Affordable Housing Summit
Affordable Housing Summit
CELEBRATING INNOVATION
Join us virtually on October 24th and 25th for our annual Affordable Housing Summit! This year we are elevating the strategies and stories that are inspiring us most right now. We will share stories and highlight the revolutionary work of affordable housing practitioners who are integrating community culture and sustainability, rapidly decarbonizing the sector, scaling healthy and accessible materials, and more. This summit will invite us all to imagine how we build a regenerative future for all.
Living Future Members ($80)
Living Future Members ($80)
Current Living Future Members receive a 10% discount.
Apply this discount code at check out: AHSMEM
Nonprofit Ticket ($70)
Nonprofit Ticket ($70)
Employees of non-profit organizations may utilize a reduced rate ticket.
Apply this discount code at check out: AHSNONPRO
Student and Financial Need Ticket ($25)
Student and Financial Need Ticket ($25)
This ticket is available to current students or those with an expressed financial need. We are able to offer a limited supply of this ticket type.
Apply this discount code at check out: AHSSTUDENT
Join us virtually on October 24th and 25th for our annual Affordable Housing Summit! This year we are elevating the strategies and stories that are inspiring us most right now. We will share stories and highlight the revolutionary work of affordable housing practitioners who are integrating community culture and sustainability, rapidly decarbonizing the sector, scaling healthy and accessible materials, and more. This summit will invite us all to imagine how we build a regenerative future for all.
October 24th Agenda
8 AM (PT) Day 1 Introduction
Speakers: Lindsay Baker, Susan Puri, Lea Celestial (Living Future)
Living Future CEO Lindsay Baker will welcome everyone to this year's Affordable Housing Summit and Susan Puri and Lea Celestial, Living Future's Affordable Housing Team, will introduce our themes for the two days.
8:30 AM Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Liz Ogbu, Studio O
Global leader and architect activist, Liz Ogbu, will kick us off with opening remarks. Liz and Living Future CEO Lindsay Baker will hold a conversation about how we can strive for a more equitable built environment.
9 AM Designing for Culture and Connection
Speakers: Sonja Bochart (Shepley Bulfinch), Sarah Bjornson and Brandon Parker (studioHuB architects)
Sonja Bochart will discuss how biophilic design can be utilized effectively to integrate culture and an essence of place. Sarah Bjornson will describe how their project team is leveraging Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Act to ensure their upcoming affordable housing building addresses the needs of their future indigenous residents, including adequately designing for past community trauma.
10 AM Break
10:30 AM Innovative Housing Models and Pathways to Homeownership
Speakers: Dylan Lamar (Cultivate, Inc.), Kalen McNamara (Frolic Community) and Faith Kumon (Heirloom Properties)
This session will feature the work of visionaries who are paving the way for greater access to homeownership through forward-thinking housing and development models. This will also describe innovative financial structures leveraging available local and federal funding for sustainability.
11:45 AM Day 1 Wrap Up
October 25th Agenda
8 AM (PT) Day 2 Introduction
8:15 AM Equity and Inclusion
Speakers: Daraja Brown (Georgia Tech/Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector Initiative), Marnese Jackson (Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition), Megan Girvan and Megan Repka (both from Architectural Nexus)
Explore frameworks for incorporating robust equity and inclusion, including Arch Nexus’ recently-launched Comprehensive Equity Toolkit and speakers from Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector Initiative, which brought together leaders in environmental justice, architecture, affordable housing, transportation, economic development, and sustainability to create a multi-faced plan to universalize access to sustainable, healthy, regenerative building design for the places where we live, work, learn, and play.
9:15 AM Shifting and Scaling Safer Materials
Speakers: Marilyn Specht (Introba) and Chris Hellstern (Miller Hull Architects)
Recognized leaders in the regenerative design movement and members of ILFI’s Materials Health TAG, will lend their extensive knowledge of selecting materials to this group.
ILFI 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 include an interactive (but low-pressure!) game to test out everyone’s knowledge of healthy materials.
10:25 AM Break
10:45 AM Innovations in Embodied Carbon
Speakers: Ruwan Jayaweera (PAE), Katie Ackerly (David Baker Architects), Sara Bayer (Magnusson Architecture and Planning), and Molly Cutler (Cutler Development)
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.
11:55 AM Summit Wrap Up
Featured Speakers
Liz Ogbu
A designer, urbanist, and spatial justice activist, Liz is an expert on engaging and transforming unjust urban environments. Her multidisciplinary design practice, Studio O, operates at the intersection of racial and spatial justice. Among her honors, she’s a TEDWomen speaker, Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellow.
Marilyn Specht
A recognized leader in sustainability, Marilyn often works directly with owners on an international scale, setting sustainability standards, and guiding them in implementing sustainability programs and strategies across their global portfolios. She volunteers on ILFI’s Materials Health TAG, USGBC’s Environmental Quality (EQ) TAG, and was recognized as one of the top 50 Women Leaders in Georgia for 2022.
Sonja Bochart
Sonja is a regenerative design strategist who fosters community health and well-being. She specializes in working with individuals, teams, and organizations to reach their potential - enabling design outcomes based on living-systems frameworks and approaches that awaken and lead to environments and experiences for people and the planet to flourish.
Chris Hellstern
Chris is the Living Building Challenge Services Director, senior architect and author with The Miller Hull Partnership in Seattle with a variety of project experience including six certified Living Buildings and more on the way. His book, Living Building Education, chronicles the story behind his first Living Building, the Bertschi School. Chris founded the Seattle 2030 Roundtable and co-founded the Healthy Materials Collaborative.
Marnese Jackson
Marnese is an Environmental and Climate Justice activist, advocate, trainer and educator. Marnese is the inaugural and first Black Woman Executive Director of Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition. Prior to her appointment, Marnese was the Co-Director of Equity and Community Engagement at Midwest BDC.
Katie Ackerly
Katie Ackerly is a Principal at David Baker Architects, a top multi-housing design firm based in San Francisco. Katie is DBA’s Sustainability Lead, and acts as the firm’s resource and advocate for building-performance tools and best practices.
Ruwan Jayaweera
As a Senior Principal at PAE, Ruwan has over 25 years of experience in mechanical engineering designs for sustainable, resilient buildings. Ruwan has provided expertise for thirty LEED-rated or registered projects and twelve net zero projects including Terwilliger Plaza Parkview Expansion, the largest Passive House project on the West Coast.
Dylan Lamar
Dylan is among the nation’s leading architects of sustainable housing. His practice is informed by his diverse experience as both a passive house consultant, and an innovative housing developer. Dylan has designed and developed multiple socially-nourishing clustered housing developments, and provided sustainability consultation on over a hundred passive house, net zero energy, and other high-performance buildings across America.
Sara Bayer
Sara A. Bayer, Associate Principal and Director of Sustainability at Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), manages many of the firm's most sustainable multifamily developments and leads firm-wide efforts on carbon reduction. Sara serves on the NYPH Board, chairs their Regenerative Metropolis conference and is a frequent presenter at industry events.
Megan Repka
In her role as Project Architect, Megan Repka, AIA, SEED AP is passionate about envisioning spaces that can be functional, equitable and beautiful. She works to ensure the community has input throughout the design process, securing ownership and leading to longevity that can define a project’s success.
Megan Girvan
Megan Girvan, AIA is a Project Manager at Architectural Nexus and Chair of their Social Equity Committee. A graduate of Clemson University's Masters of Architecture and Health program, Megan focuses in sustainable healthcare architecture, with the aim that her projects contribute to the healing of both people and the environment.
Sarah Bjornson
With over 20 years of architectural experience, Sarah excels in creative design and project coordination. She has a strong focus on affordable housing, bringing expertise in creating inclusive, equitable living spaces. A former A4LE PNW Region President and BC Chapter Governor, she mentors emerging architects and leads impactful community projects.
Brandon Parker
Brandon designs livable, sustainable environments with a focus on community. His architecture blends sociology and design, demonstrated by his innovative thesis on inflatable structures for protest environments. Committed to continuous learning and practical application, Brandon ensures his designs are both impactful and informed.
Daraja Brown
Daraja is an undergraduate Civil Engineering student at Georgia Institute of Technology. Passionate about the intersection of equity and infrastructure, she is involved in organizations like Georgia Tech's Building for Equity and Sustainability research team, the Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector Initiative's Governance Team, and ILFI's Equity in the Built Environment Steering Committee.
Scott & Molly Cutler
Scott and Molly Cutler own Cutler Development, a commercial real estate development firm based in Des Moines, Iowa. The firm’s mission is to “develop projects that better neighborhoods, society and the environment.” Their projects combine affordability and sustainability, and their most recent mass timber mixed-use building is on track to be ILFI Zero Carbon Certified.
Kalen McNamara
Kalen McNamara is Head of Community Architecture at Frolic Community, a mission-driven developer building community homes that everyday people can afford. Frolic sees the housing crisis as an opportunity to rethink how we live, creating homes that are more affordable, more connected, and empower people to do more with less.
Faith Kumon
Faith works at a nonprofit affordable housing developer in Minneapolis, managing the redevelopment of Opportunity Crossing at 3030 Nicollet. The project includes 110 units of affordable family housing over a rebuilt Wells Fargo and four commercial condos to sell to local entrepreneurs. It uses IRA credits for geothermal, solar, and Energy Star Multifamily.
A recording of the Summit will be available to attendees for 30 days after the event.
We look forward to seeing you there!