Unfrozen

34. Chicago: Two Guides, One Cast

Chicago is a famed architecture town, but the road has not always been smooth. Hear from the editor and author, respectively, of two recently released guides – Laurie Petersen for the AIA Guide to Chicago and Vladimir Belogolovskyfor the DOM Architectural Guide Chicago, discourse on Postmodernist icons like the Thompson (future Google?) Center and Harold Washington Library, and muse on what came next, where we are now, and why Chicago is still important to architecture everywhere.

33. Tallest Timber, Boutique Hotels, Pokemon NO! and more…

Dan’s recent consecration of the world’s tallest timber building; Greg’s new gigs, and hotels to stay at while making them happen; the third space in a post-COVID world; update on the Durbin Renewal scandal in Chicago, and a preview of upcoming guests.
Intro/Outro: Super Sex by Morphine
Tall Timber:
Ascent, Milwaukee
Rocket & Tigerli, Winterthur, Switzerland
Atlassian Central, Sydney
Greg’s gig in NYC this week:
Patcraft– Shaw Industries, with:
Brad Hargraeves – Common
Evan Fain – Industrious
Boutique Hotels:
The Freehand N.Y.C.
The Standard L.A.
The Standard High Line N.Y.C.
The Ace Brooklyn
The Ace Portland – have a record player!
Why not the Nakagin Capsule Hotel?
Brooklyn Mirage(Bushwick / Ridgewood)
Brimfield Antique Flea Market – feeding ground for Roman & Williams-designed boutique hotels
Inside Amy Schumer Pretentious Hotel
McKinsey & Co NYC Taskforce to repurpose office space
Mary Ludgin, Heitman, Chicago taskforce
Durbin Renewal: Century and Consumers buildings
Greg’s new gigs
- Undisclosed fellowship, a.k.a. Pokemon NO!: Preparing cities for the metaverse, protecting real public space from virtual reality, unregulated disruptors, and more…
- Parag Khanna startup: Chief Communications Officer: Tool for modeling climate risk. Invest now in the climate-resilient regions of the world. The call is open for volunteers.
Are we living in Ready Player One or Snow Crash?

32. Future Storage: From Mineral Extraction to Data Forestry

Marina Otero, head of the Social Design Masters Program at Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands, is the winner of the Harvard Graduate School of Design's 2022 Wheelwright Prize. Her study, Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse, will examine new architecture paradigms for storing data, and how reimagining digital infrastructures could meet the unprecedented demands facing the world today.
Intro:
Lithium, by Nirvana
Discussed:
The Stack, Benjamin Bratton
Ingrid Burrington
Tubes, Andrew Blum
Grow Your Own Cloud
DNA as a storage medium
Seed banks for data
A data garden in Eindhoven
Destinations:
- Singapore: Had a ban on data centers for a number of years; are seaborne and underwater data centers an option? Floating solar farms?
- Darwin, Australia: Data governance – the first indigenous-led data center. Who has access to the data? Who owns it?
- Nigeria: Woman-led crypto-tech communities. Positioning themselves against the corporations that are bringing the infrastructure, so they can set up their own.
- Chile: Lithium extraction, new Humboldt Cable to New Zealand and Australia.
- Iceland and Sweden: Questions connected to industry and energy. Use of new infrastructures. In Sweden, one data center is also a club.
- California: Where new storage media are being developed.
Outro:
A Forest, by The Cure

31. Emergent Tokyo

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:
Economies of Agglomeration rather than Economies of Scale.
Networks versus hierarchies.
Inclusive boundaries (mix of uses).
Bar recommendations:
- Bar Usagi, Shibuya
- The Greek Bar, Suginami
Made in Tokyo, Atelier Bow Wow
Outro: Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult

30. True Lies

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

29. ”Al” in on Supertalls

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

28. Florida in Houston, ”Durbin Renewal” in Chicago, Metabolism Demo’ed in Tokyo

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

27. A Skyscraper Superfan Aims High

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

26. A Tale of Two Toy Cities

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.

25. Metal Machine Musings

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