Overview

At OACLA, our goal is to deliver design and architectural services to marginalized communities by working with them to improve their environment. When people design and build their own environments, they take ownership of the places they create, sustain them long term, keep them safe, invest in them, and color them with their most precious expressions. OACLA is the Los Angeles chapter of Open Architecture Collaborative, a US-based nonprofit supported by a global chapter network, mobilizing architects and designers with technical skills to build capacity for greater community good. At OACLA, we believe that social change is enabled when communities work together and speak up with a common voice for their needs. To accomplish this, we partner with existing organizations that are already embedded in communities and have close relationships with members of their constituency. this allows us to bring in the expertise of architects and designers who can work with organizations to surface community needs and translate them into spatial and strategic design options.