SCI-Arc task force rethinks how Los Angeles rebuilds after wildfires

After the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles showed how fragile Southern California's ordinary housing can be, SCI-Arc set up its Resilient Futures Task Force. Rather than simply rebuilding the same houses to the same outdated codes, teachers, researchers and students set out to help displaced homeowners with very practical questions: building safety, soil toxicity, emergency funding and insurance claims, all through public community meetings.

The group has since grown into a wide coalition of architects, engineers, scientists, material specialists, non-profit developers and financiers, from Angel City Lumber and Timberlab to JPMorgan Chase and TU Delft. Public panels have covered mass timber, alternative materials, the economics of rebuilding and fire-adapted landscaping.

Its first year ended with Architecture After the Fires, an exhibition of nearly 70 home designs for fire zones, with work from Morphosis, Lorcan O'Herlihy, Studio Murnane and others. One that stands out is the Small Long House by Current Interests in Altadena, built in noncombustible masonry and fibre-cement, meant to be a main home first and a guest house later.

The exhibition has closed, but a book documenting the projects is on the way, and further research into risk modelling and simulation is planned. Worth following for anyone interested in how cities live with fire.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 6 November 2026. Read the original

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