Kristine Stiphany, PhD, AIA, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning and Director of the Design for Resilient Environments Lab. A registered architect and Fulbright Fellow (Brazil), her work engages everyday housing environments to understand and project how buildings and cities evolve beyond conventional models of architectural authorship, with a particular focus on Latin America and the U.S. – Mexico border.

Stiphany is co-editor of Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas, and her work examines the architecture of rent across transgeographic contexts, the transformation of American housing types in northeastern cities, and housing-led urban form in Latin America and the United States. Her work has been exhibited internationally, published widely, and recognized with multiple design awards, including from the Texas Society of Architects. She is also a principal of Stiphany Sowell Architects and previously worked in professional practice at Studio Gang.

Kristine is the recipient of teaching awards recognizing her ability to engage students in core questions about cities, landscapes, and ecologies through the lens of housing. Her recent design studios include Reimagining Casco Bay: Designing for Climate Resilience in Coastal Cities (sponsored by the Remain Nantucket Foundation), After Shrimp: Transitioning Ecuador’s Coastal Landscapes, and Housing Hybrids: Reimagining Landscape on São Paulo’s Peri-Urban Margins (sponsored by the Suzano Secretary of Urban Development).

PhD – The University of Texas at Austin
MArch – The University of Texas at Austin
BFA – University of Michigan

Registered Architect in Texas and New York
Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Stiphany, K (2025) After the Right to the City: Learning from Brazil’s Social Urbanism. Journal of Architectural Education. 79(2): 69–72

Stiphany, K. (2025) The Architecture of Rent: Hybrid Property Regimes in São Paulo’s Favelas. Revista Papers de Sociologia.110(4): e2430

Stiphany, K. and E. Ely-Ledesma (2025) Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas. New York: Routledge.

Stiphany, K (2024) Beyond Upgrading: Rental Densification as a Pattern for Urban Greening.  In The Routledge Handbook on Greening High-Density Cities: Climate, Society and Health. Peng Du, Dr. Kheir Al-Kodmany, & Dr. Mir M. Ali. New York: Routledge.

Stiphany, K. (2023) Vivienda de alquiler informal en São Paulo: una realidad ignorada. (Informal rental housing in São Paulo: An ignored reality). In Vivienda en Arriendo en América Latina. Felipe Link, Adriana Toró (eds.) Centro de Estudos de Conflicto y Cohesión Social – COES; Instituto de Estudios Urbanos e Territorial UC – IEUT UC. PDF

Stiphany, K., P.M. Ward, and L.P. Perez (2022) Informal Settlement Upgrading and the Rise of Rental in São Paulo, Brazil. Journal of Planning Education and Research. doi/10.1177/0739456X211065495.

Stiphany, K. (2021) Infrastructural Insurgency: Constructing Situated Data at Brazil’s Urban Periphery. Special Issue: plaNext Next Generation Planning Journal. Planning Theories from the Global South. Vanessa Watson, Chandrima Mukhopadhyay, and Feras Hammami (eds.) 10.24306/plnxt/75

Stiphany, K. (2020) Review of Arantes. P. The Rent of Form: Architecture and Labor in the Digital Age. Journal of Planning Education and Research.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739456X20905662

Stiphany, K. (2019) Latin American Urbanism After a Right to the City. Latin American Research Review, 53(4): 1072 – 1081.https://larrlasa.org/articles/10.25222/larr.1019/

Stiphany, K. (2019) Mutirão: The Architecture of Agency. Journal of Architectural Education, 73(2): 258 – 260. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10464883.2019.1633207

Stiphany, K. and Ward, P. M. (2019) Autogestão in an Era of Mass Housing: Brazil’s Minha Casa Minha Vida Entidades (MCMV-E) Program. International Journal of Housing Policy, 19(3): 311 – 336. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19491247.2018.1540739

Friendly, A. and K. Stiphany (2018) Paradigm or Paradox? The Cumbersome Impasse of the Participatory Turn in Brazilian urban planning. Urban Studies, 56(2): 271 – 287. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042098018768748

Stiphany, K. (2016) Aligning Disconnected Frames in Action: The Case of São Paulo’s Zeladoria Ambiental Environmental Caretakers. In Steven A. Moore (ed.) Pragmatic Sustainability. New York: Routledge, 191 – 206. PDF

Stiphany, K. (2015) Learning Displacement: Self-Building, Educational Infrastructure, and the Politics of Development in Brazilian Informal Settlements. Doctoral Dissertation. The University of Texas at Austin.
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/32450