Smout Allen, in collaboration with Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG, have developed L.A.T.B.D., an exhibit for the University of South California (USC) exploring diverse narrative futures for the city of Los Angeles.
The project’s ultimate goal is to reveal some of the key forces that helped to shape Los Angeles, from its coastal ecologies to the rise (and future fate) of the city’s freeway system, from the region’s outsized role in the history of global astronomy to LA’s complex array of alternative religions. Incorporating elements of speculative fiction, game design, and a series of 3D urban models, L.A.T.B.D. depicts hypothetical future moments in this unrealised Los Angeles to come.
L.A.T.B.D runs until January 31, 2016 at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Memorial Library Treasure Room.
Mark Smout and Laura Allen are senior lecturers at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Together they run MArch Architecture Unit 11 while Mark Smout directs the Masters programme in Urban Design. Through architectural competitions and conceptual design projects, their work focuses on the dynamic relationship between the natural and the man-made and how this can be revealed to enhance the experience of the architectural landscape.
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Image: L.A.T.B.D. by Smout Allen for USC Libraries