Simple solution that allows to block the parent layoutSubview-triggering, see https://gist.github.com/steipete/9723421. In short, changing a frame of a subview outside of layoutSubviews will trigger the parent's layoutSubviews. Sometimes this is not what we want, especially when you consider performance. In my case (http://pspdfkit.com) this was…

UIView+PSPDFKitAdditions.h

@interface UIView (PSPDFKitAdditions)

// Allows to change frame/bounds without triggering `layoutSubviews` on the parent.
// Not needed for changes that are performed within `layoutSubviews`.
- (void)pspdf_performWithoutTriggeringSetNeedsLayout:(dispatch_block_t)block;

@end


#import "UIView+PSPDFKitAdditions.h"
#import <objc/runtime.h>

static NSString *const PSPDFSuppressLayoutKey = @"pspdf_suppressSetNeedsLayout";

@interface PSPDFSuppressLayoutTriggerLayer : CALayer @end
@implementation PSPDFSuppressLayoutTriggerLayer

- (void)setNeedsLayout {
    if (![[self valueForKey:PSPDFSuppressLayoutKey] boolValue]) {
        [super setNeedsLayout];
    }
}

@end

@implementation UIView (PSPDFKitAdditions)

- (void)pspdf_performWithoutTriggeringSetNeedsLayout:(dispatch_block_t)block {
    CALayer *layer = self.layer;
    // Change layer to be our custom subclass.
    if (![layer isKindOfClass:PSPDFSuppressLayoutTriggerLayer.class]) {
        // Check both classes to see and break if KVO is used here.
        if ([layer.class isEqual:CALayer.class] && [layer.class isEqual:object_getClass(layer)]) {
            object_setClass(self.layer, PSPDFSuppressLayoutTriggerLayer.class);
        }else {
            // While we could use dynamic subclassing, that amount of complexity isn't needed in our case.
            // If we're a different layer type, the generic KVC store value is simply ignored, so no need to quit.
            NSLog(@"View has a custom layer - not changing.");
        }
    }
    if (![[layer valueForKey:PSPDFSuppressLayoutKey] boolValue]) {
        [layer setValue:@YES forKey:PSPDFSuppressLayoutKey];
        block();
        [layer setValue:@NO forKey:PSPDFSuppressLayoutKey];
    }else {
        // No need to set flag again. Allows to be called this multiple times.
        block();
    }
}