Architects and educators most impactful contributions to housing justice are often too quotidian to gain attention. But this is precisely the type of work that makes a real difference in residents lives. Luckily theres a conference for that. Presented by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), last months Intersections Research Conference: New Housing Paradigms illuminated the potential of small-scale, engaged housing design interventions. The program underscored how architectural skills can help alleviate housing inequities. The Austin, Texas conference convened housers to share vital research and design projects that otherwise might be overlooked. Participants from academia and practice examined housing as a process, a product, and a place through lectures, panels, workshops, and local tours. Chaired by Martin Httasch and Elizabeth Mueller of the University of Texas at Austin, with John J. Clark of Realm Architecture and Development and Florida Atlantic University, and hosted by the UT Austin School of Architecture, the event highlighted how architects can shape policy, revitalize historic housing models, effectively collaborate with residents, and design beautiful social housing.Architects Influencing Built Environment RegulationsOne compelling example of under-the-radar housing work came from the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB), which has rehabilitated almost 200 homes of low-income homeowners in rural Mississippi. Beyond delivering architectural interventions like roof replacements and foundation work that yield energy savings and improved resident health, Delta DB also handles the complex task of securing Home Repair government grants. Employing her architectural knowledge, founding partner Emily Roush-Elliott expertly translates homeowner needs into successful scopes and budgets, in turn enabling impactful design. Delta DB takes on work that other people dont want, and gets down and dirtyliterally. When a client with mobility issues complained of a roll-in shower that had never worked, Roush-Elliott crawled underneath the house and discovered that the plumbing was not hooked up. She admitted, I often roll into city offices really dirty. The history and emerging future of housing in Austin is not what you would expect. Austin was the first city in the U.S. to create a housing authority after the passage of the national 1937 Housing Act. But discriminatory planning histories have contributed to displacement Austin was 30 percent Black in the 1870s and is now just 7.5 percent Black. Responding to these spatial injustices, AIA Austins Housing Advocacy Committees successful policy reform campaigns offer a case study in how architectural expertise can influence built environment regulations. The Advocacy Committees in-depth research and reform proposals helped lead to policy changes, including Austins adoption of the HOME (Home Options for Middle-income Empowerment) Initiative, a series of code amendments designed to facilitate a wider range of housing options. The architects on the committee adeptly illustrated the physical and economic ramifications of lines of building code, thus influencing policy.Arelene Elwood and Shelby Blessing of Mobile Loaves and Fishes lead a tour of Community First! Village. (Karen Kubey)A visit to Community First! Village, a 393-resident tiny home development, uncovered valuable lessons for housing design processes. Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF), a nonprofit started in 1998, opened Community First! in 2015. While the group originally planned the development as an RV park, architects advised, Maybe if youre making permanent housing, it shouldnt have wheels!After partnering with AIA Austin DesignVoice on Tiny Victories 1.0, a 2014 pro bono microhome design competition, MLF realized that the resulting built tiny homes were successful only when they met specific residents needs. Designing for a generic occupant was not enough. The 2018 Tiny Victories 2.0, for the villages expansion, began then with a participatory design process, pairing architects with individual resident-clients. This produced a range of specific designs to be replicated, including Thoughtbarns 186-square-foot Daves Tiny Tall-Grass Retreat, designed for a resident named Dave and available for anyone else wanting to maximize privacy.Working with Marginalized GroupsThe best work of the conference was countercultural. Rather than serving the powers that be, the academic, research, and built work was produced in solidarity with marginalized groups who rarely have access to adequate housing, much less architectural services. Laura S. Wainer, from The City College of New York shared insights from her studio course Mi Casa, Mi Futuro in a panel that I moderated. Framed by the international right to housing, the studio collaborated with immigrant-focused nonprofit Make the Road and produced housing designs that support community control and collective ownership. Speculative, adaptive designs for collective housing emerged as a powerful theme. Two memorable projects transform everyday apartment building types to allow for shared spaces and care activities. Daniel Jacobs of University of Houston and Brittany Utting of Rice University reimagined the typical Houston drive-in apartment, transforming ground-floor parking into shared outdoor kitchens and repurposing courtyards as ecological havens. Los Angeles Shadow Housing by Jeffrey Liu of California Polytechnic State University, with Haylie Chan, features a common rooftop with walls angled to cast shadows, creating shifting shaded and sunny spaces for programs like lunchtime collective cooking and eating and afternoon co-working.Historical architectural research on eras of government commitment to affordable housing production resonated with current advocacy around decommodified housing. Architects Against Housing Alienations Adrian Blackwell of the University of Waterloo, and Sara Stevens of the University of British Columbia, shared research on False Creek in Vancouver and St. Lawrence in Toronto. These 1970s Canadian social housing developments were designed for walkability and community, but nixed deep affordability in favor of mixed incomes and tenuresa harbinger, Blackwell and Stevens argue, of neoliberalism. Dragana Zoric of Pratt Institute traced Yugoslavian developments from 1949 to 1974, when the country built two million housing units, depicting the restructuring of society reflected in evolving domestic architectures.Exploring Other Affordable Housing and Design StrategiesA productive, energizing Housing Studio Knowledge Sharing Workshop organized by Lynne Dearborn of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Christina Bollo of the University of Oregon, and Tom Collins of Ball State University, facilitated the exchange of pedagogical strategies among housing studio educators from North American institutions. A new online platform, Housing Design Teaching Network, promises to keep the conversation going.Lawrence Scarpa and Jeffrey Huber of Brooks + Scarpa offered a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the design of the firms 10,000 affordable housing units to date, from successful policy advocacy to creative negotiations with contractors. Super Bowl champion turned furniture designer Michael Bennett showcased his work with Studio Kr, emphasizing multiscalar designs that preserve African American and diasporic cultures.In a keynote address, Shaun Donovan, CEO and President of Enterprise Community Partners and former HUD Secretary, traced how his architectural education has informed his commitment to design excellence in government and now the nonprofit sector. He highlighted initiatives like New Housing New York and Rebuild by Design and discussed how his organization champions quality housing design through programs like Enterprise Green Communities. The discussion really got going when students from The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS)whose conference was at the same timepiped up with well-prepared, provocative questions. Asked to name the biggest obstacle in his work, Donovan cited local resistance to social housing. He called for architects to break through: Its much easier for people to imagine the worst if they cant see something. Seeing is believingthats something that designers have a particularly powerful way to help people understand.Donovans exhortations echoed the most inspiring elements of the conference. New Housing Paradigms affirmed the sometimes invisible yet critical roles that architects and educators play in advancing housing justice. The event set a hopeful tone for a growing movement toward improved and expanded social housing options. As Donovan implored the audience, Folks like me, we call ourselves housersand we need more people to join us.Karen Kubey is Assistant Professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto; and Convener, American Institute of Architects Right to Housing Working Group.