At the International Living Future Institute, we have the privilege of working with affordable housing practitioners who are transforming the industry through groundbreaking innovations on every project. At this year’s Affordable Housing Summit, we are honored to showcase these projects and share them with you all. During the Summit, we will learn about projects such as a 28-story haven for LGBTQ+ seniors in Harlem that is designed for net zero operational energy and embodied carbon (see Innovations in Embodied Carbon Session below), a housing structure setting a new precedent for sustainability and designed with deep engagement with its First Nations residents in British Columbia (see Designing for Culture and Connection Session below), and houses designed to address the shortage of missing middle residential construction in the northwest and be adaptable to grow with families (see Innovative Housing Models and Pathways to Homeownership Session below).

The Summit will kick off with opening remarks by designer, urbanist, and social justice activist, Liz Ogbu, a global expert on engaging and transforming unjust environments. Her work is rooted in collaborating with communities and leveraging design to address systemic harm, catalyze community healing, and foster environments that support people’s capacity to thrive. We will also be joined by other noted experts in regenerative design such as Sonja Bochart and Chris Hellstern (both Living Future Heroes!). 

Our speakers this year have so much inspiration and knowledge to offer, and we are thrilled to host them all. We hope you will join us on October 24th and 25th as we celebrate innovation in the affordable housing field. As we look forward to this event, here’s a peek at more of our sessions and speakers:

Designing for Culture and Connection

These speakers are reshaping how we engage with the built environment by centering our deep connection with nature and with culture. 

Sonja Bochart is a prominent biophilia expert who has led biophilic design workshops that span 10 recent Living Building Challenge projects.

StudioHuB Architects will share how trauma-informed design principles and deep engagement with the local Indigenous community informed everything in the Chilliwack Housing Project in British Columbia, down to the facade pattern.

Innovative Housing Models and Pathways to Homeownership

We will feature the work of visionaries who are paving the way for greater access to homeownership through forward-thinking housing and development models. 

The three speakers in this session are all affordable housing developers utilizing strategies to rapidly increase the availability of housing in their communities and to leverage unique financial structures to provide opportunities for homeownership. These developers are creating new communities taking the form of structures such as community land trusts, co-ops, tiny house villages, grow homes and shared ownership models, all while employing sustainable and regenerative design principles.

Equity and Inclusion

Explore frameworks for incorporating robust equity and inclusion, including Arch Nexus’ recently-launched Comprehensive Equity Toolkit. 

This session will also feature two members of Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector (CESBS), an initiative that brought together leaders in environmental justice, architecture, affordable housing, transportation, economic development, and sustainability to create a multifaced plan to universalize access to sustainable, healthy, regenerative building design for the places where we live, work, learn, and play.

Scaling and Shifting to Safer Materials

Marilyn Specht and Chris Hellstern, recognized leaders in the regenerative design movement and members of Living Future’s Material Health TAG, will lend their extensive knowledge of selecting materials to this group. 

We will also introduce our new Safer Materials Shift initiative with our partners at Housing Partnership Network and Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future.

This session will also include an interactive (but low-pressure!) game with the group to help test out everyone’s knowledge of healthy materials.

Innovations in Embodied Carbon

This session will illuminate strategies for comprehensive decarbonization as pioneers in Zero Carbon affordable housing shed a light on the growing importance of embodied carbon in the sector. 

This panel will include four speakers, all of whom have been visioning and working diligently to decarbonize the affordable housing sector. These case studies will include a presentation on the tallest Living Future Affordable Housing Pilot Project to date, as well as an introduction by Ruwan Jayaweera of PAE, the engineering firm behind some of the largest Living Buildings, with 60+ projects having certified or in pursuit of the Living Building Challenge and Zero Energy Certification.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from these amazing speakers. Sign up here to register.

Cover photo credits:
Chilliwack Housing Project, rendering courtesy of StudioHub Architects
The Kelsey Civic Center, rendering courtesy of WRNS Studio, Mercy Housing, The Kelsey, and SPA
Hazelwood Biophilia Workshop, image courtesy of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative and Sonja Bochart
Carmen Villegas Apartments, rendering courtesy of Magnusson Architecture and Planning