Design and Architecture

Can you create affordable housing by building luxury towers? A boom in development of large apartment towers has prompted a fight for a two-year moratorium on new projects that don't comply with the city's general plan. But planners say this moratorium will stymie efforts to create much-needed affordable housing. We visit the people at the heart of a development fight.

Apple's public feud with the FBI over cyber encryption offers a lesson in surveillance -- and branding. MOMA's Paola Antonelli takes us to the violent side of design, and artist Laurie Lipton captures the humor and horror in our dependence on technology.

Clinton campaign logo designer Michael Bierut discusses the power of logos. FIDM curator Kevin Jones looks at the Academy Award nominees for best costume designer, and double-nominee Sandy Powell shares the ideas behind her costumes for Carol and Cinderella. And we go inside LACMA’s new gift, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence.

Will the new NFL stadium in Inglewood be a “monolithic hulk” or an “aesthetic anchor” for a popular entertainment district? Designers, critics and the mayor of Inglewood discuss the design and its urban impact. Plus, a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Brentwood goes on the auction block.

DnA meets the man who rode a commuter Citi Bike across the country, gets the lowdown on the Pritzker Prize winner and the Presidential Library finalists, and looks at the exotic new breed of cat magazines.

DnA goes to CES, meets Girl Scouts and tours the Internet of Things. The shock of the new, a century ago, is on show in LACMA's New Objectivity. David Bowie's death leaves a massive legacy for music, fashion and "the fluidity" of today's world.

DnA reflects on what mattered in design and architecture in Los Angeles this year; the Chicago Biennial shows that big change can happen at a small scale; Gideon Brower finds that maintaining a city is a challenge, even when it's a model.

Recent shootings in Paris, Colorado and San Bernardino have added to growing jitters about public gathering. Will this impact the design of civic space? El Niño is coming but will we save the rain? Maybe not this year. But cities and water agencies across the region are looking at ways to become water self-sufficient in future.

High Speed Rail works when it connects people and businesses. Joe Mathews and Sam Lubell ask, will California’s bullet trains do that? What makes a house a home? A look at how designers create "homes" for absentee owners, and how the home-less create a sense of home.

Faraday Future, an electric car startup, looks to compete with Tesla. A graphic designer pays tribute to the Black Panthers. And a film about American road trips asks whether mobility is still a path to self-discovery.