Edge City Podcast: Devon Zuegel & Janine Leger on building Edge Esmeralda
Building popup villages and new towns
September 15, 2024
Links
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Description
In this inaugural episode of the Edge City Podcast, host Timour Kosters sits down with Devon Zuegel and Janine Leger to explore Edge Esmeralda, a pop-up village experiment they organized in June 2024 that brought together 1,300 people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen
Devon is an accomplished writer and thinker with a background in software engineering and a deep passion for cities. She’s currently working on Esmeralda, a new town project that blends the charm of an Italian hill town with the vibrancy of a year-round family summer camp. Janine, Timour’s co-founder at Edge City, previously led the grants program at Gitcoin and was a co-creator of Zuzalu, a pioneering popup city that explored new models of communal living and collaboration.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:40 What was Edge Esmeralda?
05:30 Inspiration and historical context
10:37 Building community and culture
17:41 Highlights of Edge Esmeralda
29:03 Challenges and learnings
36:54 Looking ahead: future plans