Juan Garcia

Emiliano Perez

Suburban development, once envisioned as an ideal balance between rural and urban living, has failed to fulfill its promises. Its most constant challenges, urban decay, social isolation, and zoning policies that only allow outward expansion, often prompt quick, near-sighted fixes that ignore deeper, systemic inefficiencies, ultimately stunting long-term growth. This thesis investigates the latent potential of Los Angeles’ undefined lots, residual parcels shaped by infrastructural impositions, zoning regulations, and historical fragmentation. Rather than treating these sites as anomalies, it proposes a systematic framework for spatial adaptation, leveraging their irregular geometries to prototype alternative strategies for densification. By analyzing site-specific conditions, the thesis establishes adaptable rules that address contemporary urban needs, including housing accessibility, communal spatial organization, and reduced car dependency. Operating at multiple scales, these interventions integrate incremental growth models, cooperative land use, and multi-programmatic zoning reinterpretations. Focusing on the San Fernando Valley, a region defined by suburban sprawl and fragmented land parcels, the thesis challenges conventional suburban expansion and explores new paradigms of distributed density that respond to the evolving spatial, social, and regulatory landscape of Los Angeles.