What is happening at cityLAB?
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!
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".
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
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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!
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BRUINHUB OPENS FOR STUDENTS
Join cityLAB at the John Wooden Center for the grand opening of the BruinHub.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.