The Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is pleased to invite you to the third At Recess, marking the launch of Billy Fleming’s new book, Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions. Fleming will be joined in conversation by Los Angeles writer Alissa Walker, moderated by Jenny Jones of Terremoto.
At Recess is an L.A. Forum series centered on books and the ideas shaping the built environment. Taking its name from the notion of “recess,” a pause for reflection, exchange, and dialogue, each session invites authors, editors, and thinkers to present recent publications and discuss the practices and perspectives emerging from their work with the Los Angeles community, fostering conversations that inform design discourse.
Building Postcarbon Futures
What would a postcarbon future look like? What would it take to build and maintain a more just, regenerative world? How would it feel to live—and to thrive—in that world?
Around the globe, people are transforming their social, ecological, and economic systems in response to the climate crisis. This book guides readers through 29 of these exemplary works, which span 43 nations and 6 continents. From Cuba to Kiribati, Iceland to the Andes, the prairies of North America to the expanding Gobi Desert, these case studies foreground the tactics and modes of practice being employed, often by marginalized peoples, to create more humane, hospitable places. With dispatches from more than a dozen leading scholars working on the front lines of the climate justice movement, Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions is both a celebration of action underway and a clarion call to the planners, designers, policymakers, and activists who are pushing this planet toward a future of collective flourishing.
Speakers
Billy Fleming is a leading voice on the role of design in responding to the climate crisis in our cities, communities, and landscapes. He is founding codirector of the Climate and Community Institute, a progressive think tank focused on climate and political economy, and assistant professor of landscape architecture at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia. Fleming was the inaugural Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an urban policy advisor to the Obama administration. He is coeditor of Design with Nature Now (2019) and A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy (2021).
Alissa Walker has written about Los Angeles transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy for 20 years. She is the editor of Torched, which reports on the civic investments and policy decisions that Los Angeles is making in preparation for its megaevent-hosting era.
Jenny Jones is a principal in the Terremoto Los Angeles office. Her work is rooted in ecology, localization, process, and community, working on private gardens, public parks, and schools in California and beyond. Jenny co-founded Test Plot, an ongoing experiment in stewardship and restoration of public landscapes, and also co-leads the Land & Labor internal working group at Terremoto.
Event Details
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026, 5:30-7:30 PM
Book: Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions
Location: Los Angeles, 90031 (location will be sent to ticketholders)
Tickets: $15 (non-members) $5 (L.A. Forum members and students)
Event capacity is limited to 50 guests.
Light refreshments will be provided
Event attendees will receive a discount code for online book purchases.
Please note:
This event will be held outside and is ADA accessible.
Street parking is limited. Public transit and rideshare are encouraged.
