Janette Komoda Kim’s work focuses on the politics of ecology. She works in partnership with community-based organizations and municipal agencies to support a more equitable redistribution of land, resources and risk. Her projects include the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, the Win-Win board game series, Safari audio tours on urban ecology, the Fall Kill Creek Master Plan, and the National AIDS Memorial.
Kim is the co-author of The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform and is an associate professor at California College of the Arts, where she co-directs a research lab called Urban Works Agency.
At MacDowell, Kim worked on her second book, Property Playbook, which will illustrate how activists and architects can work together to co-opt property law and foster a just and ecologically vibrant built environment. The book presents twenty-four “plays,” or strategies for reclaiming ownership, championed by community-based organizations across the United States. In residence, she created a series of drawings for the book, which was recently awarded the 2024 Arnold W. Brunner Grant for Architectural Research in 2024.
