Miranda Shugars, RA

M.Arch, Columbia University

A.B. Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University

Miranda Shugars is a visiting instructor and researcher at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture and School of Design. Before coming to Blacksburg, she worked as an architect at RODE in Boston, MA on the largest supportive housing project north of New York City, and the first multifamily Passive House certifiable project in Boston. She has worked at practices in Boston and New York specializing in affordable multifamily housing, non-profit clientele, sustainable design, and adaptive reuse. 

Her professional and academic research centers on stories of the economic, political, and social structures that govern architecture. This work has taken her to the sugar fields of Queensland, to former favelas in Santiago, Brazil, to self-built housing in Berlin, and to technology incubators in Harlem. It led to a multi-year, interview-based investigation of clandestine architecture firms in Cuba. During the last two years, her focus has shifted to the history and implementation of affordable housing policies in the US.

mshugars@vt.edu