Professional Practice
Small Lots, Big Impact
Date: 3/10/2025 - 4/20/2025
Type: Competitions / Awards
Description:
Small Lots, Big Impacts is a two-stage initiative to build a path to a better future for Los Angeles—one where a new generation of homeowners has the chance to thrive in more resilient neighborhoods. The recent fires have highlighted the importance of combining public resources with creative ingenuity to address the city’s housing crisis. Thus, in Small Lots, Big Impacts, the City of Los Angeles is leading the way, hosting demonstration projects on its own land that will offer new visions for building housing that can translate to thousands of similar, privately-held lots.
The design competition asks designers, architects, and students to propose homeownership models on a selection of the City’s small, overlooked, and forgotten lots. Participants will imagine a sustainable urban future that updates the Los Angeles residential imaginary for a postsuburban world where infill, shared amenities, and compact communities present viable alternatives to the detached house. To address the city’s housing shortage and support fire recovery, proposals will consider architectural and community resilience, strategies for expedient construction, and cost-effective development approaches.