Meet the Lab contributors
The Better Housing Lab is supported by a roster of dedicated and knowledgeable contributors.
Kimberly Poffenroth
“I am passionate about the real estate industry in Calgary and ensuring that appropriate product enters our city.”
Jeanie Gartly
“Housing is a basic necessity, and at the same time, an on-going challenge to achieve affordability, quality, and diversity to meet residents needs for a comfortable "roof over their head" and a "sense of place" in a vibrant and sustainable community. I signed up to be a part of the Solutions Lab for the opportunity to work with a team to learn and share; implementation, ideas, options, testing, and thoughts/expertise such as adaptive re-use, maintenance, and integrity with new and older housing.”
Kyle Wiebe
“Complex issues require innovative thinking. As an urban planner and data analyst I am excited to unpack these issues alongside a diverse group of thought leaders and look forward to seeing what ideas take form as we approach housing solutions from the intersections of environment, economy and community.”
Jihad Bitar
“The essence of a better life for us all is equity. Equity is the source of every bright solution we may come up with. Equity should be the start and the end of every work we, planners, do to improve our communities' physical environment. Equity starts at home, in the safe space we call 'house,' large or small, tidy or chaotic, it's the little universe where our lives as children begin. I want to become a member of a project looking for housing solutions because I believe that we can do better.”
Sasha Tsenkova
“I believe that affordable housing can be a catalyst for a neighbourhood transformation that is critical for resilient and inclusive cities. I also believe that the ecosystem of affordable housing providers in Calgary needs a lot of support to respond to the diverse needs of people and communities and look forward to engaging in a collaborative process defining innovative solutions.”
Mike Mellross
“Environmental performance is a critical element of social housing going forward in order to help address energy poverty as well as climate change.”
Yichao Chen
“I am excited to explore how sustainable building practices can be implemented in the housing context in an affordable and equitable manner. Given the social, economic, and climate challenges that affordable housing projects often face, designing high performance housing infrastructure is a demanding and rewarding process that is beyond simply applying engineering principles. Hope to contribute with my experience from the building industry, northern housing, and local government.”
John Lewis
“The challenge question of this Solutions Lab is an exciting intersection of multiple areas of knowledge and practice. Our team at Intelligent Futures loves working on complex challenges and I'm so excited to collaborate with such a committed, experienced and intelligent group of folks to find innovative solutions for housing in our community.”
Shelby Montgomery
“I signed up for the Solutions Lab because I wanted to advocate that urban agriculture and carbon-sequestering natural spaces are an awesome part of sustainable design!”
Geoff Braun
“I signed up because the lab is taking on a critically important question. Consideration of environmental performance should be as common and accepted a practice as reviewing a budget, not something we'll get to later when all the conditions are right. I'm also interested to learn how building environmental performance into the business model for affordable housing actually strengthens the model.”
Helen Loghrin
“Housing, and the communities that develop where we live, are the fundamental connectors between us, and to the cities we inhabit. Foremost, as a renter, and secondarily, as a planner, I joined this lab to investigate real world solutions and grounded research in Calgary’s affordable housing context. To this lab I bring excitement for collaboration, an open mind, my passion for environmental planning, and my experience in affordable housing coalition work in Ontario.”
Marc Coyte
Raquel Feroe
“I see housing as fundamental to personal safety and prosperity. We cant leave housing to troubled and inadequate mechanisms like ‘the Market’.”
Cassandra Caiger
“Being part of the solution lab is very exciting for me as it presents an opportunity to harness my skills of hosting thoughtful conversations and making space for authentic collaboration while also exploring possibilities for a more sustainable future at the centre of an issue I’m very passionate about – affordable housing. I look forward to the process ahead and can’t wait to see where this amazing group takes it!”
Jesse Hindle
“Hindle Architects has been involved in a wide range of affordable and market housing projects. As a practice, we are interested in understanding the various factors that influence housing projects (site, environment, economy, demographics, market, etc) and how architecture can respond with low cost / high quality / long term solutions. I look forward to working with the Housing Solutions Lab as we search for ways of improving the quality of affordable housing in our city, and our country.”
David Leonard
“I have a personal and professional interest in elevating the construction industry and have a vast involvement in various affordable housing projects both in new construction and existing building renovations and we have a big drive to design and construct high performing cost effective building envelope assemblies.”
Celia Lee
“I am passionate about poverty reduction, equity and the environment I am currently engaged in developing solutions in policy and the built environment, and want to push them further, recognizing the wide array of benefits they can offer to ALL Calgarians. Past work has included cost analyses of poverty in Canadian cities and provinces, and explorations of city planning, design and participatory process to improve equity, public health and reduce emissions.”
Jeff Lyness
“To engage with the team and explore the challenge by bringing a human centred design approach to the table. When we combine demonstrated energy savings and ease of maintenance within an empathetic approach to design, we will lessen the strain of affordability. Sustainability is not simply a technical solution to be referenced, it is a holistic outcome and the right thing to do. The goal should be nothing less than achieving more equitable outcomes in housing.”
Jeff Robson
“Access to safe and affordable housing is ultimately a question of human dignity, and my priority as a practicing urban planner. As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt, linking issues of housing affordability to environmental performance is of vital importance to both mitigate climate impact and adapt the housing industry to our new reality.”
Darryl Kaminski
“Everyone should have a home where they can feel safe and comfortable. There are some things that we can not easily control, but Energy Poverty is not one of them. We can reduce energy costs, increase comfort and create jobs doing it!”
Damon Hayes Couture
“It's initiatives like this that got me into the practice of architecture in the first place. As the Creative Director of Studio North, I have the pleasure and privilege of imagining, designing, drawing, and building projects that directly address the core issues of the Better Housing Solutions Lab. I look forward to sharing ideas with people from a range of disciplines to learn about their experiences and insights in realizing beautiful, sustainable, affordable, and livable housing.”
Jaydan Tait
“I am very intrigued by the topic and have some real world experience to share.”
Matt Grace
“We need urgent action on all aspects of climate change and climate adaptation. With our built environment being responsible for around half of all GHGs, we have to focus on buildings. It will be exciting to explore how we can move towards affordable housing projects that have no environmental impacts (or even repair them), provide healthy homes alongside resiliency and flexibility.”
Colin Smith
“To contribute to the development of sustainable and affordable housing opportunities in our communities as well as to learn from like-minded people that share this same goal.”
Heather Elliot
“I am interested to discuss how high efficiency building envelope design and re-cladding/retrofit of existing buildings can be a focus for future energy use goals.”
Jenna Dutton
“Having experience collaborating on affordable housing projects I witnessed that the most sustainable and innovative solutions come from multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral partnerships. There is tremendous opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and environmental footprint through sustainable affordable housing solutions. The combination of partners, participants, and process will certainly allow for transformative solutions and I am honoured to be selected with fellow participants.”
Blythe Butler
“I am interested in contributing and learning about social change efforts which are deliberately designed to integrate multiple social issues.”
Nic Besseling
“This is a great initiative and I'm looking forward to contributing! As a Mechanical Engineer, I hope to bring some ideas on innovative ways housing can improved, both from an energy reduction and thermal comfort perspective.”
Pamela Haskell
“I wanted to participate in the Housing Solutions Lab because this topic - integrating sustainable building practices with affordable housing development - feels like a peek into the best possible version of the future. There's an overwhelming need for affordable housing and finding a way to supply it using sustainable building practices is an approach that benefits everyone. I wanted to offer my knowledge of planning to the project and learn from the expertise of the other participants.”
Dave Silburn
“Very interested in the design and construction of innovative buildings, including resilient, culturally appropriate, affordable high performance homes. I have over 20 years experience in residential construction, including over 6 years with affordable/cooperative housing and 10+ years in innovative housing research, high performance and innovate materials design and construction.”
Brett Banadyga
“I am excited to be involved in the Solutions Lab and to see what impact and insight I can bring to the group. With a design background for affordable housing projects, I am hoping to bring a view from an energy efficiency and sustainability perspective.”
Amanda Bishop
“People deserve to be housed with dignity and a sense of belonging. That is why I am continually frustrated by viewpoints that ghettoize affordable housing, by privatization that block access to beautiful spaces, and by urban planning that separates natural ecosystems from the built environment. I'm eager, however, to go beyond complaining and actively participate in driving towards innovative solutions that build and sustain vibrant, diverse, and affordable communities.”
Mike Sagert
“Canadians need affordable housing. More affordable housing means a more stable Canada and better country for our children to grow up in. Whether we are focusing on poverty reduction, stability, healthy housing, energy efficiency, quality neighbourhoods, transportation ...etc. The list goes on.”
Pat Letizia
“I love the collide of systems when solving problems and the ideas that explode and resonate with diverse experience and perspectives in the room. This challenge of better building solutions for attainable and accessible housing that incorporates energy efficiency and green design is a critical one for me.”
Yasushi John Ohki
“I have started up a non-profit affordable housing development company in Edmonton and I am very interested in networking and idea-exchanging through participation in the Lab towards a more holistic and innovative housing provider. The core values of my non-profit are: Inclusivity, earth friendliness, and connectedness towards neighbourhood well-being.”