Dana Cuff, “Coming Home: Crisis, Fire, and Recovery”

This talk features Dr. Dana Cuff, an educator, scholar, designer, and activist whose work examines how design can help create more just and equitable cities. Her presentation will focus on rebuilding efforts following the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena and on the broader housing crisis in Los Angeles.

Background

In 2006, Cuff founded cityLAB, a research and design center that launches experimental projects aimed at exploring more equitable possibilities for metropolitan areas. Beginning in 2019, cityLAB broadened its social and political involvement by building long-term partnerships with community organizations across the region, first in the Westlake/MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, and later, following the destructive fires of 2025, in Altadena.

Housing Prototypes

Through these efforts, cityLAB has developed sustainable, high-performance, low-cost housing prototypes designed for infill sites, ranging from backyards to schoolyards.

Talk Focus

In this session, Cuff will discuss the lab’s ongoing projects, concentrating particularly on its community-led initiatives developed in the aftermath of the fires.