….

--

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Intro:

“Livin’ on the Edge (of Houston),” by Reverend Horton Heat

Discussed:

Richard Florida's slightly altered new jam: Live Work Play Connect. Build multifamily, family-oriented apartments of appropriate size, while you’re at it.

NEOM

Mass Timber Conference: Jeanne Gang can hack it – literally

Explore ‘22 – Expedia Conference at Aria, Las Vegas

Band recs (or wrecks)

“Durbin Renewal” – The US Government’s landlord, GSA, wants to demolish two buildings from the 1910s because they present a “security risk” to the Dirksen Federal Building, which has been there since 1964. An Illinois senator just found $52 million to make it happen.

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, finally bites the dust.

The stolen bicycle is in the basement of the Ford Foundation, with the built-in brass ashtrays in the auditorium…

This kerfuffle in Northwest Arkansas

Green Obsession – Stefano Boeri Architetti

Celebrating Public Architecture – Success of open architecture competitions in Flanders, Belgium

Supertall – Sfefan Al

Truth and Lies in Architecture – Richard Francis-Jones

Crypto-Schadenfreude and the Electric Bull

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Outro: “Song for America,” by Destroyer

Meet Changsub Lee, a 14-year-old in South Korea who has been designing skyscrapers since he was eight. He's already a celebrity in the tall building world. Ivy League schools of architecture, prepare yourselves now. The recording is a bit soft, but if you crank him up, he's got a lot to say.

Intro/Outro: "Skyscrapers," by OKGO

Discussed:

New Songdo City

Incheon Tower

Infinity (Crystal Top) Tower

Northeast Asia Trade Tower

James von Klemperer

Adrian Smith

Killa Design

eVolo Skyscraper Competition

Two toy visions of Los Angeles describe two very different future visions: One vision wants you to play with its toys – and would be offended if  you didn’t – the other most assuredly does not. It is strictly  off-limits, and is meant to be admired from a distance. One says “don’t  touch;” the other practically grabs your hand and pulls you into the grid.

Intro/Outro: "Metropolis," by Kraftwerk

Originally posted Jan. 31, 2012 in Unfrozen 1.0.

Original story: Unfrozen 1.0, Sept. 3, 2012

A profile of two metallic sculptures by two design firms in Los Angeles: "A Loose Horizon," by LAYER, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and "Bloom," by DO|SU, at Materials & Applications.

Intro / Outro: "Metal Machine Music," by Lou Reed

Dan and Greg interview Matt Nardella, founder of Moss Design, a Chicago design-build firm with an array of residential and commercial projects, and a bent for nudging clients and neighbors toward sustainability in small, but meaningful increments.

Interviewee: Matt Nardella

Intro / Outro: “Highway Chile”, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

Discussed:

- NewSchool of Architecture San Diego

- Architects as developers, contractors and multi-disciplinary designers

- In praise of not designing projects on a spreadsheet (and finding the gray zones of zoning)

- Credit due to:

o Ted Smith > The Red Office

o Jonathan Segal

- Architect, Know (and Sell) Thyself!

- The SCI-ARC Blowout

- Ending brute-force office culture > how to not “punch down”

- “We (architects) should be interviewing them (developers)”

- Monocultures of design making people sick and unhappy?

- Nightingale Housing, Melbourne - Jeremy McLeod and Maria Yanez

- You don’t need to spend more money to achieve sustainability – you just need to seriously undertake site analysis and translate that into a building, while thinking like a builder and the client – or being both, potentially.

- Want to build? Blog first!

- “Granny flats” are back in Chicago and the city is building 9,000 new units in the West Looop – will that help the housing crisis?

- On being a “bike warrior”

- Are people in happy countries just driving less?

- Vision Zero

- The best way to make an argument for bike commuting is to just do it

- Park(ing) Day