Future Human Visionaries #3 — Liam Young on utopian architecture

Welcome to Visionaries, a podcast dedicated to futurological thinkers brought to you by Future Human and the V&A. We seek out people who are reimagining innovation in their field, and ask them to apply their intelligence to emerging trends. Liam Young is an architect at the thinktank Tomorrows Thoughts Today. Their work focuses on researching ‘urban futures’, and examining past visions of future buildings to better understand the contemporary evolution of their industry. He describes how he works with production designers and special effects teams from movies such as Alien and Blade Runner to visualise the role of the city in a digital world. Could we see the emergence of ‘data suburbs’, a technologically stratified housing market, and ‘weaponised connectivity’, as governments and corporations seek to control urban environments? And are utopian visions of architecture useful or profoundly misleading? Presented by Ben Beaumont-Thomas.