Meet our faculty

Alberto T. Estévez

Founding (2004) the International Cooperation in Architecture Master.

Architect, Professor, began participating in International Cooperation initiatives in Poland in 1987, thanks to a European movement organized during the years of the revolution fostered by Solidarnosc. His interest in International Cooperation led him, when he founded the ESARQ, this School of Architecture at the UIC, in 1996 (officialised in 1997), as its first director, to establish mandatory International Cooperation courses in the curriculum of the Architecture degree, thus becoming the first architecture school in the world to include International Cooperation in its core academic curriculum. Thus, consistently continuing these undergraduate studies, this master’s program was launched as an Erasmus Mundus program (2004), entrusted by him to Amanda Schachter as its first director. In 2025 was reappointed as 6th Director.

Ignasi Pérez-Arnal

Becoming Emergency Sustainable Architecture title.

Architect, holds 4 master's degrees from 4 universities, leading figure in innovation within the construction sector. Founder of BIM Academy, and of Atom Modular, that manufactures housing using automotive industry methods. Director of the Advanced Architecture and Construction 4.0 Congress at REBUILD, with extensive teaching and publications experience. In 2006 he was put in charge of this Master's program, which, after the most devastating tsunami in history (the Sumatra-Andaman tsunami), and as, also commissioned by Alberto T. Estévez, was director of the Sustainability Department of ESARQ since 2000, added the name "Sustainable Emergency Architecture" to the title of the Master.

Giovanna Carnevali

Becoming official University Master.

PhD Architect, Strategic Designer Consultant about Architecture and Urban Development that links client’s needs to the architectural, digital, social, economic, legal issues by teaming up the necessary professionals. In 2010 she was appointed director of MICSEA and by preparing the documentation obtained the official master's degree status. After she went to assume the Direction of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. Since 2018 she is the Executive Director of Urban Planning in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. Before, she has been at the head of international Projects Developments at Strelka KB (Moscow, 2015-18) and Coordinator of Urban Sciences Program at IaaC (Barcelona, 2017-18).

Raquel Colacios

Ph.D. from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) in Barcelona. She is currently a researcher at TURBA Research Group at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Barcelona. From 2010 to 2020 she served as the coordinator and director (2011-2012) of the Master’s in International Cooperation in Sustainable Emergency Architecture at ESARQ-UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, where she also led the Cooperation Area for the undergraduate architecture program. In recent years, she has held positions as an assistant professor at Umeå University in Sweden and as a visiting professor at KU Leuven and TU Darmstadt. Colacios is also a co-founder of the Taab6 studio in Barcelona.

Amanda Schachter

Becoming Erasmus Mundus Master.

Architect, AIA, B.A. from Columbia College in New York and M. Arch from Princeton University, is co-founder and principal with Alexander Levi of SLO Architecture (New York), and prior to starting their studio, they were involved in numerous public building projects in Europe where they resided from 1998-2007. Having received numerous awards, SLO Architecture is a full-service certified woman owned (WBE) design firm that realizes designs for wide-ranging private and public clients. In 2004 the director of ESARQ-UIC Barcelona School of Architecture entrusted her with the direction of this master's program, that she launched as an Erasmus Mundus program.

Carmen Mendoza

Architect with a PhD in Urban Design and Planning. Associate Professor at ESARQ-UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. Vice Dean of the ESARQ, the School of Architecture at UIC Barcelona from 2013 to 2022. Director of the MICSEA from 2012 to 2025. She combines teaching and research which delves into the understanding of how to respond to increasing stressors such as disasters, displacement, migration and spatial inequality in urban settings, through participatory socio-spatial methodologies. She has developed projects and published articles and books related to her research topics.

Alberto T. Estévez

Alberto T. Estévez, architect, chairman-professor, founder of ESARQ-UIC Barcelona as an avant-garde international school of architecture (1996): the first in the world including mandatory subjects of sustainability and international cooperation. Founder of 3 research groups, 4 PhD programs and 4 master programs, as this Master of International Cooperation in Architecture (2004), being its sixth director too. He, has written around 300 publications, directed 33 PhD thesis, hundreds of master thesis and final degree projects, with official recognition of 7 six-year research periods.

Apen Ruiz

PhD in Anthropology. Her PhD research examined the relations among anthropology and gender in Mexico. She has written various articles and a book on this topic. Her current research interests lie in the interactions between heritage and communities with a focus on how gender needs to be introduced in every phase of research, and the investigation of sexual violence and protocols to detect violence in research institutions. She is a member of Simref, a group of scholars interested in feminist qualitative methodologies, and has been advisor for students working with issues of gender and development, heritage and memory and the politics of development.

Eefje Hendriks

Assistant professor in Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Assistance at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Eefje has a master’s in Architecture and in Building Technology, and a PhD in Post-disaster Reconstruction at the TU Eindhoven. She aims to scale up humanitarian and governmental recovery assistance by understanding the wider impact of aid interactions on affected communities. Therefore, she studies behavior of disaster affected populations in relation to safety and resilience of the built environment, especially in the global south. She has a work and publication record in the field of circular and modular shelter design, disaster risk reduction, disaster resilience, humanitarian assistance, self-recovery, and decision-making, migration in Europe, and adaptation to climate change of the built environment for more than 10 years.

Sara Eltokhy

Sara is an urban planner and researcher with a master's degree in urban planning and policy Design from Politecnico di Milano in Italy. She is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD Fellow at UIC Barcelona and RMIT University in Australia as part of the EU-funded project RMIT European Doctoral Innovators (REDI). Her research interests focus on the challenges and complexities of forced migration from an urban perspective, with a particular emphasis on gender and everyday life.

Mattia Leone

Architect and PhD in Building Technology and Environmental Design, Mattia Leone is Assistant Professor in Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture (DiARC) and Senior Researcher at PLINIVS-LUPT Study Centre at the University of Naples Federico II (UNINA). His main research activities concern sustainable design and technological retrofitting of buildings and public spaces, with particular reference to environmental design and building technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. As a member of UCCRN - Urban Climate Change Research Network, he is in the Coordination Board of the UCCRN European Hub and Scientific Responsible of the Climate Resilient Urban Design Workshop series, exploring multi-scale sustainable and resilient urban design strategies through advanced applications of GIS and parametric design tools.

Isabelle Anguelovski

Social scientist. PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research is situated at the intersection of environmental policy and planning, social inequality, and development studies. Her recent research has examined environmental mobilization and revitalization in low-income and minority neighborhoods in the Global North and South. She has worked for international development organizations and consults for NGOs on indigenous peoples’ rights, urban and environmental planning, gender policy, and urban climate mitigation and adaptation programs.

Camillo Boano

Camillo Boano researches urban design criticism and philosophies for architecture. He is Full Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Polytechnic di Torino. He has practiced architecture in situations of conflict, emergency and urban informality in different contexts of the Global South and has worked on radical pedagogy and collective planning processes in Asia Middle East and Latin America. From 2006 to 2019 he directed the MSc Building and Urban Design for Development at Development Planning Unit, UCL, and was co-director of the UCL Urban Laboratory (2011-2023). Since 2020 he returned to Italy at the Polytechnic di Torino, DIST Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, where he teaches and does research. He currently researches in Latin America, the Middle East and the Black Mediterranean.

Verónica Sánchez Carrera

PhD. Architect, Independent professional in urban planning and architecture since 2004. She is an expert in emergency architecture for infectious diseases, she has specialized in WASH and in Development of Human Settlements. She is a member of the Infectious Diseases team of the World Health Organization. In 2007 she focused her activity on Humanitarian Aid, where she has worked in different organizations and countries. Her practice includes urban and territorial consultancies, evaluations and technical support in humanitarian programs. Throughout the last eighteen years she has combined her professional activity with teaching and research.

Nathaniel Corum

Architect with degrees from Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin, Nathaniel is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and a Rose Architectural Fellowship. Previously the Head of Education Outreach at Architecture for Humanity and a Senior ECPA Fellow under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State, he is Design Director at SNCC and collaborates with international teams and tribal communities on planning and design/build projects. Author of Building a Straw Bale House, his work has featured in Architect Magazine, Humanitarian Architecture, and The New York Times.

Sandra Bestraten

Assistant professor at UIC School of Architecture and at ETSAB-UPC. President of University without Borders (USF), where she develops urban planning and social and educational facilities with social participation. Co-founder of Bestraten Hormias Arquitectura, which specializes in sustainable projects using ecological materials such as timber and rammed earth. Her research is focused on housing and cooperation in developing countries.

Allison Koornneef

Allison is from Toronto, Canada and has a background in Environmental Design from OCAD University. As a graduate of our 2012-13 class, her thesis analyzed participatory data gathering processes in informal settlements, and during her internship with SPARC in Mumbai, India, she contributed to a sanitation survey using GIS mapping. She is passionate about water and sanitation, mapping, and participatory action as sustainable development.

Clara Irazabal

Architect. Master in Architecture and Urban Design and Planning. PhD in Architecture. Former head of GSAPP's Latin Lab, she is directs the Latina/o Studies Program and is Professor of Planning in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She has worked as consultant, researcher, and professor in South America, Europe, Asia and the US. She explores social justice struggles manifested in processes of transformation of urban space and how markers of minoritized identity and their intersections with one another are negatively impacted by planning processes, when the supposed mandates of planning urge respect, celebration, and nurturing of diversity.

Julian Tung

Currently working in CARE International and serving as Technical Advisor for the NW Syria Shelter Cluster. Julian Tung has more than 10 years of experience leading and advising humanitarian responses in the Middle East, Europe, Caribbean, Africa and South Pacific Islands. Julian has a Masters Degree in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. He currently provides technical support to humanitarian actors in NW Syria related to Settlements and Dignified Shelters. He promotes participatory approaches for establishing dignified and safer living conditions in camps for displaced persons that adapt to the complex inter-sectoral challenges of protracted displacement. He is experienced in facilitating technical working groups to develop standards and guidance documents and provides training and coaching to local actors.

Esteban Leon

Chief Technical Advisor of the City Resilience Profiling Programme of UN-Habitat. He has a background in economics, finance, shelter/housing and settlements program design and management, capacity building, as well as building construction and reconstruction projects in post-crisis situations and urban resilience building. He has worked in the private sector (banking, microcredit and microfinance projects in Argentina and Bolivia), NGOs (slum upgrading, building constructions and reconstruction programmes in Bolivia and Kenya) and has been working for UN-Habitat since 2002 globally but based in Nairobi, Geneva, Panama and Barcelona.

Gonzalo Lizarralde

Specialist in planning, management and evaluation of international architecture projects. He is the holder of the Chair Fayolle-Magil Construction in architecture, construction and sustainability and also the director of the IF Research Group (grif) at the Université de Montréal, which studies the processes related to the planning and development of construction projects. He is the leader of the Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Reconstruction Research Alliance, a scientific research program funded by the Quebec research funds (FQRSC) and a founding member of i-Rec, an international network for improving post-disaster reconstruction.

Sergio Palleroni

Architect. MSArchS in History Theory & Criticism from the MIT. Co-founder of BaSiC Initiative, he has worked on housing and community development in the developing world since the 1970’s, both for not-for-profit, governmental, and international development and relief agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and the governments of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, India and Taiwan. He is Professor and Fellow of the new Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices at Portland State University and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious AIA Latrobe Prize in 2011.

Shareen Elnaschie

Trauma-informed architectural designer, creative researcher and design educator and facilitator. She has international experience working with marginalised communities on inclusive participatory research and co-design projects. She has tutored and guest lectured at numerous academic institutions including UCL, UAL, University of Groningen and Umea University. In 2016 she founded Office of Displaced Designers [ODD], a non-profit that uses design and education to support displaced and marginalised designers and their wider communities. She is a MICSEA graduate of class 2012-2013.

Torange Khonsari

Co-Founder and Director of the art and architecture practice Public Works, an inter- disciplinary practice working on the threshold of participatory and performative art, architecture, anthropology and politics. Her projects directly impact public space, working with local organisations, communities, government bodies and stakeholders. She is course leader of the Design for Cultural Commons Masters at The Cass (London Metropolitan University). She has taught at international universities such as UMA school of architecture in Sweden, unit leader at Royal College of Art - London as well as a visiting professor at Barbican and Guildhall school of Music and Drama.

Eric Cesal

Eric is a designer, writer and post-disaster expert, having led on-the-ground reconstruction programs after the Haiti earthquake, the Great East Japan Tsunami, and Superstorm Sandy. He has been called “Architecture’s First Responder” by The Daily Beast for his work leading Architecture for Humanity’s post-disaster programs from 2010 to 2014, and is currently working on his second book about how foreign and economic policies of the developed nations aggravate the conditions that lead to catastrophic disasters. He currently works as the Special Projects Director for the Curry Stone Design Prize and co-hosts Social Design Insights, a weekly podcast with the leading voices of the social design movement.

Konstantina Chrysostomou

Based in Spain and working on projects across Europe. My approach to urban strategies, public space design, and citizen cooperation is shaped by diverse experiences and a passion for creating inclusive public spaces. I’m dedicated to empowering civic engagement and democratizing urban environments, whether in local neighborhoods or regional contexts.

Marta Piqueras

MS. International Humanitarian Action and B.Arch by the School of Architecture in Madrid (2004, ETSAM), she worked in the private sector in Spain for 6 years before she became a Humanitarian. Specialized in Shelter and Settlements, Shelter Coordination and WASH, she has managed programs during preparedness, emergency response and recovery since 2011. With a focus on disasters caused by natural hazards she´s worked within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and other INGO’s. Striving for a locally-led humanitarian action with a protection and people-centred approach, she has worked alongside displaced and non-displaced populations in complex and volatile contexts such as Haiti, Philippines, Greece, Peru, Sierra Leone, Honduras and the Pacific. She has advised National Governments and built the capacity and coordinated efforts from different key stakeholders.

Arnau Boix

With 20 years of experience in cooperative urban processes and citizen participation. I believe that design should enhance people’s quality of life, focusing on the interaction between individuals and the built environment. My work emphasizes how people with diverse abilities perceive cities and architecture.
Passionate about collaborative design, I work across interior architecture and public spaces, where human interaction shapes spatial experiences. I value transdisciplinary teamwork, recognizing that everyone involved in a process contributes to the outcome of spatial transformation. My approach prioritizes respect, empathy, and emotional investment, paired with organization and determination to achieve shared goals that positively impact communities.

Aditya Kumar

Aditya has a master degree in Architecture MR+D (Metropolitan Research and Design) from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, in Los Angeles. He work focuses on supporting communities living in poverty stricken slums in Southern and Eastern Africa, with a strong focus on South African slums, townships, housing and backyard communities. He has an outstanding work which comprises among others the reconstruction of Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp, and is Head of the Design and Planning Unit of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Nabeel Hamdi

Architect. He is Professor Emeritus of Housing and Urban Development at Oxford Brookes University, where he set up the highly successful Masters in Development Practice in 1992. He is a teaching fellow at The Development Planning Unit, University College London, has been an Arup Fellow at the University of Cape Town and is adjunct professor at the National University of Technology, Trondhiem, Norway. An advocate of small-scale change at grass-roots level, Nabeel has consulted on participatory action planning and upgrading of slums in cities to all major international development agencies, and to NGOs worldwide. He is the author of several landmark publications, including Small Change and Housing without Houses.

Eva Samalea

Known for her commitment to promoting sustainable interventions in humanitarian contexts, she has extensive experience implementing shelter and WASH programs in various crises and serving as Shelter Cluster Coordinator. Currently, she is working with IFRC on developing the Environmental Country Profile for Myanmar Shelter Cluster. Eva actively promotes bamboo worldwide as a catalyst for sustainable development through MANA Bamboo, and particularly in Europe as co-founder and chair of the Iberian Bamboo Association (AsIB). She combines her work in the humanitarian and development sectors with a private practice focused on sustainable and harmonious architecture and interior design. As an international lecturer and TEDx speaker, she inspires collaborative and sustainable solutions across sectors.

Kathrin Golda-Pongratz

Architect, urban researcher and curator. PhD in Urban Planning from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Author of numerous publications, among them co-author of the book John F.C. Turner. “Autoconstrucción. Por una autonomia del habitar“ (FAD Award in Thought and Criticism 2019). Member of the Academia Europaea and of the Institut dels Passats Presents of Barcelona’s city council. Her research focuses on urbanization processes and migration, Latin American urbanism, housing policies, structural change of urban societies, postcolonial urbanization, non-formal urbanism and place-making strategies, public space and urban memory.

Nerea Amorós Elorduy

M.Arch, PhD (UCL). Alumni of our masters program. Nerea is an architect and researcher with experience in refugee assistance, education, and health projects with emphasis on community participation in East Africa and in post-conflict environments. She contributed to create the School of Architecture at the University of Rwanda and co-founded ASA Studio based in Kigali. Her PhD research focused on mapping the built environment elements that affect young children’s learning living in long-term refugee camps in Southwest Uganda, Rwanda, and Northwest Kenya. She is the founder of the interdisciplinary studio Creative Assemblages in Kampala, Uganda.

Elia Apostopoulou

PhD, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2009. Elia Apostopoulou has held postdoctoral and lectureship positions in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and from 2019 to 2022 she has been a Senior Research Fellow in the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Since 2020 she is an editor of Dialogues in Human Geography and in August 2021, she was awarded a 5-year Ramon y Cajal Senior Research Fellowship after ranking 1st in social sciences across Spain. Currently, she is based at ICTA-UAB where she leads the research line Planetary Urban Infrastructures in the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability.

Alejandro de Castro

Architect with a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York and a PhD in Architecture, he coordinated GSAPP’s Latin Lab from 2010 to 2016 and has taught at Harvard University, the Pratt Institute and the Technical University Darmstadt, among others. Alejandro's work explores the rhetorical dimension of planning and architecture in marginalized communities to propose spatial practices that are sensitive to both form and policy.

Mattia Leone

Architect and PhD in Building Technology and Environmental Design, Mattia Leone is Assistant Professor in Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture (DiARC) and Senior Researcher at PLINIVS-LUPT Study Centre at the University of Naples Federico II (UNINA). His main research activities concern sustainable design and technological retrofitting of buildings and public spaces, with particular reference to environmental design and building technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. As a member of UCCRN - Urban Climate Change Research Network, he is in the Coordination Board of the UCCRN European Hub and Scientific Responsible of the Climate Resilient Urban Design Workshop series, exploring multi-scale sustainable and resilient urban design strategies through advanced applications of GIS and parametric design tools.

Teddy Cruz

Originally from Guatemala Teddy Cruz a Professor of Public Culture and Urbanization in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. He is known internationally for his urban research on the Tijuana/San Diego border, advancing border neighborhoods as sites of cultural production from which to rethink urban policy, affordable housing, and public space. Recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture in 1991, his honors include representing the US in the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011, and the 2013 Architecture Award from the US Academy of Arts and Letters.

Farnaz Arefian

Farnaz is an experienced interdisciplinary expert in disaster management and reconstruction, urban design and planning, and architecture. Her professional life combines extensive experience in academic research and education with practice-based experience, knowledge exchange and engagement in the Middle East, UK, and Southeast Asia. Farnaz is adept at bridging the gap between academia and practice and working with various stakeholders. She has a background in founding award winning consultancy company and delivering key urban development plans and architectural projects, including post-earthquake projects such as participatory housing reconstruction and post-disaster urban design projects in Bam, a historic city along the Silk Roads.

Mar Satorras

PhD in Environmental Sciences and Technology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 2017. She is an anthropologist and environmental scientist holding a MSc in climate change and is currently based at the Metropolis Institute, a public urban research center located at UAB which aims to support and inform policies and action to promote urban transformation, equity, and sustainability. Mar’s research focuses on urban sustainability challenges approached under socio-political lenses, with extensive experience on the water cycle and the climate emergency. Her interdisciplinary research at the interface between environmental and social sciences combines ethnographic, historical, and geographical perspectives.

Fonna Forman

Fonna Forman is a Professor of Political Theory and Founding Director of the Center on Global Justice at the University of California, San Diego. A theorist of ethics and public culture, her work focuses on human rights at the urban scale, climate justice in cities, and equitable urban development in the global south. She serves as Vice-Chair of the University of California Climate Solutions Group, and on the Global Citizenship Commission (advising UN policy on human rights).

Gonzalo Sánchez-Terán

Gonzalo has worked for the last eleven years organizing, managing and implementing emergency projects in refugee and IDP camps in Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad and Ethiopia. He is also a regular tutor and lecturer for the International Diploma on Humanitarian Assistance at Fordham University, New York, and for the Humanitarian Cooperation Masters at Comillas University, Madrid. He has published extensively on African Geopolitics and Humanitarian Assistance through articles and books.

Brett Moore

Chief of Shelter and Settlement Section of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where he coordinates humanitarian shelter actors in both preparedness actions and disaster response. Prior to joining UNHCR, he was humanitarian shelter, infrastructure and reconstruction advisor with World Vision International, deploying to conflict and disaster zones around the world. He led teams to ensure a coordinated humanitarian response for significant global emergencies, and guided rebuilding efforts for disaster and conflict-affected communities ranging from refugee camps to urban slums.

Melissa García Lamarca

Melissa holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development from University College London, a Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development from Concordia University and a BA in Geography and Economics from McGill University. She is explores the structures and channels through which political economic processes generate urban inequalities, as well as how collective urban struggles can disrupt the inegalitarian status quo and open up new alternatives.

Hug March

PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 2010. Hug is a research fellow at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. His research is focused on the political ecology and economy of urbanization and has contributed to debates around urban water infrastructure and water provision. He has contributed to over 20 publications to journals in the fields of Geography, Environmental Studies/Sciences, Urban Studies and Economics, among other disciplines.

Pere Vall

Architect. PhD in Urban Design and Planning. Associate Professor at UIC School of Architecture. His research is focused on cultural landscapes and regional development. He is co founder of the Llobregat Colonies’ River Park, an initiative of territorial revaluation based on cultural heritage, which has received several awards. In this field, he has developed projects and plans and he has also published several papers. He is currently working on the study of the sprawl repair through heritage networks.

Alejandro Haiek

Architect, Universidad Central de Venezuela. Co-Founder and Director of LAB.PRO.FAB (Laboratory of Design and Fabrication), a cross-disciplinary practice focused on the renewal and resuscitation of inactive landscapes and degraded social contexts with a strong focus on reuse, recycling and the application of local intelligence. He is a professor and member of the academic committee of design at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidad Central de Venezuela, won the The International Award for Public Art in 2013 for the ongoing project Tiuna El Fuerte Cultural Park, and has published research papers in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru.

Mbongeni Ngulube

Architect and Urban Designer. Worked in South Africa and founder of MNA architects, Johannesburg. Master in International Cooperation in Urban Development (TUD, Germany) and in Housing, Urbanisation and Sustainability in Developing Contexts (UIC, Spain). Currently a Doctoral researcher in the Anthropology of Development and Urbanism at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium), his research focuses on the impact of diaspora and social movements on development.

Reena Tiwari

Architect. Masters in Urban Design. PhD in Urban Studies. Reena is Associate Professor in the Departments of Urban & Regional Planning and Architecture at Curtin University of Technology Perth, Australia. Her expertise is in Urban Design and Urban Theory and has a global perspective and wide ranging experience on city growth and development. Reena received Australian National Award for her outstanding contribution to student learning for developing a cross-disciplinary and integrative approach to teaching urban theory and design, blurring boundaries between class room and the ‘real world’ experience.

Ebru Gencer

Ph.D (2007) and MPhil from the Urban Planning Program at Columbia University. Founding Executive Director of the Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CUDRR+R), a non-profit research center based in New York City. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University; Co-Chair of the Urban Planning Advisory Group (UPAG) to the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Disaster Risk Reduction; and a member of the Steering Committees of the Making Cities Resilient Campaign and the Global Alliance for Urban Crises.

Rossana Poblet

As an urban-environmental specialist with over 20 years of experience, Rosanna has been actively involved with informal urban transformation processes in contested and post-conflict regions in the Americas, Africa and Europe. As an architect and urban planner, Rossana has joined applied-research projects integrating socio-cultural-political aspects with environmental concepts like ecological infrastructure, nature-based solutions and water sensitive urban design. Her expertise focus on co-designing socio-environmental strategies to revert environmental injustices in the so-called global South. She is a visiting lecturer in different global universities, a CIM-GIZ expert and lives between Berlin and Lima.

Andrea Nóblega

With a background in architecture, she holds a double master’s degree in International Cooperation in Urban Development (TUD) and International Cooperation: Sustainable Emergency Architecture (UIC). Her research centers on political ecology, sustainable urban transformations, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS). She has actively contributed to discussions on the eco-social and eco-political dimensions of NbS and their potential to foster more just and sustainable development strategies. Her work critically examines governance processes, environmental trade-offs, and environmental justice within sustainable urban transformations. Currently, she is a research professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where she is part of the Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA).

Farzana Gandhi

Her architecture and planning practice, Farzana Gandhi Design Studio, focuses on sustainable and socially conscious solutions, both locally and abroad. Recent work includes a primary school in Senegal, Africa; community visioning and streetscape design in East Harlem, NY; resiliency strategies and NYCHA campus connectivity in Inwood, NY; digital tools and applications aimed at effective community engagement; and replicable, modular infrastructure for Puerto Rico. Farzana is most interested in how widespread social impact can be achieved at the intersection of architecture and its environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic framework. Her deep commitment to community outreach is driven by deep inquiry, investigation, and integration.

Marta Peña

Architect, specialized in construction by ETSAM. She has worked as an architect for seven years in Spain before working in international cooperation with the Red Cross in 2005. Since then she has coordinated emergency shelter response and post-disaster reconstruction programs in Sri Lanka, Peru, Senegal, Haiti and the Philippines. She is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the Shelter & Settlement department as the focal point for training and support operations.