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