Previous Events

Node Date

Assessing the Landscape of Corporate Ownership for Small Rental Properties

Date: Friday, April 1, 2022
The share of small (one-to-four unit) rental properties owned by corporate entities has grown steadily over the past several decades, rising from around 3 percent in 1990 to approximately 18 percent in 2018. To date, however, there has been little research into key questions about the types of entities that own the properties and where they are located.

Bringing Digitalization Home: How Can Technology Address Housing Challenges?

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2022 to Saturday, March 26, 2022
At this three-day symposium, leading scholars and experts discussed the nature and extent of technologically-driven changes in housing and whether these changes are likely to further (or hamper) efforts to address economic, social, and environmental challenges, such as housing affordability, discrimination, and climate change.

Designing AI Ethics, in Practice and in Public

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2022 to Thursday, March 24, 2022
Just as the design of user experience for AI and its related technologies are vital concerns for architects and designers, so too are questions about ethics and AI. In this talk, which will kick off the Center’s symposium on Bringing Digitalization Home: How Can Technology Address Housing Challenges?, Molly Wright Steenson will explore whether AI ethics, in practice and in public, is really about “ethics” and also discuss the role that design can, and has to, play in the decisions about AI and ethics.

Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems

Date: Friday, March 18, 2022
The nation’s growing geographic, economic, and demographic divides are reflected in and exacerbated by inequalities in housing markets, argues Jenny Schuetz in her new book, Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. At this event, Schuetz will discuss the structural problems within US housing systems that contribute to widely disparate outcomes

Have More People Moved During the Pandemic?

Date: Friday, March 4, 2022
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 seemed to reverse a longstanding decline in the share of Americans who move each year. Media narratives painted a picture of a nation on the move, with suburbs, rural areas, and vacation towns inundated with people fleeing dense population centers. But is there evidence of that spike?

Small Infrastructures

Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
In March 2021, the Biden Administration released the American Jobs Plan, earmarking $213B for “quality” and “affordable” housing, yet the bill lacks specificity on how houses are to be built. Here housing’s problem is split into two: a social one of accessibility and equity, and a material one of wood, metal, and rocks. Architects can play a unique role in bridging abstract policy ambitions to real construction as these connections are made every day in practice.

Does Our Housing Stock Meet Our Accessibility Needs?

Date: Friday, February 18, 2022
Many Americans who need accessibility features live in homes don’t have them. In this talk, Jennifer Molinsky, project director for the Center’s new Housing an Aging Society Program, will discuss a forthcoming paper that explores the demographic characteristics of residents who have challenges entering, navigating, and using their homes

Fellowships Open House

Date: Friday, February 11, 2022
Application deadlines are fast approaching for our summer fellowships and research grants. We invite Harvard graduate students to join us for a virtual open house to learn more about funding opportunities the Center offers.