Skip to main content

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
Citizens/Community Groups Douglas MacLeod Chair, Centre for Architecture Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Citizens/Community Groups Farida Abu-Bakare Chair Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Citizens/Community Groups Henry Tsang Assistant Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Citizens/Community Groups Josie C. Auger CEO Bigstone Health Commission
Citizens/Community Groups Keir Stuhlmiller Representative The Alberta Association of Architects
Citizens/Community Groups Kelsey Brown Project Designer The Social Impact Lab Alberta
Citizens/Community Groups Micheal Otchie Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Citizens/Community Groups Rob Balay Mayor Town of Athabasca
Citizens/Community Groups Twylla Soosay Samson Cree Nation
Citizens/Community Groups Veronica Madonna Assistant Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Citizens/Community Groups (Gina Martin) Assistant Professor Athabasca University Faculty of Health Disciplines
Citizens/Community Groups (Kevin Wong) President Parkdale Cromdale Community League
Citizens/Community Groups (Shane Laptiste) Treasurer Black Architects and Interior Designers Association
Citizens/Community Groups (Tobias Wiggins) Assistant Professor Athabasca University Women's and Gender Studies
Citizens/Community Groups (Trevor Butler) Associate Professor Athabasca University RAIC Centre for Architecture
Citizens/Community Groups (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
Cara Shan Student Athabasca University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Trishtina Godoy-Contois Student Athabasca University
Twylla Soosay Student Athabasca University