Cassim Shepard

Cassim Shepard is distinguished lecturer in architecture and urban studies at City College, City University of New York.

Trained as an urban planner, geographer, and documentary filmmaker, he produces nonfiction media about cities and places, with a particular emphasis on housing and civic life. His  film and video work about cities around the world has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the United Nations, Pavillon de l’Arsenale in Paris, and the African Centre for Cities in Cape Town.

Shepard’s writings have appeared in  Places Journal, Next City, Strangers’ Guide, Domus, and Public Culture, among other publications. He was founding editor-in-chief of Urban Omnibus, an online publication of the Architectural League of New York, which inspired his first book, Citymakers: The Culture and Craft of Practical Urbanism (Monacelli Press, 2017). His current book project traces an intellectual history of incremental or “self-help” approaches to housing for vulnerable populations around the world.

From 2022 to 2024, Cassim Shepard was Critic-in-Residence in Architecture at Places. Supported by a Graham Foundation grant, Cassim’s residency produced a quartet of essays focused on housing justice and urban design: “Land Power,” on the community land trust as a form of housing activism; “Mass Support,” on housing theorist John Habraken; “Housing Agency,” on anarchist and architect John F. C. Turner; and “Justice Supply,” on the need for a mass social housing movement in the United States.