The University of Oklahoma’s Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture hosted the inaugural Oklahoma Housing Supply Accelerator Coalition event on November 13, 2025, a day-long gathering dedicated to addressing the state’s growing housing challenges and exploring solutions to expand the supply of attainable homes.
Dr. Francesco Cianfarani, assistant professor of architecture at the OU Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, is part of the 2025 cohort for the Academy for Public Scholarship on the Built Environment.
Dr. Suchi Bhattacharjee, Dr. Chie Noyori-Corbett, and Ph.D. candidate Salma Akter have collaborated on a chapter titled “Sheltering Hope: Navigating the Nexus of Refugee Housing Conditions and Well-Being”, featured in the book “Migration and Forced Displacement.”
Salma Akter Surma, a Ph.D. candidate at Gibbs College has co-authored a study published in the Journal of Urban Management. The research investigates the experiences of women in urban informal settlements of Khulna, Bangladesh, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on how housing infrastructure influenced caregiving responsibilities.
OU Gibbs College of Architecture faculty in partnership with OU Gallogly College of Engineering and the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) have developed the Oklahoma Housing Needs Assessment. The project was supported by a $925,487 grant from the OHFA to create a comprehensive tool and accompanying report to plan for and address housing needs across Oklahoma.
A collaborative project between the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency was recently featured in The Oklahoman. A team of OU researchers are currently redesigning the Oklahoma Housing Needs Assessment, an online source of detailed information about Oklahoma’s 77 counties.
Bryce Lowery, associate professor of Regional and City Planning in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design, recently testified before the Oklahoma State Senate Judiciary Committee. Lowery was asked to testify as part of an interim study on housing in Oklahoma. The study, “Housing for All Oklahomans: Availability, Safety, Stability,” was convened by Senator Chuck Hall (OK-20) and Senator Julia Kirt (OK-30) and included testimony from experts about ways the state can improve housing security.
Over the past year, Dr. Bryce Lowery, associate professor of Regional + City Planning, has been working with a team of University of Oklahoma researchers to study how to best use the $36 million granted to the state of Oklahoma by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support unhoused and housing-insecure Oklahomans. The team’s plan was recently approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, starting the process of allocating the $36 million in resources to the state of Oklahoma.
Last summer, researchers at the University of Oklahoma began working with the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency to determine how to best deploy approximately $35 million to support unhoused and housing-insecure Oklahomans. Dr. Bryce Lowery, associate professor in the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, worked with Dr. David McLeod and Dr. Christina Miller in the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work and eight graduate students to collect data to determine the best focus for this funding.
Dr. C. Aujean Lee recently received a grant from the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Innovation in Small and Midsize Cities program for her research proposal, “Community Land Trusts in Welcoming Cities: Building Inclusive Housing Models for Immigrants.”
