Equity and Social Justice

“The Implications of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Sales for Residential Mobility,” a paper published in the Journal of the American Planning Association authored by PhD Candidate Taesoo Song and Professor of City & Regional Planning Carolina Reid, finds that NOAH sales, often to professional investors, may contribute to housing precarity.

The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Practice, with contributions by five CED authors, aims to provide innovative, “actionable steps to empower practitioners, students, and academics in creating vibrant and sustainable cities.”

In a paper published recently in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning Zachary Lamb and his co-authors assess the spatial characteristics of manufactured home parks in the Bay Area to find out if, counter-intuitively, they could be examples of “good urbanism.” 

UC Berkeley alums Lou Tamiye (MArch 2019) and Cooper Rogers (MArch 2019) designed and opened Good Hot, a collection of five outdoor saunas nestled in a semi-industrial corner of Richmond. The site supports a deconstructed bathhouse, an unfolding series of saunas, changing cabins, and more.

Alum Ramon Ramirez (BA Architecture 1993, MArch 1997), who taught and practiced architecture for two decades, has turned to painting full-time. His paintings have traveled nationally and represent the architecture of Los Angeles — bridging Chicanx identity, urban form, and the poetic urgency of place.

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, is joining us as the second JW&VL Visiting Professor of Practice in housing and urban design. Scarpa is principal of the award-winning firm Brooks + Scarpa and co-founder of housing nonprofit Livable Places, Inc. and the Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute.

“How do perceptions of public space and land impact the disciplines of landscape architecture and environmental planning?” That is the central issue of Public Land, Public Space, Public Discourse, a semester-long lecture series presented by UC Berkeley’s Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning that aims to spark critical thinking about public realms. The series is anchored by two keynote events: a conversation between renowned landscape designers Walter Hood and Laurie Olin, paired with a screening of a new film portrait of Olin, and a lecture by acclaimed writer Rebecca Solnit.

The Department of City & Regional Planning is pleased to welcome AJ Kim, associate professor of city planning in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University, as the 2026 Robert S. Cornish Chair of Regional Planning. A specialist in housing and community economic development, participatory methods, environmental justice, and health equity, Kim will co-teach a spring-semester graduate environmental justice studio, Toward Equitable Health Outcomes in Low-income Communities of Color, with Margaretta Lin.

Terner Center Managing Director and Professor of City & Regional Planning Ben Metcalf provides a 101 of housing solutions in less than two minutes. Metcalf has dedicated his life to housing research and policy, motivated by a deep understanding of what’s at stake. “If we can’t start from that place of having a stable home, it’s very hard to do just about anything else,” he says.

A newly published Terner Center for Housing Innovation report highlights data and trends in home insurance costs for California homeowners. It finds that insurance challenges are most acute for some of the state’s vulnerable homeowners, including those living in mobile homes or high-risk locations.

The City of Berkeley greenlights a street redesign based on the work of Master of City Planning students’ plan, Oxford for All, continuing the College of Environmental Design’s tradition of making tangible impacts in our community.

For the past 10 years, research from CED’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation has helped lawmakers in cities and states across the country tackle the housing crisis and address homelessness.

Architectural history graduate student Luke Leuschner’s passion for modern architecture transcends academic research — it’s transforming the city of Berkeley’s understanding of its own built environment.

Meet Arcus Social Justice Corps Fellows — Rashida Chase (MRED+D 2024), Elizabeth Garcia (MLA 2027), and Sam Rodriguez (MArch + MCP 2026) — who are using design, planning, and research to impact communities.

Jason Corburn and the founder of the Advance Peace gun violence prevention, DeVone Boggan, reveal how the community-based approach truly works and how it holds out genuine hope, and proven solutions, for those trying to end the plague of gun violence in U.S. cities.

Rachel Vineberg Jones (MArch 2019) and her husband Eric Jones have made a generous commitment to the College of Environmental Design to increase access to design education for North Bay high school students.

The College of Environmental Design is proud to announce that the Landscape Architecture Foundation has named Sariyah Benoit (MLA 2027) to the fourth cohort of its LAF Ignite scholarship and mentorship program.

Kristina Hill, Institute of Urban & Regional Design Research Director and associate professor, alongside five Bay Area environmental justice organizations launches the Bay Area Community Air Quality Map, a new tool designed to provide real-time estimates of air quality across the Bay Area for students and their families.

In this 101 in 101 video, Professor of Architecture Ronald Rael gives a primer on earthen architecture and explains why our future homes could be made using the soil beneath our feet. Soil is a material so compelling that it has long been a central pillar of Rael’s work and teaching.

For the first time, Berkeley teams came out on top in the 2025 Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition. The theme for this year’s competition, which received entries from schools across the country, was “designing for disasters.”