05/29/2025
Only If is one of the winners of Los Angeles’ Small Lots Big Impacts competition, organized by cityLAB UCLA in collaboration with LA4LA, the Los Angeles Mayor's Office and the Los Angeles Housing Department.
The competition demonstrates ideas for designing and building a type of housing that is sorely needed in Los Angeles today: new starter homes for the 21st century. The last time the housing industry produced small, compact homes that were attainable for everyday people was just following WWII. In this competition, the submissions update that old approach by re-introducing smaller, affordable homes but doing so on infill lots that utilize recent legislation to hold multiple units, make better use of our limited urban land, and still fit into their residential surroundings.
Only If’s design was selected from 356 submissions from 36 different countries.
The jury commented, “Only If’s project is eminently buildable and provides a number of livable features for future tenants: parking is addressed; there are a variety of unit types, some of which span between stories; there are multiple discrete shared social spaces; and the model can easily expand to hold more units or shrink to hold fewer. Furthermore, the stepping back in two directions is a subtle but controlled strategy for providing exterior space and helping the building fit into its context.”
Only If team: Adam Frampton, Ava Violich Kennedy
Rendering: Tegmark
