Megablocks: Go Big and Go Home

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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Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid, Beijing

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SOHO Jianwai, Beijing

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Hutongs, lilongs, and other older “gated communities”

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Design and Solidarity > Megablocks functioning under zero-Covid lockdowns

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Neighborhoods > Defined by walls

KPF:

“66” Projects

Roppongi Hills
New Songdo City
Hudson Yards

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Lincoln Center
Pacific Park / Barclays Center    
Flushing, Queens as an export investment market for Chinese developers

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Jiading , Shanghai – Yun Ho Chang