May 2, 2026 • Posted by Design Bay Area
As a part of Design Bay Area’s Year of Design Celebration, please join us for Reframing Housing: Design, Value, and the Built Environment – a conversation about the role of architecture in shaping the future of housing in the Bay Area. Hosted by Design Bay Area at Sidell Pakravan Architects, the evening brings together Kristen Sidell (moderator), Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott, Liz Einwiller and Sarah Kuehl, and Rudabeh Pakravan for a discussion that challenges some of the prevailing assumptions shaping housing today. As the pressure to build more housing intensifies, design is often framed as a luxury that adds cost, slows delivery, and distracts from goals like affordability or density. This panel argues the opposite: that thoughtful, well-executed design is essential to making housing more livable at the scale of the home and more impactful at the scale of the city. Through a series of short presentations and discussion, each architect will share recent work and reflect on how design can operate within real constraints like budget, regulation, and density to produce housing that is both efficient and meaningful.
Drinks and snacks will be served. Street parking available.
Ticket proceeds benefit Design Bay Area, a 501c3.
Panelists:
Sidell Pakravan is an award-winning architecture practice based in Berkeley. They believe in the power of architecture to influence context, culture, community and individual experience. Sidell Pakravan approaches architectural design as both a physical exploration of space, form, scale, and volume, as well as a vital practice of civic and social engagement. Their critically informed, idea-driven designs physically materialize as distinctive, bold, and contextually resonant constructions. The firm has been named one of the top 50 architecture firms in North America by AN Interior Magazine in 2025 and has been recognized as a Design Vanguard by Architectural Record. Their housing design for the National Single Stair Competition was recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle.
IwamotoScott Architecture is an award winning and internationally recognized architecture practice established in San Francisco by Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott in 2002. They create innovative designs at all scales – with work ranging from art installations to interiors to buildings to visionary cities. IwamotoScott rethinks the constraints of the everyday to create unique architectural syntheses of program, site and material to make spaces that are functional, distinctive and beautiful.
EinwillerKuehl Landscape Architecture is an award-winning landscape architecture and urban design practice known for guiding generative collaboration and interdisciplinary design innovation across a range of project types and scales. Their work demonstrates a passion for legacy thinking and how landscape can support biodiversity and lead by example in the care of all beings. The firm has been recognized for its leadership in restorative justice in the public realm, the quality and innovation in their designs, and a culture of curiosity. Recent work on transit-oriented developments for North Berkeley BART, El Cerrito BART, and Lake Merritt BART complements their existing housing portfolio that ranges from rural family estates to numerous multifamily projects.