Alex Vondeling has spent her career digging into the part of the problem most people skip past. Not whether we need more housing, we clearly do, but what kind, at what scale, and arranged in what way. She is a principal at Opticos Design, the Berkeley firm that coined the term missing middle housing more than a decade ago, and she has become one of the clearest voices in the country on how to actually build it.What I appreciate about Alex, and about Opticos, is that they are not content to only name a problem. They work tirelessly on the solution. In this conversation we get into the important difference between a fourplex that looks like a house and a fourplex surrounded by parking, why the streetscape decides whether urbanism works at all, and the struggle between how a city can adopt a beautiful comprehensive plan while its own engineers have rules in place that make it impossible to build.We also get into my own work and projects and why the neighborhood, not just the gym within it, is the amenity. If you build places for a living, or you just want to understand why the good ones feel good, this one is worth your time.0:00 Intro1:27 How Alex Found the Missing Middle4:11 What Opticos Actually Does6:14 Build-to-Rent, Reclaimed7:50 Missing Middle Housing, Defined10:11 Making It Work in the Real World13:16 One Ingredient in a Whole Neighborhood15:38 Engaging a City19:19 The Recommendations That Repeat23:14 How Developers Find Opticos28:15 The Real Constraints41:35 The Neighborhood Is the Amenity46:33 Entitlements and the Advocate You Need55:03 Live/Work, Boutique Office, and What's NextCONNECT WITH THE ALEXANDRAAlexandra Vondeling on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-vondeling-6a36571aOpticos Design: opticosdesign.comOpticos on Instagram: www.instagram.com/opticosdesignIn the episode, Alex said an email to Opticos's info inbox always reaches the right person in the firm. The contact form and email live on their site. She also noted Opticos is active on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Substack, and the best time to reach out is early, while the site plan is still flexible.CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELLNewsletter: https://playbook.buildingculture.com/ / austintunnell / austin-tunnell-2a41894a / austintunnell CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTUREhttps://www.buildingculture.com/ / buildingculture / build_culture / buildculture

Alicia Pederson spent her twenties living in a 16th-century palazzo in Florence, and it changed everything about how she sees cities, density, and what American urbanism has quietly abandoned. She's the founder of Courtyard Urbanist and holds a PhD in English from Northwestern with a specialty in Renaissance pastoral literature, which turns out to be less of a detour and more of a throughline to everything she now advocates for.In this conversation we cover the history of the courtyard block, why American apartments have failed families for decades, the relationship between lot geometry and livability, why wood-frame construction is a systemic problem, and what it would actually take to build the kind of urban housing that allows families to put down real roots. We also talk about what's happening in my own neighborhood at Wheeler — and why watching my sister, my parents, and my business partners all move within two blocks of each other has made the mission feel more personal than ever.Alicia is working with architects and developers right now to bring this typology back to American cities. We are excited to see the movement on these projects.I think you're going to love this one.0:00 Introduction1:06 Pastoral Literature and the City — from Shakespeare to Santo Spirito6:35 Two Years in a Florentine Palazzo — the experience that changed everything10:41 Wheeler District — what it actually feels like to live near family13:35 What the Courtyard Block Is and Why It Works16:44 How American Cities Became Hostile to Families20:34 The Outdoor Space Problem — what parents of young kids actually need22:56 Why Missing Middle Housing Hasn't Taken Off31:36 Lot Geometry — why European apartments are better to live in38:05 Interblock Urbanism — how Building Culture is solving the same problem39:42 The Case for Masonry — stone, brick, and why it matters47:30 Complex and Vulnerable vs. Dumb and Durable50:15 Energy Efficiency as Greenwashing53:06 Where the Work Is Now — investors, architects, real projects57:03 How to Follow Alicia's WorkLINKS & RESOURCESCourtyard Urbanist Substack: courtyardurbanist.comAlicia on X/Twitter: @UrbanCourtyardCONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELLNewsletter: https://playbook.buildingculture.com/ / austintunnell / austin-tunnell-2a41894a / austintunnell CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTUREhttps://www.buildingculture.com/ / buildingculture / build_culture / buildculture

Mike Hathorne spent 30 years in real estate and development trying to understand why the industry keeps building the wrong thing. His answer is in his book, The Great Housing Reversal.It's not a housing shortage. It's a housing mismatch. 64% of American households are one or two people. Over half the housing stock has three or more bedrooms. Mike walks through the three simultaneous trends reshaping who needs a home in America, why the development industry hasn't caught up, and what the neighborhoods people actually want look like.We also talk about the LDS ward study that revealed what happens to communities built on monolithic housing over time, the Harvard research showing that access across socioeconomic lines raises lifetime earnings by 20%, and what it looks like when a developer finally builds the kind of place the data has been pointing toward for decades.Mike recently relocated to Northwest Arkansas to join High Street, a traditional neighborhood development firm. He's also one of the clearest thinkers I've met on the relationship between how we build neighborhoods and how we live in them.Chapters00:00 Introduction00:44 Mike's background: 30 years in development and the path that led to the book03:10 Housing mismatch, not shortage05:00 The numbers: 64% of households are 1-2 people vs. 54% of homes with 3+ bedrooms07:33 Three simultaneous disruptors: fertility rates, marriage rates, and an aging population14:43 Zoning: 75% of residential land locked into single-family20:07 The comps problem: why real estate financing runs backwards from innovation27:29 Placemaking takes longer: lessons from Wheeler District32:28 What supply that matches the market actually looks like36:35 Connectedness is the new luxury42:45 The LDS ward study: why diverse housing makes resilient neighborhoods49:00 When communities can't support themselves, government fills the gap53:47 Personal stories: when mixed neighborhoods change lives57:18 Finding your tribe: Mike's move to Northwest Arkansas and CNU 34CONNECT WITH MIKE HATHORNEhttps://www.amazon.com/Great-Housing-Reversal-American-Dream/dp/B0G1FG4PXN greathousingreversal.substack.com linkedin.com/in/hathorneCNU 34, Northwest Arkansas (May 12-16): cnu.org/cnu-34CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELLNewsletter: https://playbook.buildingculture.com/ / austintunnell / austin-tunnell-2a41894a / austintunnell CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTUREhttps://www.buildingculture.com/ / buildingculture / build_culture / buildculture