Rethinking Affordable Housing: Codes, Design, and Community (virtual)
Overview
How do community-driven design, smarter building codes, and innovative small home solutions open new pathways to opportunity in cities nationwide? Join Lifetime Learning and the School of Architecture for an engaging look at how designers and researchers are transforming the future of affordable, equitable housing. Our panelists, Barbara Brown Wilson, Jeana Ripple, and Schaeffer Somers, will spotlight bold, actionable ideas that empower residents, challenge outdated systems, and inspire more affordable, resilient communities.
Speaker Biographies
Barbara Brown Wilson, Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture
Barbara Brown Wilson is an associate professor of urban and environmental planning at the UVA School of Architecture, and a co-founder of the UVA Center for Community Partnerships. Her research and teaching focus on the history, theory, ethics, and practice of planning for socio-environmental change, and on the role of urban social movements in the built world. Dr. Wilson writes for both academic and mainstream audiences and is the author of Resilience for All: Striving for Equity through Community-Driven Design (Island Press: 2018), and co-author of Questioning Architectural Judgement: The Problem of Codes in the United States (Routledge: 2013). Her research is often change-oriented, meaning she collaborates with community partners to identify opportunities to move our communities, and the field of urban planning, toward just transitions and positive transformations. She is also a proud board member for the Community Climate Collaborative (C3).
Jeana Ripple, Department of Architecture Chair, Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture
Jeana Ripple is a registered architect and the principal and co-founder of Mir Collective, with her practice and scholarship centered on the civic and environmental impacts of architectural design, especially building materials. She is the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor and Chair of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where she also serves as affiliated faculty with the Environmental Institute. Ripple’s work has earned international recognition through awards, competitions, and exhibitions, and her book The Type V City offers a groundbreaking analysis of how building codes shape urban material inequity. Prior to UVA, she practiced at Studio Gang, and her teaching integrates design, research, and advanced technology across studios and computational courses.
Schaeffer Somers, Assistant Professor of Architecture, NCARB Licensing Advisor, School of Architecture
Schaeffer Somers is a registered architect and Assistant Professor of Architecture and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. His work bridges systems thinking, health impact assessment, and community-engaged design to advance affordable housing and healthy, equitable cities. With a dual background in aerospace engineering and architecture, he leads interdisciplinary courses and the Housing Futures Lab, where students collaborate with community partners to develop small-footprint housing strategies that support wellbeing, climate resilience, and neighborhood vitality. His research focuses on scalable housing systems and design approaches that integrate public health outcomes into the built environment.
This UVA Lifetime Learning program is in partnership with the UVA School of Architecture.
