My work addresses climate justice by empowering communities to realize a more equitable distribution of land and resources. To address such complex issues, I often collaborate with community-based organizations and municipal agencies, and I combine tools of urban, architectural, and multimedia design.

Over the years, I’ve been drawn to approaches that I believe get to the roots of systemic change. One—decision-making tools—deals with the process of community empowerment. The other—property reform—shapes the space of community life.

My decision-making tools help community members explore, imagine, and debate potential responses to complex urban issues in a healthy, playful way. For example, I designed three board games, called In It Together, Bartertown, and Mix & Match, which play out more just and equitable responses to wildfires and rising seas. I also wrote a book called The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform, which exposes the politics behind sustainable design, and I co-produced a podcast series called Safari, which gives subway riders a tour of urban animal life just outside their windows. I reflect on such methods by writing about public engagement. I advocate for more direct, collaborative governance by those who are most impacted by design.

I also reimagine the space of property ownership. My goal is to foster regenerative economies and a more reciprocal relationship between people and land. In the Resilient by Design Challenge, for example, our team designed collectively-owned housing to protect communities from displacement due to sea level rise and gentrification. I also designed a hotel in Sichuan, China and a farmhouse in Sonoma, CA, where people can engage with bamboo and chapparal landscapes around them. I also research and write about exceptional community-based initiatives. I am currently writing a book called Property Playbook, which illustrates how activists and architects can co-opt property ownership to foster ecological vitality and repair the dispossession of land from workers and BIPOC people.

These projects (and a few others) are also linked below. Please be in touch!

Books

Property Playbook
The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform

Articles and Editorial on Property
on Engagement
on Climate and Justice
on Energy
on Architectural Research

Building & Interior Design Minsu
Farmhouse
Block Pantry
Pinterest Headquarters

Landscape & Urban Design Resilient by Design Challenge
Fall Kill Master Plan
National AIDS Memorial

Games & Mixed Media In It Together
Bartertown
Mix & Match
Safari

ExhibitionsSeoul Biennial
Oslo Biennial
YBCA

Minsu
Sichuan, China
2019-under construction

This project called for the design of a 13,000 square foot minsu (or B&B-style hotel) for 15 guests and a 5,000 square foot restaurant in the Longmenshan mountains. Our design was inspired by “Jie Su” or “borrowed life,” which was the name of our client, a hotel operator based in China.

ClientPengzhou City Government
Location Longmen mountains
Sichuan Province, China
TeamAll of the Above and Cheng + Snyder (Principals in charge: Janette Komoda Kim and Brett Snyder), with Zhongwei Wang, Mike Liu, Alma Davila, Lina Kudinar, junior designers.

Here, tourists from neighboring cities can immerse themselves in an unfamiliar lansdcape and culture. Here, they can also borrow ceramics, books, and lanterns, and take bamboo cuttings to form conections to their new surroundings.

We also designed a restaurant and lounge. A curved roof lifts up toward an open corner, revealing borrowed views of neighboring mountain peaks. This building is also under construction.

We also designed a pool and changing room (which remains unbuilt), with dipping pools of varying temperatures, a bar and a playground. An open deck extends out over the hill, creating and expansive view over the region.