Sometimes, I would really like to help on some issue, but I really
don't know how to solve something. Rebuilding after the Los Angeles fires
would be one of those times. The root problem: many of those houses
have to adapt to not one, but two quite different sets of contextual conditions:
L.A.in the summer and storms from the sea, L.A. in the winter and Santa Ana
winds bringing fire risks. Choose your problem...
I happen to know - from watching old movies of the 40s - that buildings right on
the sea in Malibu used to be summer cottages. So summer archithecture, open
to the sea with sloping roofs toward the sea, are great. In the winter, the place is boarded
up...
From the before pictures of Pacific Palisades, one sees tract housing on the Florida
model: houses all in a row. This is easy to build, and provides quick access for cleaning
and fire and crime control. Or does it. In a Santa Ana event, those houses spread fire
one to the other. As for those lovely hedges that protect from sea winds and give privacy,
all tinder in a dry year.
For now, people all want to rebuild their homes, unjustly taken from them. But on reflection,
the decisions on how and what to rebuild might be better seen as community decisions.
What kind of a place should the community be, where should services and schools go...
A seaside community protects its inner city. A fire prone community doesn't fear the desert,
it creates one around itself, with those lovely plants safely indoor inside a mall!!
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