MIIM Designs

LA Fires Recovery: How to Save Your Trees

Did you know that you can preserve trees on your property after the LA fires? LA County and the Army Corps have issued tree waivers, allowing homeowners to protect their valuable trees.

Here's what you need to know:

1. Act Fast: When contacted by contractors, communicate your decision to preserve trees through the "RIGHT of ENTRY PROCESS."

2. Submit Documentation: Send forms, waivers, diagrams, and lists of trees to be preserved to the Army Corp contractors, ideally before they call.

3. Get Help: Need assistance with diagrams or finding an arborist? MIIM Designs can help! Check link below for more instructions on how.

https://bit.ly/3RcdfO0

Let's work together to restore our beautiful landscape! 🌳

As we wrap up an intense charrette week for another project, we wanted to pause and reflect on a project that was constantly referenced as a precedent -- PLAYTIME in AFRICA, an initiative by one of our clients, Foundation 

Ghanaian writer and educator Efua T. Sutherland was the country’s foremost cultural advocate for children and presided over Ghana’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and was the dynamic chair-person of the National Commission on Children from 1981 to 1991. The inspiration of Playtime in Africa, derives from a pioneering photo essay by Efua T. Sutherland and Willis Bell. Published in the early 60s, the book captured the imaginative games of children all over Ghana. Fifty years later it remains remarkably current, showcasing a timeless sense of joy and playfulness that has too few outlets in urban Ghana today.
Sutherland established the UN Article 31 in which it states: “1. State parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. 2. State parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.” Prior to her death, she dedicated 2 acres of land in Accra to be designed for the next generation of kids, in hope that open space in the built environment as well as child-centered design of outdoor and indoor spaces – would be the tools needed for creativity and growth of generations to come, especially in pressing as Ghana, and the African continent as a whole, continues to urbanize.  As Ghana continues to urbanize, we at MIIM Designs have noticed that there is a severe lack of playspaces for children other than their schools. With an urban area of about 2 million people, there is currently a great lack in public green spaces. As a result, children create their own play spaces - The Playtime in Africa.

https://www.miimdesigns.com/blogs/2025/1/8/la-fire-note-miim-emergency-closure-notice

MIIM Designs MIIM EMERGENCY CLOSURE NOTICE  Dear Clients, Colleagues, and Friends: We wanted to update you regarding where MIIM’s operation stands during the ongoing fires that are taking place across Los Angeles and Southern California. 

Maryam takes part in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the Pratt Institute, School of Architecture Teachers Summit dedicated to Summit for Climate Agency: Teaching the Design Experiment in Brooklyn, New York Summer '22 for the TNC Dangermond Capstone Studio that she lead.
https://www.miimdesigns.com/blogposts/2024/8/8/maryam-miim-designs-take-part-experimental-landings-exhibit

Manhattan Beach Restoration Project
Collaboration: The Bay Foundation | The State Coastal Conservancy | Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors | Coastal Restoration Consultants | The City of Manhattan Beach

Context
The history of Manhattan Beach is one of dynamic change. In the late 1920ʼs, excess sand from Manhattan Beach was purchased from the Kuhn Brothers Construction Company. Across geomorphological time, the littoral flow along the Western Coast has widened Manhattan Beach in symbiosis with the development of the coastline. Aerial photos of the Pier, over the past one hundred years since the sand extraction, reveal that Manhattan Beach is widening. While this process of littoral flow will slow given reduced natural sediment nourishment, our proposal for a tapestry of microdunes and microcosms extending from tidal line to housing boundary, will harvest wind blow sand
through fencing, erosion control fabric, and through rewilding planting, to initiate a new process of dunescaping. As the beach continues to grow both out and up we will harness the embodied energy of natural processes that work symbiotically with our design, to build a resilient foreshore in the wake of sea level rise.
While the majority of the previous Manhattan Beach dune ecosystem lies buried beneath the cityʼs buildings and streets, the continued growth of the shoreline over the past 100 years seen by the gradual exposure of sand beneath the Pier, hints at the opportunities our design team will catalyse. Our team envisions a strong sensory narrative that engages the ephemerality of the seasons and cycles that have continued to remake the shoreline throughout time, including the growth of new territory seaward and new topography skyward.

Through a four technique process:
1. Dune Nourishment,
2. Fencing & Fabric,
3. Planting & Rewilding, &
4. Runoff Capture;
our design will generate a sensory spectacle of microcosms within an undulating microtopography of miniature sand dunes.