Organized by the Chase L. Leavitt Graduate Building Science Program and the School of Architecture in partnership with the USC Dornsife College and the Sol Price School of Public Policy 

Los Angeles faces a critical shortage of housing units, a crisis made worse by the loss of over 12,000 structures due to devastating wildfires. Los Angeles already had the fewest number of homes per adult of any major U.S. City and construction of new housing units is notoriously slow, inefficient, and unaffordable to most Angelenos. The metropolitan region now comes to terms with an unprecedented recovery and rebuilding effort with a greater understanding of the risks and costs associated with conventional policies and practices governing buildings, infrastructures and urban landscapes.

This symposium will explore the potential to accelerate and scale up the efforts of architects applying innovative high-productivity construction methods to deliver affordable housing while simultaneously addressing the need to ensure resilience in the face of the increased frequency and scale of climate-worsened disasters. 

The objective of the symposium is to identify the barriers and facilitators to achieving a factor of ten (10x) improvement in housing affordability, construction speed, availability and resource efficiency over standard expectations. Participants will work to envision and map innovative approaches to rebuilding of fire-devastated areas and to increasing the availability of housing units across the region with renewed understanding of the need for resilient design and retrofit strategies at scales ranging from building details to community and regional plans. Speakers include a broad range of subject matter experts at the forefront of addressing these challenges.

More information at https://arch.usc.edu/events/housing-10x