Davida Rochlin (born October 1951) is an American architect, active primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California.
She is known for her research on the American porch, which began with her Master's in Architecture thesis at the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design and continued throughout her career.
This experience eventually led to the publication of his book Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II (ISBN 9780060932275).
[5] Her research in this area was largely inspired by her experience growing up in Boyle Heights, then a diverse community made up of people of Jewish, Mexican, African, and Asian descent.
[4] Rochlin followed in her parents' footsteps by attending University of California, Berkeley, where she earned both a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Architecture in 1973 and 1976 respectively.
This research marked Rochlin early on in her career as an authority on American domestic vernacular architecture, particularly regarding the porch as both social custom and passive design.
The overall focus of Rochlin's work, starting with her porch research in the seventies and extending to her latest projects, is sustainability and energy efficiency.
At the Honakai House in Hawaii and Rancho Girasol in Taos, New Mexico, the porch takes the form of a ground level space that blends with the surrounding vast, rugged landscape and single story, low slung nature of the homes.
This arbor serves multiple purposes, including channeling the energy between inside and outside space and giving the home a distinctly California character.
[20] Much of the research Rochlin conducted during her thesis and tenure in Atlanta culminated in The Front Porch exhibition at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, California.