On the dawn of our fourth season, your hosts recap their favorite ‘casts of 2023, a live dramatic reading of Unfrozen’s 2023 Spotify Wrapped stats, and get on and off the soapbox as we stare down the barrel of 2024.

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Intro/Outro: “Trying Not to Think About Time,” by The Futureheads

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Discussed:

- Unfrozen’s 2023 Spotify Wrapped Stats:

o Most Popular Episode: “Show Me the Bodies” with Peter Apps

o Most Shared Episode: “Untimely Meditations, Virtual Repatriations,” with Era Merkuri and Martin Gjoleka + Chidi Nwaubani

- After School Newsletter by Casey Lewis

- Unfrozen’s Favorites of 2023:

o Attending the Venice Biennale during previews, including Sir Peter Cook’s assertion that, while at their event and on their payroll, NEOM would be less than half-built and eventually devolve into shantytowns

o “Moving the Monolith, Speed-Running the Follies,” with Andreea Ion Cojocaru and Nick Kauffman

o “The Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites,” with Brian Harvey and Gurbir Singh. Greg was channeling Geoff Manaugh’s BLDGBLOG

o “Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World,” with Alan Mallach

o “Renewing the Dream” with James Sanders

--- 2024 Doomscroll:

o NEOM meets the Metaverse at Aquellum + Zaha Hadid’s Minas Morgul tower, Discovery at Trojena

o You won’t have Charlie Munger to kick around anymore

o CES is underway, and so is the metaverse rebranding

o Apple Vision Pro

o Meta Wayfarer Ray-Bans

o Want work? You need to kneel before the PIF

o Are architects and engineers really building the future for Saudi’s young? Or are they just taking the money and running?

--- Half the world’s population will vote in 2024

- No election scheduled in Canada, but in 2025, things are looking topsy-turvy:

o Canada is “three NIMBYs in a trenchcoat” right now

o Households now owe more in mortgage debt than Canada’s entire GDP

o Pierre Poilievre and the Canadian Conservatives seem to be the only ones taking the housing crisis seriously, and the kids are listening

o CHMC can’t just straight-up build affordable housing – why?

--- But it’s good real estate vibes in the US once rates get cut...

Freedom Cities

California Forever

- You can build it – but who will insure it?

- Will San Francisco exit its doom loop in 2024? What cities will pull ahead?

o Gensler doubles down in its hometown + Shvo to the rescue at the Transamerica Pyramid

- Greg draws a picture of the work-from-home, AI-driven, obesity-drug-taking hellscape called America

- People are competing for walkable urbanism everywhere because we can’t seem to build any new housing

- Could consumer branding of residential real estate boost housing construction?

o Welcome to the Neighborhood! Wall Street Designed It

o Culdesac– build-to-rent walkable urbanism in Tempe, AZ

o WeWork’s Adam Neumann starts Flow

- Dead mall resurrections

- Easton Town Center, Columbus

- Retrofitting Suburbia, Ellen Dunham Jones and June Williamson

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Engagements Preview 2024:

“Don’t Believe the Hype: Cities are Alive and Well,” University of Maryland Baltimore, 22 February

“Using Augmented Reality to Drive Inclusive City Development,” SXSW, Austin, 10 March

Smart City Expo USA, New York, 22-23 May

CTBUH International Conference, London and Paris, 23-27 September

Episode 22: The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary

UnfrozenBy Daniel Safarik and Greg LindsayMar 19, 2022