MAY 2018 FASTCOMPAN Y.COM 71 Photographs by Dan Monick
Trent Wolbe is standing on freshly broken soil in his backyard in the Los Angeles
neighborhood of Highland Park, giving a virtual tour of the structure that will
soon stand there—a small two-story, two-bedroom house designed to reflect
the neighborhood’s Craftsman aesthetic. “You get to the stairs through here, in
the back of the kitchen,” he says, describing the thousand-square-foot layout
of the home he plans to occupy with his partner, Grace Lee, and their toddler
once the project is finished, a move that will allow them to rent out their existing house in front. They began this effort—to build what city planners commonly refer to as an “accessory dwelling unit” (ADU)—two years ago, and they
admit to some weariness. “We’ve been exceedingly patient,” Wolbe says. Every
home-construction undertaking is a challenge, but since May 2016, Wolbe and
Lee have been pioneers in a real-world test for the City of Los Angeles, which is
using their project to design a potential solution to the region’s housing crisis.
The population of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the U.S., cracked
4 million in 2017, up from 3. 7 million in 2000. The metropolitan area is now
home to nearly 20 million people, up 2. 2 million in less than a decade. The improved postrecession economy has lured companies—and therefore jobs—to
L.A., aggravating the city’s notorious traffic problems and driving up housing
prices: Since 2011, the cost of an average one-bedroom apartment in L.A. has
increased 63%, and nearly a third of Angelenos now spend more than half their
income on rent. The vacancy rate for rentals is just 4%, and the city’s office of
housing policy estimates that more than 400,000 low-income families are experiencing severe overcrowding. All of this contributes to a rising homeless
WORLD;CHANGING IDEAS
01
Finding a Backyard
Solution
Accessory dwelling units
Office of the Mayor, City of Los Angeles
BY ADELE PETERS
