Concept houses shown at A+D Museum’s ‘Shelter’ exhibition

Many of the projects were based on sharing space. LA-Más had an intriguing proposal: getting neighbors to team up to produce more efficiently-designed granny flats in their backyards. By pooling space, they could achieve a higher density, without adding towering structures to the neighborhood.

Lorca O’Herlihy Architects used their project to consider the issue of water in dry Los Angeles. In their proposed designs, homes would be built specifically to store and purify water captured in the form of rain, storm surges and run-off.

The O’Herlihy proposal offered various schematics for capturing and retaining water. The concepts are not that far off: Los Angeles is in the midst of thinking about how it might better employ the precious water that travels the course of the L.A. River — much of which gets flushed out to the ocean.

The architects at PAR considered the architecture of the tower — and how it might be connected to mass transit and better integrated with green spaces.