Keynote Speaker
Building the Next Generation of Neighbourhoods People Actually Love
Architect, urban designer, and co-author of Building Charm.
Practical, highly visual keynotes that challenge the idea that growth has to produce generic places.
On Stage
I show up direct, highly visual, and genuinely fired up about how neighbourhoods get built. Using real projects, and the ideas behind the book I co-authored, Building Charm, I explore why some places feel memorable and human-scaled while others feel generic from day one.
Audiences leave with a new way to see neighbourhood planning, better questions to ask, and tangible moves they can apply to create places that are more desirable and attainable for buyers, and financially viable to build.
About Naama
Redefining What Good Housing Can Look Like
Registered Architect & Urban Designer · Co-Founder, Smart Density
Naama Blonder is a registered architect and urban designer focused on redefining what good housing and neighbourhoods can look like in growing cities. As the co-founder and Principal of Smart Density, she brings together architecture, planning, and urban design to create solutions that support housing affordability and inclusive neighbourhoods.
Her work focuses on the relationship between housing, density, mobility, and the public realm, challenging conventional approaches to growth. She is the co-author of Building Charm, a book exploring why so many new neighbourhoods feel generic, and what it takes to create places people genuinely love.
Trusted by leading planning & industry organizations
Signature Keynotes
Grounded in real projects and built work, Naama’s presentations connect big ideas to practical application. Whether speaking to builders, planners, developers, or civic leaders, she tailors each keynote to the audience and the conversations that matter most to them.
Keynote 01
Building Charm
Why We Love Old Neighbourhoods and Struggle to Build New Ones
Why do some places feel memorable, vibrant, and deeply human while so many new neighbourhoods feel repetitive and forgettable?
Drawing from architecture, planning, and real-world projects, this keynote explores the hidden design decisions that shape how neighbourhoods are experienced, and what it takes to create places people truly love.
- Why some neighbourhoods feel memorable, human-scaled, and loved.
- A practical framework for evaluating streets, blocks, housing, and public space.
- Visual examples of the design moves that create charm.
Keynote 02
Attainable Housing, By Design
The Design Decisions That Shape Cost, Yield, and Livability
Housing affordability is not only a policy challenge; it is also a design challenge. This talk explores how early design decisions shape what gets built, how much it costs, how many homes can be delivered, and how livable those homes and neighbourhoods become.
- Understand how design decisions influence cost, yield, and approvals.
- Identify design moves that add housing capacity while improving quality of life.
- See how affordability is shaped long before construction begins.
On Stage
Naama in Action
What Industry Leaders Say
Trusted on the Mainstage
“Naama was engaging and thought-provoking, and I heard from many Canadian Home Builders’ Association members how much they enjoyed her highly visual presentation, which led to them asking, can we do better?”
Nicole Storeshaw
Director, Canadian Home Builders’ Association
“We invited Naama as our keynote speaker at our Hamilton event in 2025. Her unique and engaging perspectives on planning and urban design were exactly what the international audience was hoping to hear.”
John G. Jung
Chairman & Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
“Naama was a great speaker for our planning conference. She spoke about things municipal planners don’t often think about: the lived experience of being in a city, raising a family in a city, and how housing and amenities relate to quality of life.”
Jacob Ritchie
Licensed Professional Planners Association of Nova Scotia
Bring Naama to Your Stage
Planning a conference, summit, or industry event? Let’s talk about availability and tailor a keynote to your audience.