Agua y Saneamiento en Centroamerica

I am an urban designer and researcher with a multiple cultural background. After graduating architecture, my interest for urban sociology lead me to the European Urban Studies of the Bauhaus University in Weimar. During the last three years I worked as Senior Urban Designer in Sydney and prepared a wide set of urban design and planning policies, frameworks and guidelines.

Urban Design and Planning are shaping not only the physical appearance of our cities but, more profoundly the structural functioning of our society and our relationship with nature.

Design decisions about the built environment directly influence our impact on nature by determining our transport needs, construction materials we use, environmental performance of our buildings and waste produced. Together these factors are responsible for about 40% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Less acknowledged but not less important, the built environment has an often unnoticed effect of shaping social relationships (community building) and personal well-being, profoundly influencing behaviour patterns (work, leisure, consumption, etc) which are linked to the other 60% of Australia's CO_2eq emissions.

While the potential of urban and building design to improve our society is often recognized, design decisions are often determined by a narrow perspective on economic efficiency, rather than social or environmental considerations.