Alaska Adaptable Housing

Build it. Fix it. Change it.

About Us

Alaska Adaptable Housing, based in Fairbanks, works on innovative residential building solutions and housing security research and policies for Alaska.

By developing standardized “kit-of-parts” building systems, planning for a shared online housing design innovation platform, and promoting community-led building initiatives while leveraging opportunities from the new statewide local use lumber exemption, we seek to maximize the use of local materials, expertise, and labor. AAH works closely with statewide partners on housing initiatives, research, education, and residential building projects.

Alaska Adaptable Housing is expanding on building solutions its partners developed at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) and the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Alaska Campus (NREL). Alaska Adaptable Housing is a CCHRC partner focused on developing adaptable building systems as a business while continuing to work closely with CCHRC on all aspects of housing security, policy, and cold climate building science. Alaska Adaptable Housing members represent CCHRC at conferences and events, coordinate on research and projects, and are a core part of the CCHRC team.

Alaska Adaptable Housing infuses cold climate building science and design with social science and a dedication to equity and housing justice.

Our team includes the Fairbanks-born building system innovator, Ryan Tinsley, and partner Stacey Fritz, an applied anthropologist of arctic infrastructure. We believe that housing is a right and we promote the right to repair and maintain. Everyone has the right to safe, secure, and healthy housing that they can understand and maintain, and Alaska Natives have the right to quality homes in their traditional regions. Homes in Alaska must be resilient to climate change and logistical realities: they need to be assembled on site by local crews, they need to be efficient and healthy, and they need to be easy to move. Our projects explore both proven, low-tech building systems and innovative technologies. We also investigate patterns of homelessness in Alaska, the history of prefabricated structures in the Arctic, legacies of past relocations, mitigating the impacts of industrial infrastructure, and housing security’s fundamental relationship with public health and environmental justice.