Winston Tang MPP/MUP 2026 launched the first student-led this past February. With the theme, “A Better Home for All: Bridging Affordability, Sustainability, and Innovation in Housing,” the symposium brought together students and faculty members from Harvard Kennedy School and (GSD) with professionals and practitioners to tackle urgent housing challenges with fresh, multidisciplinary ideas.
We caught up with Tang to hear more about the symposium’s substance, impact, and what’s next.
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Why this symposium, and why now?
We are facing one of the most urgent housing crises in recent memory, in the United States and globally.
In the U.S., we are grappling with a shortage of more than 4.5 million homes. Rising construction costs, high interest rates, aging infrastructure, restrictive zoning laws, underinvestment in affordable housing, and climate-related disasters have all converged to make stable, affordable housing increasingly out of reach for millions.
Cities around the world, from Toronto to Shanghai to London to Nairobi, are struggling with similar challenges: rapid urbanization, rising inequality, and the devastating effects of climate change on housing stock.
Despite the scale of the problem, conversations about housing policy, finance, technology, and design often remain siloed—but they need to be deeply integrated. We felt an urgency to act now. This symposium brought together leaders from across sectors—policymakers, architects, technologists, advocates—to have interdisciplinary, solutions-oriented conversations. Our panels tackled everything from homelessness to manufactured housing to the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) in construction.
We are at an inflection point and risk further deepening inequities without bold collaboration. But if we act together—bridging expertise, inspiring innovation, and putting human dignity at the center of our work—we have the opportunity to reshape the future of housing for generations to come. This symposium was one small, urgent step toward that larger goal.
How did you decide which voices needed to be in the room? Where are the gaps?
We were very intentional about curating the voices for the symposium. Solving the housing crisis requires collaboration across sectors, so it was crucial to bring together a mix of leaders—public sector officials, private sector innovators, nonprofit advocates, and academic experts.
From the public sector, we made sure