Major Repairs: A Conference on Reparative Practices

Against the backdrop of an ongoing ecological emergency, the city is rebuilding itself—in the same way it has for the past century: buying into carbon-effusive material supply chains; advancing individual property development over alternative ownership models; hardening or controlling natural landscape; and incorporating toxic manufactured materials into housing without consideration of end of life. How do we repair the spaces we inherit, if we continue with the very architectural habits that led us to this disaster? Major Repairs is a conference addressing reparative practices, bringing together historical and reflective perspectives on the architectural and spatial responses to wildfire. Speakers and participants will elaborate on the new systems, practices, and habits needed to survive the ecological consequences of 20th-century modernist and postmodernist experiments. From the documentary history of fire management to alternative development models, from bioregional material inventories to feminist ethics of care, Major Repairs addresses the current rebuild efforts by centering non-extractive architectural perspectives and ideas.

Major Repairs is organized by Jia Yi Gu, Assistant Professor, Harvey Mudd College; co-director of Spinagu; and Char Miller, Director of Environmental Analysis; W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College.

The program is presented by Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design with Donatella Cusma, Monica Lamela and Lorena Garcia.