Miranda Moen
Architectural designer (Austin, Minnesota)
Session: It Takes a Village: Innovative Rural Housing Partnerships (Friday, 3:45 – 5:00pm)
Miranda Moen (she/her) is an architectural designer driven to serve rural communities through cultural heritage research, innovative place-based and attainable architecture and creative projects that ignite economic development. Her passion stems from growing up in the far southeast corner of Minnesota at the intersection of the Mississippi River and the Iowa border. She spent most of her childhood playing in her grandfather’s pastures nestled between the Driftless Area bluffs, ingraining a deep connection to the land, a love of solitude, and a curiosity for the cultural heritage of farmsteads. She graduated from Iowa State University with her Master of Architecture degree in Spring 2019 and has since focused her energy on creating a rural architectural practice serving the unique needs of the Upper Midwest. In this endeavor she has connected with inspiring rural artists, nonprofit organizers, and economic development consultants around the state deeply committed to rural life and culture. She works to spread the power of creative partnerships through her writing for regional and national architecture journals and websites, encouraging others to develop support for their rural communities.