Chazandra Kern (she/her) is a first generation Filipino American designer, fabricator, and organizer. Chazandra is the Design Lead at LA Más, a Los Angeles based non-profit that designs and builds initiatives that promote neighborhood resilience and elevate the agency of working class communities of color. At LA Más, Chazandra is also the Project Manager of the Backyard Homes Project, a "one-stop shop" Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) program that enables the average homeowner to become a provider of affordable housing. This incentive program offers homeowners optional financing, design, permitting, construction, and leasing support to build and rent a new ADU to a Section 8 tenant.
She is a core organizer with Design As Protest, a collective of designers, mobilizing strategy to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use architecture and design as tools of oppression. She has been named on Cultured Magazine’s inaugural Young Architects list of 2021, and has guest lectured at Rice University, SCI-Arc, and UC Berkley. Before joining LA Más, she worked for a design-builder, general contractor, and in furniture restoration/fabrication.
Chazandra graduated with a master's degree in Architecture with a Housing Specialization from the University of Oregon in 2017 and with a bachelor degree in Architectural Studies from Arizona State University in 2015.
Email: chazandra@mas.la