Drawing on the material culture of Los Angeles's Latino communities, Candy Paint proposes a hybrid housing typology inspired by auto construction and lowrider aesthetics. Metal and auto-body shops occupy the ground level, with self-built apartment units above inhabited by the same tenants who work as mechanics below—collapsing the boundary between labor and domestic life. A standardized steel frame acts as a chassis for incremental construction using customizable kandy-painted corrugated metal panels. Tenants design their spaces, asserting authorship and identity. Exterior alleyways host car meets, extending domestic life into public space. The building culminates in a ziggurat form referencing Mesoamerican architecture and collective living.
