"Fire-resilient buildings don't have to be soulless, formulaic bunkers, according to the student designers of the Resilient Futures Lab, a summer studio at Pasadena's ArtCenter College."
""I tell students: be the voice and conscience of regeneration. Create meaning from the chaos of life," said Meraz, whose 20-year-old son died in 2019, a tragedy which bolstered his belief in creativity as a tool for healing."
"Undergraduates and graduates from the Spatial Experience Design program were tasked with designing off-the-grid, sustainable dwellings that could resist both fire and earthquake damage. They studied noncombustible materials and plantings, complex site characteristics, green strategies, structural robustness, toxic debris removal and rebuilding logistics."
Students in a 14-week Resilient Futures Lab at Pasadena's ArtCenter College designed new structures for fire-devastated Altadena. About 40 ArtCenter community homes were lost in the Eaton fire. Instructors emphasized both technical resilience and the human stories inside spaces, connecting creativity with healing after personal loss. Participants designed off-grid, sustainable dwellings to resist fire and earthquake, studying noncombustible materials, plantings, site complexity, green strategies, structural robustness, toxic debris removal, and rebuilding logistics. The class engaged the community by visiting a destroyed home and speaking with local shop owners. Rebuilding was framed as an idiosyncratic, individual process centered on who the homes serve.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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