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Amherst, December 12, 2005

The Architecture+Design Program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst will hold a conference, “Housing Within Reach: Innovations in Affordable Housing Design,” February 16 and 17, 2006. The conference will bring together national figures in the design and development of affordable housing together with statewide and local experts and activists to examine such as issues as design innovations, zoning issues, new materials and technologies that shape housing costs.

The conference represents the inaugural year of the new Massachusetts Architecture Symposium, which will be held annually at UMass. It is a product of the new Master of Architecture program, which was recently approved by the Board of Higher Education and represents the first and only professional architecture degree program at a public university in New England. The program is currently a candidate for accreditation with the National Architecture Accrediting Board. “Our program is committed to instilling values of community service into professional education,” said Max Page, Associate Professor of Architecture and History and the organizer of the conference. “We thought a focus on one of the most pressing of social needs would be a good way to launch this annual symposium.”

The conference will bring to Amherst important figures in affordable housing design including architect Michael Pyatok, who will offer a keynote address Thursday evening, David Brown, the curator of the HOME House Project, and Larry Sass of MIT. The conference will also feature the expertise of University of Massachusetts faculty, such as architectural historian Tim Rohan and building and wood technology professor Paul Fisette, and Massachusetts housing experts, including Constance Kruger of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

A unique aspect of this conference is that The Cowls Companies has offered to provide a plot of land on which a model home, affordable to middle-income residents of Amherst, will be built according to designs of UMass architecture students. The conference will feed directly into the spring 2006 design studios led by UMass faculty.

The conference will be held on the evening of February 16, and all day on February 17, 2006 at the Marcel Breuer-designed Campus Center at UMass-Amherst. Fees for the conference are $25 for students, $60 for the general public, and $120 for professional architects seeking continuing education credits. This conference is underwritten by The Cowls Companies, the Western Massachusetts chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Forest Products Society, and the Office of Research at UMass.