About Social Media Today
Posts by Carren Jao Subscribe 
Los Angeles: An Ongoing Architectural Experiment
Yesterday was a fun day. I don't usually find myself saying that on Monday mornings, but a rare treat was offered to the city's architecture and design writers in the form of a press launch inside the Capitol Records building. The Welton Becket-...
A History of Home
We are often entrapped in the world of the now. We hardly ever look back, but it is surprising to find that once we do, we find the past is still lingers in every object around us. After having read Lucy Worsley's "If Walls Could Talk: An...
A Public Fruit Park Opens in LA
How does edible nature change the urban context? No one would know more than Fallen Fruit, a collaborative that uses "fruit" as a way to think about urban space and community building. Ever since they put their public fruit jams and published maps...
Architecture For The Underserved, For Under $15k
My inbox is often filled with photographs or renderings of glitzy new developments, glinting under the sun. Of course, it looks great, but lately, I find myself tiring of hearing multi-million budgets, LEED ratings over again. I absentmindedly...
Are the Poor Being Priced Out of the Developing World?
Cranes, scaffolding and gigantic buildings. That's what Metro Manila was during my last visit. In the four years I’ve been gone, the metro’s skyline has lurched upward. Where SM Megamall was once the largest building I could think of, now its feats...
The Makings of An Ideal City
Ever since I can remember, I was part of a bustling, heaving, rollicking city. By 2050, over 75 percent of the world will have shared my experience of heaving, bustling, rollicking city, which means that we all have to start assessing our...
Live Large in Small Houses
In my neighborhood, a simple drive down a major street reveals startling changes from block to block. One moment, I'm driving through an area dense with multifamily housing units, the next I'm walking through a peaceful meadow where a sprawling home...
How Does Colour Affect Urban Places?
It's hard to discount how color affects our mood. Just think back to the last time you were in a light-filled room with bright colors versus when you sat down for a romantic dinner with soft lights and half-dark shadows. Looking back, I'd say much...
What do mural ordinances do to community?
July 12, the City Planning Commission convened for an eventful session. From the looks of things, it wasn't hard to tell that it was going to be a long day. Two items up for public comment: the long-awaited mural ordinance and the proposed ban on...
The Tangle of LA's Public Infrastructure Agencies
A regular Joe might think it's easy to change something on the very streets they walk on, but they would be mistaken. Before anything happens, a proposal and a plan has to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy, as graduate planning student Huma...
