California Dreaming

California has historically provided a fertile breeding ground for radical modes of architectural thinking, practice and building, which from the 1920s onwards was sparked by the presence of eminent émigré architects. It was also central to the birth of ‘cool’ mid-century Modernism – all in parallel with the intense concentration of design and experimentation in the film, aerospace and tech industries. This AD issue explores the influential formal tropes generated in the nexus between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as the thriving theoretical preoccupations that have brought California's architects global attention. Between Hollywood and the Silicon Valley, this unique context has nurtured and become the platform for those who not only build buildings around the world, but have also founded and directed schools and educated emergent generations of architects. Contributors: Frances Anderton, Jasmine Benyamin, Blaine Brownell, Courtney Coffman, Heather Flood and Aaron Gensler, David Freeland and Brennan Buck, Craig Hodgetts, Max Kuo, Eva Menuhin, Nicole Meyer, Jill Stoner, and Grace Mitchell Tada. Featured architects: Atelier Manferdini, Ball-Nogues Studio, Faulders Studio, FreelandBuck, Hood Design Studio, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Preliminary Research Office, Stereobot, and Synthesis Design + Architecture.

Introduction The Golden State: California's Architectural Soul Chapter 2 Backlot Suburbia: A California Story Chapter 3 Californian, The Third Way Chapter 4 Material Imageability: The Architecture of Façades and Envelopes Chapter 5 Printing the Picture Plane: Imaging Scales Up Chapter 6 California Burning: Architecture's Pyrocene Future Chapter 7 Do Dream Landscapes Have Earthquakes? Chapter 8 Extra-disciplinary Dreams: Journeys Into the Foothills Chapter 9 The Picture and the Frame: Understanding a Contested Landscape Chapter 10 A Hands-on Conceptual Rigour: A Multi-scalar Approach Chapter 11 There's Something in the Air: Authorship, the Hand and the Machine Chapter 12 Housing the Unhoused: Los Angeles Architects Rise to the Challenge Chapter 13 Skin and Bones: Pushing the Event Horizon Chapter 14 In the Mood for Love: Chromophilia Unbound Chapter 15 From Another Perspective – Morphosis Modelling: A Golden Anniversary Contributors About Architectural Design