Affordable by Design
Course Summary:
This course examines how contemporary housing constraints in Santa Fe and across the United States directly affect public health, safety, and welfare—and how architects can intervene through design, code literacy, and policy awareness.
Beginning with the human consequences of housing instability, the program explores how “starter homes, co‑living, and missing‑middle housing types have mostly disappeared from the market,” leaving families without safe or stable options during life transitions. Participants will analyze the land‑use and zoning systems that restrict unit diversity, mobility, and affordability, many of which date to early‑20th‑century regulatory frameworks.
The course then examines the real cost pressures shaping affordable housing production, followed by the design and energy‑code tradeoffs architects must navigate—tradeoffs that can unintentionally push development toward car‑dependent, higher‑risk environments. Finally, the session identifies already‑legal design opportunities in Santa Fe, including micro‑units, SROs, co‑housing, and informal multi‑household arrangements.
The course will emphasize how design decisions and regulatory literacy can expand safe, healthy, and equitable housing options.
Presenters
Stephanie Nakhleh is an independent journalist with 30 years covering Northern New Mexico. Formerly at the Los Alamos Monitor and freelancing for the Santa Fe New Mexican, she now publishes We Can Have Nice Things, a Substack on housing, transportation, and policy. She recently completed six years on the Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commission.
Carlos Gemora is a planning consultant that works with communities to articulate their values and how to develop data-informed solutions to complex housing, land use, and regulatory barriers. As a project manager for Sites Southwest, he is currently working on several urban, rural, regional, and statewide housing strategies.
Daniel Werwath is a housing policy and community development practitioner working on housing affordability and homelessness challenges across New Mexico and the Mountain West. He most recently served as Senior Housing Policy Advisor to the Office of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and has led several housing organizations, including the New Mexico Inter-Faith Community Housing Development Corporation, the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, and the Tierra Contenta Corporation.
1.0 LU/HSW