There have been red flag warnings in some part of Southern California for 14 of the last 17 days. The stretch started January 7, the day the Palisades and Eaton Fires started.
The dangerous conditions continue to pose a threat to our nation’s second largest city. The topography of Los Angeles is complex. The two biggest mountain ranges— San Gabriel Mountains and Santa Monica Mountains surround densely populated valleys. This is what we mean by wildland urban interface. More homes in LA are threatened by wildfire than are not. There are more homes in the valleys than are built on the hillsides. Once a wildfire starts it will be put out unless the winds are blowing. If there are high winds and they are moving toward populated areas, they are becoming impossible to defeat. Because of our slightly warmer, slightly drier climate hazardous fire conditions become next level dangerous— we have never seen wildfire like this because our climate has never been like this.
With the two biggest fires now contained the process of cleanup begins. This will be a long road. Disposing of the toxic ash and the ruins of 16,000 buildings will be a feat unlike any ever attempted. The sheer volume of material to be moved will require an armada of front loaders and dump trucks. Because of the toxicity problem every load will need to be covered, every worker will require respirators, and even at that many will face life threatening consequences doing this work. This isn’t an ordinary unserious situation. Destructive hurricanes surely can present similar challenges, but in LA it is the hazardous windblown contamination that will remain a threat to human health for the entirety of the cleanup process.
I’d like to take you on a trip to Sedona, Arizona. A member of my family works as a contractor and has built several unconventional extra fireproofed homes. Imagine there is a building site, and you pour a flat wall on the ground made of concrete. Next you will set Styrofoam down and then pour another layer of concrete sandwiching the insulating Styrofoam between. There is no wood in this construction system. Once walls are stood the most fire-resistant roof will be built with no eaves. You are essentially building a rectangular shape that gives no opportunity for embers to trigger fire. In this resilient system you will refrain from planting near sides of home, you want any kind of flammable plant or tree setback some distance.
We’ve been building houses with wood since the 1800’s. Most of us are familiar with this type of construction, most of us know how to work on build and repair homes of this type. We’ve done sheet rocking, tiling, plumbing, electrical on wood framed homes. Wiring, tiling, setting in windows and doors is done differently in the concrete/Styrofoam method than is common in a stick-built house. There is a learning curve for sure. Like the electric car it takes some adjusting to the technology, but that’s the job we all face, we find ourselves living in a world where the old way of doing things is out and the new way is in.
Making cement releases a lot of greenhouse gases, it is energy intensive, you know like 1800 degrees hot. Our decarbonizing the cement supply will likely require our using hydrogen rather than fossil fuels. The good news is that if you don’t have to move hydrogen working with it is less expensive. Setting up a hydrogen powered cement manufacturing site near Southern California is well within reach of our existing technological abilities. Yes, legacy industries in the building trades might pushback, drag their feet. I think homebuyers will prefer to live in a home built to survive wildfire. Those that do not, well good luck with that.
Some decades ago, I walked through a model home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was my first encounter with a lower cost residential design known as a Usonian Automatic. Wright’s construction methods were similar but didn’t include the insulating benefits of Styrofoam. His method did include creating forms and pouring concrete. His variety of bricks measured about 2 feet square and were slid down on vertical rebar that has been set in the foundation prior to building the walls. Some builders found it challenging to keep these building blocks properly square and in alignment. The larger poured concrete/Styrofoam wall system I am describing reduces these problems because you do not have so many individual bricks to keep true and plumb.
The actual floorplan of the Usonian Automatic is simple, elegant and pleasing. Think of an L shape, two rectangles, one wing for the bedrooms the other for the great room and kitchen. Inside of the L shape is the courtyard and on the outside of the L shape is the entrance. Wrights’ genius was his understanding of how space and light can be so deeply emotional to the occupants, how his designs bring a certain ease to the person living in such a space.
We are an odd creature. We are resistant to change, not all of us, but this friction will require our best efforts to overcome. Altadena and the Palisades provide an opportunity to meet our new moment. Most of the homes are gone and it makes sense to rebuild the 16,000 new homes that can withstand wildfire.
South of Sedona is the architectural experimental site known as Arcosanti. This too was concrete slab construction also built without Styrofoam. It was intended to be a demonstration project where the population lived within an interconnected multiple story structure that optimized space, preserving as much natural open surrounding space while compacting as much of the residential and commercial space into one larger building. It is a mix of rectangles, a variety of different levels, all interconnected with large hallways. Much of the design extends the vernacular of combining the best indoor spaces with the most dynamic relationship to the outdoor spaces. The surrounding desert would be for growing food and recreation. Ecological balance was its Northern Light.
If we scaled up our imaginations, I don’t think it too far a distance to travel to see that several larger communities of this kind could be built in place of single-family homes. Seismic issues would need to be addressed, wildfire is one problem while earthquakes another. Learning to live in a larger building with 3000-5000 residents would require our most talented creatives to help make more human friendly. If you can get a haircut, pickup your drycleaning, go to your office, drop your kid off at school and do this all on foot within the fireproofed safety of your community that would really be something of a new way of life.
When viewed across the dynamics of a time horizon the innovations in technology and architecture will all be in play. Listening to a local real estate expert he placed a price tag of at least $1000 per square foot to rebuild the Palisades. We gutted our building in 2019 and paid about $300 a square foot for our remodel. This higher per foot price will simply be unaffordable for many of the survivors and refugees of the Palisades/Altadena fires.
For sure many of our best minds are hard at work thinking all of this through. This left brained writer is unimpressed with those clinging to the past, planning to rebuild what they lost, without considering the new technologies and architecture, without thinking through construction materials, fearful of the unknown adventures that a more collective living arrangement might provide.
Deep down in our brainstem, down at our instinctual level, where lurks our most primordial parts, where our own personal wildlands live, there is inside of us a profound desire to live in safety. We do not want to be devoured by a Sabertoothed tiger or a Santa Monica Mountain wildfire. We will if given the opportunity seek refuge from events that threaten us. Our own personal safety, our personal boundaries, our skepticism of living closer together rather than all scattered across a landscape, these different solutions offer us a different set of worries. This is where California’s opportunities are now framed. Some of our architects have spent their entire career chasing this moment, this unexpected turn in how we build, in how we live together, how we sustain ourselves. We live in interesting times.
