New homes rising in fire-affected parts of LA use a range of strategies to speed construction timelines and protect against wildfires.
Illustration: Carolina Moscoso
New LA Home Designs, Reimagined By Fire
As rebuilding begins in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, builders are showcasing resilient architecture and construction techniques aimed at outwitting future disaster.
One year after wildfires tore through neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, killing at least 31 people and destroying more than 10,000 buildings, architects and developers are rethinking what home looks like in LA, and how resilient residential architecture evolves.
Recovery from the costly disaster is a long way away. So far, hundreds of new homes have been submitted for permitting, but it’s a process shaping out to be an uneven one, based on damage, insurance and wealth. Affected homeowners are grappling with the details of fire-resilient construction and landscaping techniques, along with some more fundamental questions about what their communities should look like.