What is happening at cityLAB?

ALTADENA SENIOR SUMMIT

Last Saturday, we were happy to share our interactive mapping tools at the Inaugural Eaton Fire Senior Summit in Altadena. We are humbled by the trust bestowed upon us by our community partners.

The deeply moving event gave the cityLAB team Dr. Yang Yang and Kiana Martinez the opportunity to speak with Altadena residents and hear their stories. Many spent time with our map, pointing out their homes, those of friends, and places filled with meaning from their daily lives. Our resident artist Marlené N. Lopez honored the space with a drawing which we will be gifting to the community as soon as she is finished with it.

These moments reminded us just how strong the ties to Altadena remain, and how much love and memory are rooted in this place.

We look forward to more mapping activities and installations that uplift community anchor spaces that keep community bonds alive and visible through recovery in the future.

Big shout out to the NGO Community Women Vital Voices and the First AME Church-Pasadena, for being excellent hosts.

cityLAB IS HIRING!

cityLAB is hiring for Summer and 2025-2026 academic year. We are looking for talented Architecture undergraduate students, as well as Architecture or Urban Planning graduate students to join our team and help with our exciting projects on campus and across Los Angeles. Students with a passion for spatial justice and experience in communications, architecture, advocacy, graphic design, or urban planning and design will be considered first. Applications deadline is April 28th 2025 11:59 PM PST.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please connect with our Associate Director Marlené Nansi Lopez at marlene.lopez@aud.ucla.edu

Apply here.

EDUCATION WORKFORCE HOUSING REPORT

Today, cityLAB took another important step towards producing more Education Workforce Housing in the state with the release of a new research report: Housing California Educators: Insights from nine education workforce housing developments. Alongside our partners at the Center for Cities + Schools and CSBA, we showcase the promise of EWH and suggest lessons for California school districts and county offices of education that want to follow these early models. We find the Education Workforce Housing developments make a real difference, helping increase the appeal of school employment and mitigate turnover among teachers and staff. We also identify common practices with regards to design, school board project management, and the development process. Most importantly, we surveyed tenants who spoke about the positive impacts of this kind of housing.

“Overall having access to affordable housing is one of the main reasons I have stayed in this district and not relocated to a more affordable area.”

“Knowing we could save money towards down payment on a home one day, also makes it possible to have a child by putting some savings towards childcare.”

You can read more here.

DANA CUFF ON KCRW DISCUSSING SMALL LOTS

Our Small Lots, Big Impacts design competition gets a spotlight on Madeleine Brand’s KCRW show “Press Play”! On this episode our director Dana Cuff explains the philosophy behind the project while also addressing some fears and concerns around the idea of more density aka homes on Los Angeles’ small vacant lots.

Don’t forget! The Small Lots, Big Impacts registration closes Monday 4/7/25 at 11:59pm PST! Don’t miss your chance to be a part of LA Housing history!

For the full interview please visit here.

Thank you KCRW Press Play for always having us!

STAFF PICKS #3

In honor of Women’s history month, the cityLAB team was asked to name their favorite female architects, garnering our most enthusiastic answers yet! These women represent the breakdown of barriers, artistry and social consciousness poetically combined, thinking outside the box, and of course, architectural mastery.

In an industry where less than half of the population is female (27%), we honor these women who trailblazed their way into history and into our hearts and minds.

CITY EVENT: YOLANDE DANIELS

Not to be missed, exhibition opening April 5th. For over three decades, the works of multidisciplinary artist J. Yolande Daniels have explored the fraught relationship between race, power, and time, as well as how these concepts shape the built environment. Infusing her projects with sociological and architectural research, Daniels reveals the supremacist and racialized lenses that shape Western customs, laws, theories, and spatial artifacts, such as institutions, cities, maps, and dictionaries. In her first solo exhibition, J. Yolande Daniels: To A Future Space-Time, Daniels reappropriates several of these cultural tools—the timeline, atlas, and glossary—to make clear the defiant and future-oriented nature of African American community building in Los Angeles, whose history has largely been erased.

To A Future Space-Time is an ode to the origins of Black autonomy and positions the cultivation of Black space as a strategy that has always existed alongside, beneath, and beyond racist customs and laws. The exhibition guides visitors through a fluid mapping of the ways Black people have created their own space-time coordinates, their own measures of distance, and their own cartographic possibilities, without negotiating with the colonizer—without his customs or clock.

For more information visit: https://www.artandpractice.org

YANG SPEAKING ON PANEL

This Thursday! Our co-director Dr. Yang Yang will join a conversation exploring designers' agency in shaping Los Angeles’s future, particularly amid pressing social and environmental challenges. She will draw upon cityLAB’s justice-focused approach and share her experience as a researcher, educator, and practitioner of Public Space. Yang believes in staying vigilant and fostering responsible design that leverages cultural diversity, sparks authentic community engagement, supports small businesses and local artisans, addresses displacement concerns, and expands the public realm for social sustainability—especially as LA prepares for its upcoming mega-events. How do you believe large city events can begin to prioritize local communities?

STAFF PICKS #2

For our second cityLAB staff pick, the team was asked to name a socially conscious architect they admired. While our answers spanned across the world, they all seemed to have in common a commitment to providing affordable, beautiful and dignified homes for all. What do you think it means to be a socially conscious architect today? Who would be your pick?

SMALL LOTS WEBINAR

Tomorrow, March 12th, at 5 pm PST cityLAB will be hosting a webinar to answer outstanding questions about the Small Lots, Big Impacts initiative. We are grateful for everyone’s interest thus far and are excited to see this work progress. For those who can’t make the webinar, we will post a recording to the News and Events page of our website.

You can find the link to register for the webinar, as well as other important competition information here.

SMALL LOTS FEATURED IN THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSPAPER

Our Small Lots, Big Impacts initiative is featured in The Architect's Newspaper! Check out the article to learn more about how this initiative will shape the future of housing in LA!

Read the full article here.

SMALL LOTS FEATURED IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

LA Times announces Small Lots Big Impacts. Please see our article in the LA Times. We are grateful to all our media partners for helping us spread the word about our competition.

SMALL LOTS LAUNCHES

cityLAB is proud to launch Small Lots, Big impacts, an ambitious two-stage housing development initiative to build a path to Los Angeles’ future.

In the first stage, a design competition, we ask designers, architects, and students to propose innovative homeownership models on a selection of the City’s small, forgotten lots. To address L.A.’s housing shortage and support fire recovery, proposals will consider architectural and community resilience, strategies for expedient construction, and cost effective development approaches.

We thank our partners at the City of Los Angeles: the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Housing Department, and City Council; and at LA4LA for their continued support. This design competition continues our long term commitment to creating new housing models that can show the way towards a more equitable, attainable, resilient, and beautiful residential fabric in Los Angeles. We hope you will join us.

For more information, take a look at our story where you will find links to the competition website, the Los Angeles Times’ feature story, the press release, and the competition brief. For any additional questions please email smalllotsinfo@ucla.edu

The competition website is: smalllots.citylab.ucla.edu

DANA CUFF ON BRUIN TO BRUIN

When discussing student agency, university transformation and the future of our city during trying times there is no one better suited for this conversation than our own Director Dr. Dana Cuff. In this episode of Bruin to Bruin, Dr. Cuff discusses her transformational work with cityLAB, and how collective action and academic innovation can reshape our city and inspire impactful change.

Dana’s words always serve as a resource and inspiration for us here on campus, please enjoy and share!

For the full interview please visit here.

STAFF PICKS #1

The first in a new series! Our students get to know the cityLAB team by asking them their burning spatial justice architecture questions. This week’s question is: “In your opinion which architect or building has contributed the most to Los Angeles? Who would you choose?”

Do you have a question for the next cityLAB staff picks series? Let us know. Looking forward to hearing from you cityLAB community!

FILMIC SENSING RECAP

Textures, colors, and juxtapositions are just a few ways we invite our students to rethink and examine their city. Urban scholars have done a valuable service by studying cities via their quantifiable data (ie. laws, number of street lights, etc..) but a city is much more than the sum of quantifiable elements, it’s also the hidden stories behind items left behind, nature’s endless conversations with concrete and our experiences in these places. These themes and more were explored last Thursday at our “Filmic Sensing” screening which featured experimental short films created by our talented Urban Humanities students. Thank you to everyone who came out and shared space with us!

Congratulations Urban Humanists for acquiring Film as Thick Mapping and your final presentations! Many thanks to the artists and instructors: Dr. Gustavo Leclerc, Artist Lucas Reiner, and filmmaker Heather Seybolt.

Till the next UHI exhibition friends!

EDUCATION WORKFORCE HOUSING #3

Housing Justice News: cityLAB, alongside our long-term partners at the Center for Cities + Schools and the California School Boards Association, kicked off the third iteration of our Education Workforce Housing Academy last month. Working with 4 new school districts and one County Office of Education, our team is facilitating the production of even more housing units for the state's education workforce. When we started this research back in 2020 there were four built educator housing projects and 46 interested school districts. Today, there are nine built projects, another three under construction, and 175 interested districts. The projects we highlight above represent some strong examples of education workforce housing design.

California's K-12 education system was already struggling to keep up with the demands of teaching our next generation, and the new administration's assault on public education will only make the jobs of educators all the more difficult. In this environment, we need to do everything we can to support and improve the lives of our essential education workforce. Providing below-market housing units that help them make ends meet and live in the communities that they serve is one way to make a major difference. Using public land to deliver this public benefit makes the case for Education Workforce Housing even more compelling.

Attention all housing advocates! Over the past year cityLAB-UCLA has been working with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, the Housing Department, and City Council members to develop the Small Lots, Big Impacts initiative, an ambitious two-phase initiative to build a path to a better future for Los Angeles. Now, the countdown to the initiative’s first phase design competition is on! The design competition will open three weeks from now, and it will give architects, designers, and students the opportunity to rethink how small, underutilized, city-owned lots across Los Angeles should be converted into vibrant, community-oriented housing developments.

Because built demonstrations hold special power, this design competition will lead to a second phase aimed at building on a selection of the City’s small lots.

Stay tuned for more details and for the opening of the competition on March 3rd!

For more information please visit our project page.

Special shoutout to photographer: Paloma Dooley

SMALL LOTS, BIG IMPACTS

FILMIC SENSING: TO TRUST INVISIBLE MATTER(S)

Using physical exercise, sense memories, poems and film techniques we ask the question how nature is reacting to DTLA architecture and in particular, the newly acquired “UCLA Trust Building”. We invite you to explore these ideas and more at our upcoming UHI film screening “Filmic Sensing: to trust invisible matter(s)” on Thursday, February 13th, from 6pm-8pm at Perloff Hall, 1209B.

Thick Mapping with film is an arts-based practice to both understand and study complex urban issues and propose alternative futures in new and inspiring ways. We invite you to come see our practice, enjoy our UHI Winter quarter cohort’s final presentations and meet the lead instructors: Dr. Gustavo Leclerc, Artist Lucus Reiner and Heather Seybolt.

Drinks and snacks will be available, see you there!

HEADLINE NEWS REACTION FROM DIRECTOR OF cityLAB DANA CUFF

“California’s public education has long been underfunded and public school buildings are in perpetual disrepair. So when urgent new demands arise as with fire-ravaged schools, new spending priorities ARE likely to cause new shortages elsewhere. Californians need to add funding to cover both the new and existing needs.” Dana Cuff

For the full news article please visit this website.

Original photo credits: Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

TENTS AND TENANTS: A PUBLIC EXHIBITION

What does it mean to understand the City of Angels from the vantage point of its most precarious residents, those constantly facing banishment and expulsion? The UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy is pleased to announce Tents and Tenants: After Echo Park Lake, a public exhibition about how poor people make the city their home, even in the face of state violence.

The militarized eviction of the Echo Park Lake encampment in March 2021 was a pivotal moment in Los Angeles, one that demonstrated the police power of the state against unhoused communities. In its wake, the collective After Echo Park Lake which brought together university, movement, and encampment scholars was born.

Housing justice doesn’t end with affordable housing and changing density zoning laws, it's also about understanding the criminalization of poverty and in the carceral containment of the unhoused. We hope that the exhibition will move you to reflect and respond, in relation to the city’s many histories, as well as its present moment of disaster.

See you there!

“HOUSING THE JUST CITY” WINTER SPEAKER SERIES

Recent tragedies have placed housing justice at the forefront of political agendas across the nation once again. Housing affordability is not only an economic challenge; it is a significant social challenge.

To explore these themes we invite you to our weekly speaker series “Housing the Just City” at UCLA that aims to investigate the interplay of affordable and accessible housing, the built environment of cities, the policies that advance equitable, inclusive neighborhoods, the architecture of collective living, and the role of urban design. Our ambition is to reshape the contours of the conversations about housing, urban design, cities and regions.

Our focus on urban design and place helps provide an alternative vision that can counteract the market-based single-family housing approaches that exemplify post-World War II housing development in most US cities. Come join the conversation every Thursday this Winter! See you there!

Zoom link here.

Thank you to all our partners that made this series possible:
Luskin Dept of Urban Planning
Department of Architecture and Urban Design
Ziman Center for Real Estate
Lewis Center

DANA CUFF ON KCRW

The fires have impacted every facet of our lives here in Los Angeles. During these times we seek answers and conversations around the true state of things and what can be done for our fellow Angelenos.

For us here at cityLAB, these events were not conversation starters but rather, a continuation of a story about equity and housing, spatial justice, and policy for the people.

Here we present to you a conversation between our Director Dana Cuff and KCRW’s Madeleine Brand last December as they discuss the problematic nature of our current housing market even after new development legislation was passed last year.

In times of misinformation, we happily share this resource, for our community to better understand why affordable housing is, and now even more so, a challenge for the future to confront. We know that this is where the conversation is but not where it ends; please stay tuned for more cityLAB news, research and conversations as we respond to our city’s needs. Sending our community well wishes and safety. Take Care LA!

To hear the full conversation please visit here.

Thank you KCRW Press Play for always having us.

NEA AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded cityLAB-UCLA a grant of $30,000 for our Sidewalking: Designing Pathways with Youth in the City project.

The grant will support two sidewalk public art installations that implement young students’ design ideas. It comes at a time when Los Angeles seeks to heal and re-envision a safer and more equitable city. The timing and task feel auspicious during these trying times.

Sidewalking: Designing Pathways with Youth in the City, builds upon cityLAB's extensive community-based arts practices and engaged research in Westlake-MacArthur Park Community, in partnership with Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), an anchor organization offering free after-school programs for youth in this underserved, Latino immigrant neighborhood. We look forward to working with the NEA to finalize the grant paperwork and appreciate the agency’s support for this project that will surely help LA recover into a better place for our youth and all future generations to come.

For full press release and list of awardees please visit here.

ANNOUNCING THE “SMALL LOTS, BIG IMPACTS” INITIATIVE!

Last month, cityLAB unveiled the “Small Lots, Big Impacts” initiative at Mayor Karen Bass’ inaugural Innovation Construction Expo! In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Housing, cityLAB is working to unlock underutilized city-owned parcels for new home ownership opportunities and “Missing Middle” housing designs for the future of Los Angeles.

Though often seen as too small for more traditional housing development, these public lots can be key pieces in building a more equitable and affordable future for our city. In front of an audience of 150 developers, architects and civic leaders, Director Dana Cuff revealed cityLAB’s plans to stage an architecture competition to prototype infill housing on left-over vacant lots across Los Angeles.

Thank you Mayor Karen Bass for confronting our housing crisis by cutting through red tape and leveraging city resources to build more affordable housing, and spotlighting innovative teams like cityLAB as part of your strategy.

Stay tuned for more updates and the opening of the competition early next year.

HIGHWAY TO BE-WELL PRESENTATION

This fall cityLAB’ Director Dana Cuff continued her mission for spatial justice with her course and project “Highway to Be-Well” which asked the question: What would it mean to create a healthy city? Her student’s explored this question close to home, on one street within the UCLA campus: Westwood Plaza (from Le Conte to the Wooden Center). This stretch of Westwood Boulevard stood as a demonstration for the wider campus and city, to show what it would mean to create spaces where wellbeing is prioritized.

Their design strategy? Tactical urbanism, or micro-urbanism. Pairs of students were randomly assigned a segment of Westwood Plaza, and programmed that portion for student, staff, faculty, and/or visitor wellbeing. A healthy campus and healthy city could be programmed many ways: for social gathering, to create a sense of belonging, for rest, exercise, meditation, yoga, cycling, sound art, ad hoc performance, nutrition, quietude, biophilia, self-care, health education, strength training, shade, edible garden, play station, environmental safety, community engagement, sharing stories, and more.

Here are a few images from their final presentations and ideas. Congratulations AUD 291 your interventions were deeply inspiring and the beginning of many great changes for our city.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: HOLA “ROCK GARDEN”

After the school day ends, Lafayette Park becomes filled with young people, many of whom come to HOLA for vital after-school music, art, and educational programs. As a longstanding partner of HOLA, cityLAB’s research and advocacy align with HOLA’s organizational mission.

Therefore we propose the HOLA “Rock Garden”, a waiting and social area within Lafayette Park, using generously donated QCP products, for the hundreds of youth enrolled in HOLA’s after-school programming, as well as their parents, caregivers, families, and friends. The proposed location is strategically placed on the northern side of the HOLA building, with abundant tree shade, and near the Metro 18 bus stop.

Alongside a host of wonderful community partners this program is also made possible by the UCLA ORCA accelerated grant program that supports research and creative activities that expand our knowledge in meaningful ways and drive positive change in society through public impact.

Big congratulations to our lead project team: Dr. Yang Yang, Claire Nelischer and Dr. Dana Cuff.

TUNING THE COMMONS RECAP

Hailed as one of our most successful and intriguing Urban Humanities exhibitions, last week’s “Tuning the Commons” event was one to remember. We would like to start by saying thank you to our alumni, community partners and friends who came to the show and celebrated our student’s DTLA sonic thick map projects. Here is a quick message from the curator and UHI Associate Director Gus Wendel:

“This was the first UHI course where we used sound scavenging and sonic production as the principle method, and the students did an amazing job. Their final projects challenged audiences to listen deeply and engage meaningfully, opening new possibilities for how we position ourselves and each other in the spaces of Downtown. Congratulations to the students on their amazing work and final presentations!” 

VISIT FROM BILL PURCELL

A big thank you to Bill Purcell, former Mayor of Tenenesse, who came to visit cityLAB last week. Bill who is now an adjunct professor of Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, beguiled us with news from his hometown of East Nashville and shared his most recent projects. His visit helped us see how our work aligns with our east coast peers and inspired a flurry of new ideas to imporve our work here on the coast. Thanks again Bill and Happy Holidays to all our friends.

We hope you all come visit cityLAB one day as well!

JOIN TUNING THE COMMONS EXHIBITION ON DECEMBER 5

This Thursday! On behalf of the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative, we invite you to attend an exhibition of student projects for the fall quarter: Tuning the Commons: Listening to/with Downtown LA. This event culminates a quarter-long course, which combined seminar discussions and guest lectures with hands-on methods workshops. Students delved into critical urban humanities concepts including borders and commons, spatial justice and the “right to the city,” performativity and the public sphere. The students then applied these concepts and ideas to a sonic thick map project using sound scavenging and sonic production within the context of Downtown Los Angeles. These multimodal narratives tell a story of a place through the layering of sounds. With this method, each team’s map performs a unique aural argument grounded in its respective place in Downtown LA.

The exhibition will open on Thursday, December 5th, at 8pm at UCLA, Perloff Hall, Double Height Space.

cityLAB ORGANIZED AN EDUCATION WORKFORCE HOUSING (EWH) PANEL AT SCANPH ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE

In October, cityLAB organized an Education Workforce Housing (EWH) Panel at SCANPH annual fall conference. The conference, which is Southern California’s largest regional affordable housing conference, welcomed cityLAB’s Dana Cuff, Manos Proussaloglou, and associates Jane Blumfield - Senior Fellow at cityLAB, Lara Regus - Senior VP Real Estate Development, Connie Chung - Managing Partner with HR&A Advisors and Richard Barrera - Chief Advisor to California Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Board Trustee to San Diego Unified. This impressive panel discussed cityLAB’s EWH research, legislation AB2295, San Diego affordable housing examples, education administrator considerations, and the future of affordable housing in California to over a hundred participants and housing advocates.

Learn more about EWH research here.

WELCOME DAMIAN MADIGAN

We are very fortunate to welcome our visiting architect and urban infill housing researcher
Dr. Damian Madigan! Damian, who coined the term ‘Bluefield Housing’ will be providing insights and guidance to our “Small Lots” project that, like Damian’s work, focuses on “infill housing” which paves the way for building wealth and homeownership in diverse communities. Damian, who literally wrote the book on innovative infill housing production models in Australia, will be an invaluable ally and friend during this time at cityLAB.

Thank you for joining us, Damian!

cityLAB POST-ELECTION STATEMENT

At this historical moment in time, we wish to reassure our community and friends of our committment to spatial justice, affortable housing and public spaces for all. We are extremly proud of the work we have done this past year and can’t wait to build and protect this work into the future. Sending well wishes- The cityLAB team.

EDUCATION WORKFORCE HOUSING - SANTA BARBARA

Spotlight on Education Workforce Housing!

cityLAB's Associate Director Emmanuel Proussaloglou recently joined Sara Hinkley (UC Berkeley) and Greg Francis (California School Boards Association) for an insightful discussion on our Education Workforce Housing Development Academies. The webinar was organized by the Santa Barbara County Office of Education, a county agency that aims to facilitate Education Workforce Housing development in local districts within its jurisdiction. County offices can be essential facilitators of this work, and we are excited to see momentum building across the state!

Catch the full webinar here!

WELCOME NIDIA, LILI, AND CORA!

Welcome Nidia, Lili, and Cora!

Our new fall cohort will support an array of projects from Communications to Urban Humanities.

Welcome to the team!

2024-25 SEMEL HCI | BEWELL POD MEETING #1

Join us for a creative brainstorm at the BEWell Pod meeting on October 24th, from 12:00 to 1 PM, at Perloff Hall Room 1118!

We’re excited to gather and discuss mural themes for the utility box art program led by UCLA Transportation and Semel HCI BEWell Pod. This initiative will beautify 14 traffic signal cabinets across campus, raising awareness of climate change, justice, health, and well-being. Meet the artist, share your ideas, and help us vote on themes that represent the spirit of our community.

All Bruins are welcome!

WELCOME MARLENÉ NANCY LOPEZ

Our 2022 inaugural activist-in residence, Marlené Nancy Lopez returns to cityLAB as our Associate Director of Communications and Operations! Marlene´s long history of visual storytelling, community organizing and public art will help forge a new era of communications and social justice for our lab.

Marlené Nansi Lopez has over ten years experience in blending community organizing and the arts. For this work, she has won several prestigious accolades including the United Nations Plural Plus award for “Most Artistic” film during her tour with the Peace Corps, to her most recent certification as a “Cultural Bearer” with the county of Los Angeles. Her unique approach and vision of a liberated creative world was first formulated as a child of Guatemalan migrants, who were part of the Mayan-artist diaspora in MacArthur Park Los Angeles. When she is not in the lab, Marlené continues to spread the arts through community muralism and teaching.

Welcome to the team Marlené!

2024 UHI SUMMER INSTITUTE

We are excited to start off our 2024-25 UHI cohort, with our seven-day Summer Institute! The Institute introduces students to the principles and practices of urban humanities, focusing on thick mapping as a core methodological approach.


Students will develop thick maps in partnership with the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Branch. We will investigate the library’s long history and presence in Downtown LA and its role in providing essential public services that extend beyond the space of the library itself. Our partnership with the library initiates our year-long investigation of the theme: Downtown LA Commons: Past, Present, Future.

“UNDERSTANDING THE ENCAMPMENT: UCLA AND BEYOND” AT RUMBLE 2024

AUD students from the 133/289 “Spatial Justice” class presented their collective project on Understanding the Encampment: UCLA and Beyond.

The project statement reads as follows:

This is a collective project engaged in documenting, mapping, and amplifying the ongoing Palestinian solidarity movement at UCLA and abroad.

As students receiving an education from a department where ‘spatial justice’ is a priority, the violence, suppression, and institutional failures surrounding the encampments at UCLA and universities all over the world, as well as the ongoing Palestinian genocide, require our utmost attention.

Spatial justice implicates a fundamental right to use public space for political expression. It understands architecture and urban planning as central tools for racial capitalism’s project of oppression and erasure, and empowers architects and planners to utilize their knowledge and privilege to fight injustice in every form.

Our goal is to use our skills and knowledge as students of architecture/planning to provide a framework for collectively honoring the encampment, understanding the reasons why it existed, and documenting why it was dismantled and vilified.

We stand in solidarity with student and faculty activists, with their call for divestment, and with the people of Gaza.

There is no horizon here. Decolonization is a continual fight and history is being written before our very eyes. Documenting/mapping/remembering is a continual project, and we invite all to not only bear witness but also engage with our installation in a respectful manner.

CCE BUILDING DEPARTMENT CAPACITY GRANT AWARD

In partnership with cityLAB, the Department of Architecture and Urban Design (AUD) received funding to build departmental capacity to devise and support community-engaged teaching. This program through the Center for Community Engagement is a core element of UCLA’s Strategic Plan—Goal 1: Deepening UCLA’s Engagement with Los Angeles. cityLAB and AUD plan to use the award to:

a) Enhance, integrate, and require existing community-engaged teaching programs offered through courses as well as studios.

b) Leverage opportunities to expand community-engaged teaching through community partnerships, particularly at the new DTLA campus.

c) Develop a departmental emphasis on “Public Architecture” through a plan to sustain ongoing community-engaged teaching and community partner relationships beyond single courses.

AUD was one of six departments to receive funding.

cityLAB REBRANDING DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT

mbmq is a New York-based design practice founded by Ming Bai and Mark Qu.

With educational backgrounds in both China and the US, as well as extensive entrepreneurial experience, they use graphic design to facilitate ideas and conversations. Their work includes brand design, exhibitions, publications, books, websites, campaigns, signage, wayfinding, and experiential projects.

Their clients range from corporations and retail companies to individuals, artists, and cultural institutions. They focus on long-term collaborations that provoke meaningful local and cross-cultural changes.

MANOS PROUSSALOGLOU AT CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PRESS CONFERENCE

Watch this California Department of Education Press Conference (July 30, 2024) in which cityLAB’s Manos Proussaloglou speaks about the state legislation that cityLAB authored, which took effect January 2024, and the research that we completed. Our research is the basis for the State Superintendent of Schools’ initiative to provide 2.3M units of educator workforce housing on K12 school land in the state.

See our Berkeley research partner, Center for Cities + Schools at minute 29, and Manos at minute 32.

JULY 26 | “BUILDING EQUITABLE HOUSING FOR ALL”

We are delighted to invite you to join us for the 9th Annual AIA/LA Design for Dignity Conference, "Building Equitable Housing for All". This is a 2 day conference hosted by the AIA/LA in hope to reach a consensus and prioritize workable solutions to address the ongoing housing affordability and homelessness challenge.

Our director, Dr. Dana Cuff, will be joined by other Day 1 speakers, paneling on the topic "The Balancing Act".

Please RSVP here

The Conference:

Friday, July 26th, 2024 & Friday, August 2, 2024

7:30 am - 1 pm PT

"The Balancing Act":

Friday, July 26th, 2024

11:30 am - 12:30 pm PT

Venue

Center for Communities – 4450 West Adams Blvd. LA, CA 90016

WELCOMING JANE WU

We are proud to welcome Jane Wu as our Senior Research Associate at cityLAB this summer.

Jane is a designer, researcher, and maker. Her work aims to advance empathy, equity, and spatial justice through the social and political agency of architecture and design. Jane graduated with distinction from the M.Arch program at UCLA, and was awarded the 2024 AIA Henry Adams Medal. At UCLA, she was president of the NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architecture Students) chapter. She previously worked in the healthcare architecture sector and received her B.A. with High Honors in Architecture from UC Berkeley, with a minor in Sustainable Design.

Welcome, Jane!

CONGRATS TO CITYLAB AWARDS RECIPIENTS 2024-25

We are excited to announce the recipients of this year’s cityLAB Awards:

cityLAB Graduate Fellow Award

Julie Wong

Sarah Zureiqat

cityLAB Undergraduate Fellow Award

Udom Ly

Kiana Martinez

Urban Humanities Graduate Fellow Award

Xen Pei Hoi

Urban Humanities Undergraduate Fellow Award

Camila Gomez

Congratulations to all our outstanding fellows!

UHI 2023-24 PRESENTED THEIR SPRING CAPSTONE PROJECTS ON JUNE 12

The Urban Humanities Initiative (UHI) 2023-24 cohort presented their Spring Capstone projects last Wednesday, followed by a UHI certificate award celebration.

The three capstones of this year—each reflecting a different set of issues and community partners—are all centered in and around the Westlake-MacArthur Park neighborhood under the idea of “Mobilities” in the broad sense. Codex Westlake: Stories on Red and Black, partnered with Maya Vision, explored alternative local histories through pictorial representations and visual narratives, reflecting the narrative traditions of Indigenous people. Sidewalking: Designing Pathways with Youth in the City, partnered with the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), explored the possibilities for youth-led design to expand youth mobility and public space equity in Westlake.  Queer Space Studio worked with the Trans Wellness Center to develop a ‘case for support’ that would elevate its history and help bring resources to the center. 

A special thank-you goes to our guest reviewers: Edgar Chaj, Eduardo Gutierrez, Maria Gutierrez, Michelle Sandoval, Prof. Mariana Marroquin, Marlené Nancy Lopez, and the cityLAB team.

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF STUDENT PROTESTS

The events of the past three days on UCLA’s campus have been shocking, heartbreaking, and despicable. University campuses are places for the free expression of ideas. The public university, in particular, makes space for debate and scholarship, where the public can assemble to peacefully voice opinions with the knowledge that they will be safe and secure when doing so. This makes the extreme violence experienced by our students, faculty, and staff all the more inhumane. While security and police watched, a mob attacked those in the encampment. This attack was then wrongfully and deceitfully used to justify “protecting” students by destroying their encampment. 

We condemn these actions in the strongest terms. Surely the university’s top priority is the safety and security of its student body. This week, UCLA has failed to uphold its core tenet.

As a research center focused on spatial justice, we hold in highest regard the fundamental right to use public space for political expression. Architecture and urban planning have long been wielded as tools of oppression and erasure, and over the past few days, we have watched the militarization of our shared campus spaces in real time. 

It will take a long time to heal from this collective trauma, but we stand in solidarity with our students as they courageously speak out against injustice. We stand for the right to create space, with our bodies and material means, for protest. The violence is an effort to chill our collective discourse and to shake our commitment to each other. We vow that the events of this week will only cause us to redouble our efforts to work through spatial justice issues with empathy and compassion. Our community is hurting right now, but cityLAB’s doors will remain open for those in need of solace and support. If anyone needs conversation, community, a hug, or a space to process their emotions, you are welcome to join us as we navigate these challenging times together.

JOIN ROBERT CLARKE’S EXHIBITION, CASTA DE RAZA, ON JUNE 11

We are excited to invite you to our exhibition, Casta de Raza, by Robert Clarke, cityLAB Activist-in-Residence and and co-founder of the Black Aesthetic Studio, on Tuesday, June 11, at 6:15 PM in Perloff Courtyard.


This installation will project Indigenous and African histories on top of classical columns. This will be an act of historical restoration; the Eurocentric narratives and aesthetics that have been dominant since the founding of this country will then become dominated. Claiming space for a combinatory history that may offer more accuracy and authenticity to the stories we tell each other about our ancestry.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2024-25 GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN URBAN HUMANITIES

The application for the 2024-2025 UHI Graduate Certificate is now live! Learn more about the program and apply here.

Deadline: June 14, 2024

The Urban Humanities offers an innovative cross-disciplinary curriculum that bridges design, urban studies, and the humanities, leading to a Graduate Certificate in Urban Humanities to complement your primary degree program. Students explore research methodologies for critical urban analysis and representational techniques that foreground new forms and models of inquiry for imagining the city. Study begins with an intensive 2-unit Summer Institute that weds interpretive techniques with urban design, followed by one 4-unit theory seminar in the Fall, a 2-unit Winter methods workshop, and concludes with a 4-unit Spring research capstone. The Graduate Certificate also includes two electives that can be taken anytime. 

Academic Year Focus: Downtown LA Commons: Past, Present, Future

JOIN TATIANA BILBAO AND CITYLAB FOR A LECTURE ON APRIL 22


We are thrilled to invite you to an unforgettable evening celebrating architecture, creativity, and community! Join us on April 22, 2024, at 5:30 pm in Perloff Hall Decafe. UCLA cityLAB and AUD present Tatiana Bilbao of Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, who will speak about "Architecture is a Collective Act."

Following the lecture, join us at 7:00 pm in Perloff Hall Courtyard for the cityLAB Block Party! Immerse yourself in interactive exhibitions showcasing cityLAB's ongoing projects, while enjoying tacos, refreshing drinks, music, and limited-edition swag.

Don't miss this chance to be inspired by Tatiana Bilbao’s sensitive design approaches to a collective environment and to experience firsthand the vibrant energy and radical methodology of cityLAB.

CITYLAB IS HIRING

We are seeking new collaborators for paid positions in Summer 2024 and the 2024-25 Academic Year. Graduate students will be automatically considered for all Research & Fellowship positions. Undergraduates will be considered only for the Undergraduate Fellowship. This application is for continuing and incoming UCLA AUD students only.

Apply at this link by April 30th, 2024.

BRUINHUB IN LA TIMES


BruinHub was featured in the Los Angeles Times!


cityLAB's commitment to supporting UCLA students facing long commutes is making headlines, and we are proud of the positive impact of BruinHubs as part of a broader strategy to address housing insecurity.


Check out the article to learn how BruinHubs provide resting spaces—including napping pods, study spaces, and snacks—for extreme commuters to recharge during long days on campus.

Read the article here!

WELCOMING RYAN CONROY

Ryan Conroy returns to cityLAB as our first Director of Architecture, nearly a decade after inaugurating the undergraduate fellow program.

Ryan is a practicing architect, recognized for originating innovative models of multifamily housing and climate-adaptive sustainable design, always with an eye to each project’s larger urban context. He has held research positions at UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Department of Planning, and continues an ongoing collaboration with Kevin Daly Architects. Ryan is also a Board Member of the LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, where he curates public conversation around Los Angeles’s built environment.

Welcome back, Ryan!

UHI VISITS TIJUANA

The Urban Humanities 2024 cohort and staff had an incredible weekend exploring Tijuana, Mexico!

They visited sites of public art in the city and learned from artists, architects, planners, social service providers, and activists whose respective practices reflect multiple forms of cultural production, political intervention, and systems of care.

The team crossed the San Ysidro Border by foot and visited Centro 32, Playas de Tijuana, Friendship Park, and Dianka's Memorial. On day 2 they took a historic tour of downtown Tijuana and participated in a symposium, “Between the Lines: Practices of Public Art and Engagement in Tijuana and Los Angeles,” hosted at Observatorio Cine.

ROBERT CLARKE’S NEW INSTALLATION AT PICA

Our new Activist in Residence, Robert Clarke, recently showcased an installation at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art for their new exhibition, Policing Justice. 

Policing Justice examines policing practices in Portland, Oregon, and their relationship to longer local and national histories of oppression through the lens of artists who call Portland their home and those who have witnessed and documented police brutality across the globe. This exhibition will be on display until May 19th. Find out more here!

Congratulations, Robert!

MARCH 7, 3PM | “ARCHITECTURE’S PROMISE: DESIGNING EQUITABLE FUTURES” BY DANA CUFF

We are delighted to invite you to join us for the 135th Faculty Research Lecture on “Architecture’s Promise: Designing Equitable Futures” to be given by our director, Dana Cuff, which she will discuss the challenges surrounding architecture’s ability to design more equitable futures. Lecture to include time for Q&A and be followed by a reception on the Schoenberg Patio. Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP here

Thursday, March 7, 2024
3:00pm -5:30 pm. PT

Venue

Schoenberg Hall, UCLA

UNVEILING OUR NEW PUBLICATION, PLACE TO BE

We are excited to unveil our newest publication, Place to Be. This research project and publication offers guidance for public health providers, planners, designers, and policy makers seeking new, open-access ways to understand and serve the needs of unhoused Angelenos. With an interdisciplinary team of researchers from public health, architecture, and urban planning, as well as an intimate group of providers and unhoused constituents from a non-traditional health program, we undertook analysis of wellbeing metrics, key informant interviews, and participatory design research. In each we sought to better define wellbeing – a sometimes vague term in health – particularly in consideration of how understandings of wellbeing differ for unhoused people. You can find Place to Be on our projects and publications pages!

A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE PODCAST: DANA CUFF SPEAKS ABOUT HER RECENT BOOK

Join Prof. Dana Cuff as she shares insights on her recent book Architectures of Spatial Justice in the latest episode of “A is for Architecture,” now accessible on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music. Discover the synergy of design and spatial justice in this engaging episode.

Tune in, explore, and be part of the dialogue!

JANUARY 24, 4 PM | UCLA ACTIVIST-IN-RESIDENCE WELCOME RECEPTION

With a shared commitment to “turn the university inside out” and invite artists, community organizers, and movement leaders to undertake power-shifting scholarship and pedagogy focused on social change, the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, cityLAB-UCLA, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center are pleased to announce Robert A. Clarke, Ron Collins II, Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia, Shengxiao "Sole" Yu, and Narges Zagub as the 2024 UCLA Activists-in-Residence.

Learn more about each of the UCLA Activists-in-Residence here and please join us in warmly welcoming our activists to the UCLA community at this year's welcome reception.

Venue

UCLA’s Perloff Hall

CITYLAB GETS NEW DIGS

Collaborating with our talented graphic designers, Ming and Mark, we gave the cityLAB’s office at UCLA a much-needed renovation. We are working on strengthening how we approach our work and our ongoing research and are very excited to show you how that relates to our new image.

Visit us at Perloff Hall to learn more!

10X | TEN ACROSS SUMMIT

We were grateful to be invited to the Housing for All panel at the TENX event in downtown Los Angeles to exchange perspectives with talented colleagues about the challenges that we are seeing in the ongoing housing crisis. It was a critical exercise to share information, experiences and to inspire decision-making towards a sustainable future for affordable housing.

The TENX region contains the three most populous states, many of the largest and most rapidly growing metro areas, international ports, extremes in weather and water-related challenges, and diverse populations. This prompts us to explore new and creative alternatives for resilient and people-centered growth.

SUPPORT OUR ONGOING PROJECT: PATHWAYS TO AUTONOMY!

As 2023 comes to a close, we hope you'll consider including cityLAB in your year-end giving. This year, your small donation will have a big impact: making it possible for us to build and install site-specific furniture to enhance sidewalks for youth in Los Angeles. With your support, we can transform these designs into reality. And we can invite people of all ages, along with planners, designers, and policymakers, to see and experience cityLAB's bright ideas for better sidewalks.

As a friend of cityLAB, we will continue to acknowledge your gift in publications, events, and other project materials.

MICRO-URBANISM DEBUTED AT 2023 SHANGHAI URBAN SPACE ART SEASON

Our interactive installation, "Micro-Urbanism Toolkit: Reclaiming the Commons through Play," debuted at the 2023 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS). The theme of the 2023 SUSAS is METro-BIOSIS, a combination of metabiosis and metropolis, emphasizing the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature in urban development. The concept of "Micro-Urbanism" was developed by our team of researchers and designers after years of community-based research and design practices and as a continuation of a series of participatory design events held by a UHI Capstone. The idea behind this concept is to explore how small interventions in the city—however informal, temporary, or minor in scale—can promote community engagement, shared interests, and civic improvement. By building a public sphere that advances spatial justice and contributes to long-term change, small endeavors can have significant impacts.

JUNE 1, 6 PM | BOOK LAUNCH: ARCHITECTURES OF SPATIAL JUSTICE

Join cityLAB and AUD to celebrate our very own Dana Cuff and her latest book, Architectures of Spatial Justice -- a field-defining work that demonstrates how architects are breaking with professional conventions to advance spatial justice and design more equitable buildings and cities. The interactive celebration will be held in Perloff Hall on Thurs, Jun 1, at 6:00 pm. Please join us to celebrate this huge moment!

Venue
UCLA’s Perloff Hall

CITYLAB’S BRUINHUB FEATURED FOR MELBOURNE 2023 DESIGN WEEK

cityLAB was featured in Productive Disruptions for Melbourne Design Week. This exhibition presents the work of more than 20 creative practitioners from around the world that are working in ways to expand the apprehension and influence of their disciplines. Disruptive approaches are often stigmatized as troublesome or uncooperative, yet these non-traditional methods can be highly productive. They require an openness and re-working of expectations and ultimately they shift a status quo. Productive Disruptions is curated by Danielle Peck, Industry Fellow, Monash University, School of Art, Design & Architecture and is part of Melbourne Design Week 2023, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.

Archive

  • January 12 BRUINHUB STRATHMORE SOFT OPENING

    UCLA’s new basic needs center, including a second BruinHub, had a soft opening at the Strathmore Building on January 12, 2023. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt, and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Monroe Gorden Jr. attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and delivered speeches emphasizing the significance of ensuring every Bruin's obtainability of their basic needs resources on campus. Further design and implementation at BruinHub Strathmore will provide a safe and comfortable space for students to rest and relax, opening soon.

  • AB 2295 IS LAW: cityLAB LEGISLATION STREAMLINES EDUCATION WORKFORCE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT STATEWIDE

    On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed 38 housing bills into law - including our very own AB 2295: Education Workforce Housing Development, coauthored by Dana Cuff, Jane Blumenfeld, and introduced by Assemblymember Richard Bloom. AB 2295 streamlines the development of affordable and mixed-income housing for teachers and support staff of California’s K-12 public schools on public land, opening opportunities for up to 2.3 million housing units statewide. Talk about making work for architects!

  • BRUINHUB OPENS FOR STUDENTS

    Join cityLAB at the John Wooden Center for the grand opening of the BruinHub.

  • cityLAB joins California 100 to envision our future

    What is the future of housing in California? In partnership with the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, cityLAB is continuing to expand our vision of innovative, sustainable, and equitable housing solutions statewide. Housing and Community Development is one of 13 research categories funded by the new California 100 Initiative, which seeks to produce a transformative guiding vision for our state’s next century. We are excited to bring design research and community engaged planning to this landmark project, which will be publicly available by year’s end.

    Link here for more details.

  • cityLAB is back IRL!

    After more than a year and a half apart, the cityLAB team is back in person. We’re welcoming new faces and new initiatives this summer but most importantly our continued efforts in reimagining urban space is stronger than ever!

    Follow along with us as we continue to share the brilliant work happening at cityLAB, The Urban Humanities Initiative, and coLAB.

  • Reflections in Lafayette Park

    With our community partners at HOLA and the Los Angeles Public Library, coLAB is embarking on a multi-year partnership to “reinvigorate a neglected garden in the middle of our city.” Reflections in Lafayette Park, which was awarded a prestigious NEH Planning Grant, will return the space behind the historic Felipe De Neve Branch Library in Lafayette Park to active community use through interdisciplinary humanities programming. Events and installations will be enacted through our research and collaborations with community artists and curators.

    Link here for more details.

  • Former cityLAB fellow, Per-Johan Dahl, on BIHOME

    The global pandemic has put into question how urban planning and ADUs can provide a greater resilience to future outbreaks, writes Dr. Per Johan Dahl.

    Link here for more details.