The director of cityLAB and UCLA professor of architecture discusses her ambitions for the competition for new small-scale, community focused housing concepts in Los AngelesDana CuffWhy are you holding a competition focusing on small underused sites in LA?LA needs to find as many means as possible to create new housing, especially after the fires in January, when so many people lost so much. Small residential lots are the DNA of LA, after all, and there are tens of thousands of these scattered across the city, ready for new housing. The competition foregrounds architectural prototypes that work in this context, so they simultaneously unlock myriad other development opportunities, incrementally shifting the fabric of LA. Furthermore, this city has a storied history of small-scale, multifamily development making LA the perfect place to host a competition focused on residential lots.What is your ambition for how sites like these could be transformed into new community-focused housing?Wed like to see submissions that focus on community at two scales: at the scale of the buildings themselves and at the scale of the neighbourhood. Especially in the face of an increasingly volatile climate, building housing that fosters community connections will be paramount. Weve set five complementary design goals for the competition: staying power, liveability, performance and replicability, resilience, and adaptability. There is more information available in the brief, but projects that successfully engage with these design principles will capture the housing qualities that LA, and other cities, need right now.What sort of teams would you like to see step forward for this unique opportunity?The competition is intentionally organized to accommodate a wide range of designers, from students to emerging design firms and established architectural practices. It would be great to see a variety of approaches, like fire-resilient building or manufactured housing strategies. Each site offers its own set of design challenges that should pique the interest of different types of firms. Its also important to remember that while LAs housing issues are acute, they represent many of the same forces driving housing affordability and sustainability issues worldwide. We welcome all creative ideas into this competition.2025-03-14Merlin Fulcher Share