Housing Matters

Registration is required.

Active AIA member number required to complete registration.

AIA Colorado Allied Members: use the same email address for RSVP that is listed in the Allied Member Directory and type Allied2026 in the member number field.

AIAS students: use your .edu email address to register

Not an architect? RSVP using the "non-architect" registration.

Housing Matters: Winning Ideas for Policy Impact

What is the real impact of a design competition?

May 13th, from 4:30 - 6pm, join AIA Colorado’s Regional & Urban Design Committee for an event that moves beyond ideas on paper and into the realm of policy, implementation, and change. Featuring the top three winning entries from the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge, this event explores how design competitions can elevate emerging voices, spark new approaches to complex urban issues, and influence the future of our cities.

The program brings together an international perspective from Australian architect Damian Madigan alongside two Denver-based teams behind the ReFrame Proposal and Alley Town La Alma. Each will present their award-winning concepts, offering distinct yet complementary visions for addressing housing affordability through design innovation. Damian Madigan will also share an overview of Bluefield Housing, his award-winning architectural research project that has directly transformed government policy and generated new pathways for equitable housing delivery.

Grounding these ideas in the realities of city-making, Rob Haigh from the City and County of Denver will share updates from the Unlocking Housing Choices initiative, creating a direct connection between speculative design and actionable policy.

Through presentations and discussion, this event begins to answer a critical question: Why do we invest in design competitions? More importantly, it sets the stage for what comes next, translating visionary proposals into a set of informed recommendations for the City of Denver.

Whether you're an architect, planner, policymaker, or engaged community member, this is an opportunity to engage with new ideas, contribute to an ongoing dialogue, and help shape the future of housing in Denver.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 13, 4:30 - 6pm

WHERE: OZ Architecture, 3003 Larimer, Denver, CO 80205

EDUCATION: Event approved for 1.5 LU|HSW

Thank you to Koning Eizenberg Architecture and Schmidt Design Group for sponsoring this event!

X-MU-X & Bluefield Housing

A licenced architect in South Australia and a practice-based housing researcher at Adelaide University, Associate Professor Damian Madigan PhD is the creator of ‘Bluefield Housing’: a low-rise suburban infill model that uses adaptive reuse to balance new housing supply with the retention of neighborhood character and landscape. In 2025, his bluefield co-located housing model became a new form of permitted infill development in Adelaide – the first time a new form of housing has been legislated in Australia through a bottom-up design-led methodology.

Individually and collaboratively, Damian’s design research has received shortlistings, citations or awards in six international design competitions, and in 2025 he was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects (South Australia) Sir James Irwin President’s Medal for his significant contribution to architecture.

Damian will speak about his winning X-MU-X competition scheme, and how the bluefield model might work for Denver’s suburban neighborhoods.

ReFrame

Meghan Kress, Assoc. AIA, Maggie Krantz, Assoc. AIA, and Sean Pike met in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Colorado Denver, where they built a strong foundation of collaboration and shared design thinking. Now working at Sopher Sparn Architects, Populous, and Locus Architecture, they bring experience ranging from affordable housing and adaptive reuse to large-scale sports and event design.

United by a belief in architecture as a balance of creativity and pragmatism, they focus on impactful, community-driven design. Their recent competition marked their first formal collaboration, combining their diverse perspectives into a cohesive approach. They value competitions as a space for creative exploration and look forward to continuing to work together.

Alley Town La Alma

Radix Design was founded in 2016 as a small architecture firm dedicated to work characterized by social benefit, sustainability, and connection to place. Radix Design loves working on affordable housing, neighborhood preservation, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Our design for the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge represents a synthesis of these three interests into a new concept for affordable housing development.

Radix Design is based in a historic structure in the Baker neighborhood. All three members of Radix Design worked intensively on the competition entry: Archer Squire, Alex St. Angelo, AIA, and Ozi Friedrich, AIA.

The word ‘radix’ is Latin for a root vegetable - for instance, a carrot or a radish. For us, Radix stands for practicing architecture that is rooted in place, at home in the dirt; simple, elegant, and green.

Rob Haigh, City of Denver

Rob is a Senior City Planner with the City and County of Denver. He is currently focused on housing policy reform and is leading Denver’s Unlocking Housing Choices (UHC) project, working to expand housing options and support more inclusive, context-sensitive growth. Rob has extensive experience in public sector land use planning and holds a degree from Appalachian State University. Rob's experience ranges from complex development reviews to rezonings, subdivisions and policy driven zoning code updates.

Registration is required.

Active AIA member number required to complete registration.

AIA Colorado Allied Members: use the same email address for RSVP that is listed in the Allied Member Directory and type Allied2026 in the member number field.

AIAS students: use your .edu email address to register

Not an architect? RSVP using the "non-architect" registration.