{"id":418289,"date":"2026-01-20T07:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418289\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T07:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:55:13","slug":"architects-concerned-by-disjointed-la-wildfires-rebuild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418289\/","title":{"rendered":"Architects concerned by disjointed LA wildfires rebuild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hasty rebuilding efforts following the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires<\/a> are risking a repeat of the disaster, architects on the ground have warned. Dezeen US editor Ben Dreith<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

Devastating fires<\/a> shocked the US as they raged across Los Angeles<\/a> and its surrounding areas for several days last January.<\/p>\n

More than 16,000 structures \u2013 many timber-framed houses \u2013 were destroyed in the blazes, mainly in the Palisades and Altadena areas of LA.<\/p>\n

With the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the fires becoming more common, future similar events are highly possible \u2013 but a year on, people involved in the recovery told Dezeen that the opportunity to make neighbourhoods more fire-resilient is being missed.<\/p>\n

Owners of destroyed homes “not able to upgrade”<\/p>\n

Responsibility for rebuilding is falling on individual homeowners who are usually reliant on their insurance providers to pay for the work, architect Zoltan Pali<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

But insurance company policies often require that replacement buildings match what was there before \u2013 even if they were vulnerable to fire.<\/p>\n

“You’re not able to upgrade because they are saying ‘we are only required to give you back what was there’,” said Pali.<\/p>\n

Almost everyone Dezeen spoke with recognised insurance difficulties as the primary barrier to rebuilding.<\/p>\n

Beyond the existing fire codes<\/a>, which are extensive, the city has only issued recommendations for material choices, with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety instructed under an executive order<\/a> to provide “recommendations to promote fire-resistant construction materials”.<\/p>\n

This effectively means that selecting more fire-resistant materials is “voluntary”, Pali added, and only an option for those able to afford it.<\/p>\n

\"ZoltanZoltan Pali’s studio SPF:Architects is using brick for a rebuild project<\/p>\n

According to local architect Barbara Bestor<\/a>, who is working on multiple projects in the area, skyrocketing material and construction costs, as well as the dominance of wood-oriented construction firms, are making it harder to rebuild more resilient homes.<\/p>\n

“You have to build with whoever can build it for you, for what you can afford,” she told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“And that’s often not even an architect. That can be a construction company where you choose one of three designs. I don’t know what’s governing those choices and those projects.”<\/p>\n

After extensive detoxification efforts, the city and county have begun expediting permitting, with 1,236 building permits issued in LA County and 1,494 in the city of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Large developers such as Thomas James Home, which completed the first rebuild late last year<\/a>, have led the building effort, utilising executive orders<\/a> to circumnavigate regulations. For instance, Executive Order One created waivers to bypass the strict California Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, only a handful of replacement homes have been completed so far, according to reporting by ABC News.<\/p>\n

“They’re absolutely guaranteeing the next catastrophe”<\/p>\n

To further speed up the process, LA County has made platforms where people can view and utilise pre-approved floor plans that have already been checked for zoning, and is even experimenting with AI to approve pending plan applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, even with tax relief<\/a> and charity support<\/a>, the building efforts are being carried out individually or by developers, leaving architects uncertain as to what a reconstructed Los Angeles looks like.<\/p>\n

“No one really knows what the landscape will look like when it’s filled out again in a few more years,” said Bestor.<\/p>\n

Ken Calligar, who owns RSG-3D<\/a>, a company that manufactures a concrete-based, fire-resilient building panel system, argues the current focus on building quickly is all but inviting another disaster.<\/p>\n

“They’re absolutely guaranteeing the next catastrophe,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“We have one of the greatest resiliency deficits of any industrialised country in the world, and it’s been built this way by developers and contractors trying to make a quick buck for decades, and now we’re paying the price.”<\/p>\n

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LA architects form aid groups to make rebuilding “as streamlined as possible”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, several rebuilding initiatives have caught the attention of the architecture community, harkening back to California’s experimental modernism.<\/p>\n

Last year, two case study house initiatives were launched to create forward-thinking single-family homes, with one of the projects, Case Study: Adapt<\/a>, beginning construction soon.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Small Lots, Big Impacts<\/a> is a pilot programme facilitated by UCLA CityLAB that seeks to address both resiliency and the housing crisis on city-owned land, partnering with developers to build designs gathered through a competition.<\/p>\n

Within these projects, there is a focus on rethinking the material composition of the city, which is largely wooden.<\/p>\n

\"SmallSmall Lots, Big Impacts is among the initiatives rethinking land use in the wake of the fires. Image by Ginzok Architecture PC and Studio BAD<\/p>\n

There are examples of architects choosing to reject timber<\/a> as a structural material. Pali is currently rebuilding a home in the Pacific Palisades using all brick for the structure, an unusual move for southern California.<\/p>\n

Calligar said that his firm is working on more than 130 projects in the area, an exponential increase from late 2024.<\/p>\n

The US Green Building Council, California, has released a study<\/a> with recommendations on building that is both resilient and climate-friendly. It is also helping to organise a marketplace<\/a> that would create a central place to buy resilient materials.<\/p>\n

Other rebuild projects are experimenting with modular homebuilding techniques, as well as on-site robotic factories<\/a>, or a more low-tech approach with adobe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bestor, who is working on Case Study: Adapt, said she is encouraging small design choices that can improve resilience.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Los<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to imagine an effective recovery from the LA fires”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of full-scale structural changes, Bestor said that small “low-cost resiliency” moves are the most important that people looking to rebuild for resilience can make.<\/p>\n

These design decisions include foregoing eaves, clipping rafters, and increasing setbacks in properties.<\/p>\n

She also advocates for eliminating roof vents by using spray insulation, which she said can be key to avoiding catastrophic flashovers.<\/p>\n

“The houses explode from the inside, that’s the issue,” she explained. “The embers get in, and then the house explodes.”<\/p>\n

Bestor is currently in construction on seven houses in the Palisades and two in Altadena. One house in the Palisades is wood-framed with plywood siding but incorporates fibreglass-faced gypsum board and will be clad with stucco, with a flat roof.<\/p>\n

\"BestorBarbara Bestor has designed a house with a flat roof and wrapped in densglass in the Pacific Palisades. Photo by Daniel Yaguchi<\/p>\n

While the architecture community and organisations have sought to move the conversation forward with their recommendations and initiatives, some are asking if this individual approach to the rebuild is enough.<\/p>\n

According to local architect Greg Kochanowski<\/a>, innovative moves on “isolated buildings” may not be sufficient to address the problems facing Greater Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, we have seen mostly isolated building proposals rather than systemic and holistic strategic thinking up to this point,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A resilient house that is disconnected from infrastructure planning, code pathways, and insurance recognition risks remaining symbolic rather than systemic.”<\/p>\n

The question of setbacks and defensible space \u2013 areas of landscaping that slow fire \u2013 has remained top-of-mind for people thinking at the block level, but little has been seen in the way of neighbourhood-wide or city planning, according to Kochanowski.<\/p>\n

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“In post-disaster cities like Los Angeles, we need new model homes and we need them now”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no current plans to introduce so-called “managed retreat” strategies or to consolidate land for defensible parks while densifying these historically suburban areas.<\/p>\n

And no significant steps have been taken to retrofit existing communities in surrounding areas to protect them in the event of future wildfires.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an executive order banning<\/a> the division of single-family land parcels into multiple units through Accessory Dwelling Units<\/a> in parts of the Palisades has cast doubt on whether adding density in the rebuilding process is likely, raising concerns that the spread of development into fire-prone areas will continue.<\/p>\n

However, Kochanowski said that some recent initiatives, such as LA County’s developing Community Wildfire Protection Ordinance<\/a>, which seeks to amend the way that subdivisions are set up in high-risk areas, do bode well for future disasters.<\/p>\n

“A tilt away from McMansions”<\/p>\n

The architects we spoke with expressed hope in smaller levels of organisation. Several mentioned the potential for homeowner association-level organisation, with neighbours banding together to create shared landscaping elements, or community land trusts that would pool land to reconstitute neighbourhoods using preexisting property.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear whether the forward-thinking of architects will significantly impact the rebuilding process up against the need for immediate shelter \u2013 many people are running out of insurer-paid temporary housing credit \u2013 and developers and corporations, which continue to buy up land<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of idealism, but it does come up against the economics of construction loans,” said Bestor.<\/p>\n

As a possible upside, both Pali and Bestor noted a trend toward building smaller.<\/p>\n

“The best big-picture thing right now is a tilt away from McMansions,” said Bestor. “For actual people rebuilding their house, what do they really need?”<\/p>\n

The top photo, taken in Pacific Palisades in summer 2025, is by Iwan Baan.<\/p>\n

Dezeen In Depth<\/p>\n

If you enjoy reading Dezeen’s interviews, opinions and features,\u00a0subscribe to Dezeen In Depth<\/a>. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.<\/p>\n