She also founded —an annual program that funds emerging designers from under‑represented backgrounds to undertake a six‑month field research project in a low‑income community. To date, the fellowship has supported 34 fellows from 18 countries, producing over 120 research briefs and 15 built prototypes . 5. Impact Assessment: Numbers, Narratives, and Net‑Positive Change | Metric | Result (as of 2025) | |--------|--------------------| | CO₂e reduction (operational) | 4.2 million tons avoided across all built projects | | People reached (directly) | 1.3 million residents in 23 countries | | Local jobs created | 8,700 (construction, maintenance, and community services) | | Awards & Honors | 12 international design awards, 3 honorary doctorates | | Publications cited | >2,300 citations across scholarly literature | | Policy influence | Integrated into 4 national climate‑adaptation frameworks (Singapore, Philippines, Kenya, Brazil) |
| Year | Project | Location | Core Innovation | |------|---------|----------|-----------------| | 2010 | | Albany, NY | Integrated floating wetlands to treat stormwater runoff. | | 2012 | Community Learning Hub | Detroit, MI | Adaptive reuse of a 1920s textile mill into a mixed‑use education center. | | 2014 | Solar‑Powered Co‑Working Space | Portland, OR | Net‑zero energy building using BIPV (Building‑Integrated Photovoltaics). | michelle romanis
These projects earned the firm multiple accolades, including the and the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Future Project Award (2015) . 2.3 Global Expansion – The Southeast Asian Pivot A turning point came in 2016 when the Singapore Ministry of National Development invited Romanis to lead a consultancy for the “Smart Green Districts” program. Her team’s proposal—a modular, prefabricated housing system that combined passive cooling strategies with locally sourced bamboo panels—was selected for pilot implementation in Johor Bahru, Malaysia . The pilot, known as “Bamboo‑Box Housing,” achieved a 40 % reduction in operational energy compared to conventional low‑rise apartments and received the World Sustainable Building Council’s (World SBC) Innovation Award (2018) . She also founded —an annual program that funds