Angela Brooks, FAIA, is managing principal and Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, is a founder at Brooks + Scarpa Architects, in Los Angeles. They are both 2022 AIA Gold Medal recipients.

Brooks and Scarpa will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the U of A campus, as part of the fall lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

In their lecture, “Parallel Universes,” Brooks and Scarpa will explore how low-income affordable housing used to mean fortress-like structures that were soulless and cheaply built. However, today, there is a growing interest amongst architects for affordable housing that is well-designed and incorporates a combination of creative social programming, cutting-edge forms and materials, sustainable design and a keen sense of aesthetics. This lecture will explore new models that have transformed affordable and low-income housing into cutting-edge architecture. 

Until the 1980s, almost all low-income housing in the country was built by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, designed with a focus on quantity, not quality. Brooks and Scarpa will discuss how new models and current trends in affordable and low-income housing design have produced innovative and cutting-edge designs and how they have improved cities and communities. They will show examples of extraordinary low-income and affordable housing projects and discuss their relevance to good community, neighborhood and urban design today. They also will demonstrate how hi-design affordable housing architecture can help create more equitable societies.

Brooks + Scarpa Architects is a collective of architects, designers and creative thinkers dedicated to enhancing the human experience. Honored with the National Design Award by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the firm is a multi-disciplinary practice that includes architecture, landscape architecture, planning, environmental design, materials research, graphic, furniture and interior design services that produce innovative, sustainable iconic buildings and urban environments. They have garnered international acclaim for the creative use of conventional materials in unique and unexpected ways. They are also considered pioneers and leaders in the field of sustainable design.

Their honors and recognitions include the State of California and National American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award, AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal, AIA Citizen Architect, Rudy Bruner Prize, Interior Design Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, six AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten awards, Progressive Architecture Award, Architect Magazine’s R+D Award and many others. They are also one of the recipients of the $4.5 million Housing Innovation Challenge grant, awarded by Los Angeles County, for their innovative and scalable solutions to homelessness.

They are co-founders of the A+D Museum in Los Angeles, The Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute, Livable Places, Inc.; a nonprofit development and public policy organization dedicated to building mixed-use housing and helping develop more sustainable and livable communities. They have also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show with Leonardo DiCaprio.

This is the Ernie Jacks Lecture, sponsored by Marlon Blackwell Architects.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.