LA contest challenges 350 designers to create cutting-edge affordable housing. The winners will actually be built

LA contest challenges 350 designers to create cutting-edge affordable housing. The winners will actually be built

LA contest challenges 350 designers to create cutting-edge affordable housing. The winners will actually be built As homelessness rises, the amount of affordable housing stagnates, and climate disasters increasingly leave people displaced, the clock is ticking for cities across the United States to innovate their approach to housing. The city of Los Angeles recently decided to turn to a larger pool of experts in its first-ever “Small Lots, Big Impacts” design competition. The objective was for architects, designers, and students to design multi-family housing concepts for vacant lots across the city. With 356 entries from over 36 countries, the organizers of the competition — the City of Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles’ research center City Lab, and nonprofit LA4LA — hoped to garner some fresh solutions, especially after fires earlier this year worsened the city’s housing crisis. A screenshot of a map shared by City Lab at UCLA “Los Angeles has a rich history of housing i…