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Strategic Framework: Rural Housing Affordability & Food Sovereignty: Quality Through Decommodification in the Built Environment

The initiative, led by Athabasca University, “Strategic Framework: Rural Housing Affordability & Food Sovereignty,” emphasizes quality through decommodification in the built environment. The roadmap is grounded in guiding values such as ecological restoration, cultural richness, social justice, equitable economics, community empowerment, and transparency. It identifies systemic inhibitors like top-down regulatory frameworks, geographic isolation, limited financial accessibility, and de-skilling that impede rural development. The roadmap provides various strategies to combat these challenges, including advocating for responsive rural policy reform, advancing local needs-focused environmental initiatives, scaling proven rural economic models, and implementing dynamic quality monitoring. The roadmap visualizes the progression from foundational stages like community roundtables and research development to implementing policy frameworks, pilot deployments, and ongoing monitoring. The final stages focus on feedback and knowledge dissemination.
Our roadmaps to quality in the built environment
Partners working on this roadmap

Former partners are in brackets

Academic Member Douglas MacLeod Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Academic Member Farida Abu-Bakare Chair Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Academic Member Gina Martin Associate Professor Athabasca University Faculty of Health Disciplines
Academic Member Henry Tsang Chair, RAIC Centre for Architecture Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Academic Member Keir Stuhlmiller Representative The Alberta Association of Architects
Academic Member Kelsey Brown Project Designer The Social Impact Lab Alberta
Academic Member Micheal Otchie Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Academic Member Rob Balay Mayor Town of Athabasca
Academic Member Tobias Wiggins Associate Professor Athabasca University Women's and Gender Studies
Academic Member Trevor Butler Associate Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Academic Member Twylla Soosay Samson Cree Nation
Academic Member Veronica Madonna Associate Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Academic Member (Kevin Wong) President Parkdale Cromdale Community League
Academic Member (Shane Laptiste) Treasurer Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Academic Member (Vivekanandan S. Kuma) Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, FST; Professor - Computing and Information Systems, FST Athabasca University Faculty of Science and Technology
Students working on this roadmap

Former students are in brackets

Cara Shan Student Athabasca University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Trishtina Godoy-Contois Student Athabasca University
Twylla Soosay Student Athabasca University