ArchWonder

While participating in the studio travel to Los Angeles, I thought a lot about what exactly I am trying to study, and what exactly am I trying to dive into regarding home and affordability, and availability. I came to a conclusion about my study and a topic that I have not really considered heavily till now. I looked into affordability, and what material and economic practices building or otherwise can affect that affordability. Another thought came to me while walking the dense urban streets of Los Angeles when I went to the observatory and watched as the lush urban landscape caved into the natural landscape that surrounds the observatory. This brought the question of how we compete with the growing population without compromising the beauty of the natural landscape that surrounds us? How do we continue to make housing and other sorts of architecture without trampling the natural elements that we find so beautiful? Those natural elements bring us serotonin just by seeing them out our

        I started this week by studying and searching for affordable building practices or construction options to see just how many options we have as architects.       Things like, what house types are the most affordable? What materials can be used the most cost-efficiently? What sort of building practice can affect the cost of the home?        Some of my findings were obvious, like finding types of materials that are multi-use, meaning not having to use 4-5 different materials to get the aesthetic you want or to create the house type the client wants. Some, not super well known, like the use of straw bales, Cob (which is a sort of mud-like material I had never seen), and earth bags, which I knew nothing about.           Here are just two of the pages I looked through in my search for affordable options regarding house cost: What Is the Cheapest Type of House to Build in 2023? (homebuyer.com) 8 Low-Cost Building Materials for Your Pandemic-Era Construction Project (constructelements