
Image: Veronica Posada Alvarez
Education
2012 PhD Urban Planning & Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
2001 MSc Urban & Regional Studies, National University of Colombia, Medellin, Colombia
1999 BA Architecture, National University of Colombia, Manizales, Colombia
Appointments
2019 – current Associate Professor, Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL
2017 – current Programme leader, MSc Building and Urban Design in Development, DPU, UCL
2015 – 2019 Lecturer, Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL
2012 – 2015 Associate Professor, School of Architecture, National University of Colombia
2012 – 2014 Director, MSc Urban and Regional Studies, National University of Colombia
2014 Visiting Fellow, Practicum, DUSP, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013 – 2013 Visiting Fellow, Latin Lab, GSAPP, Columbia University
2009 – 2010 Teaching Assistant, CUPPA, University of Illinois at Chicago
2003 – 2012 Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, National University of Colombia
2002 – 2003 Deputy Director, Urban Planning, Pasto Municipality, Colombia
Awards
2021 Shortlisted for the SAHGB Colvin Prize for the Bartlett ‘Race’ and Space Curriculum, UK
2017 Co-grantee | Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts Grant, Chicago, USA
2014 Honourable Mention to PhD Dissertation, International Award on Research on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, National Autonomous University of Mexico
2014 Meritorious Research Award, School of Architecture, National University of Colombia
2014 First Place, RED CYTED – International Contest on Urban Borders Projects
2011 FURS-IJJUR-RC21 Scholarship, Urban Studies Summer Course, University of Amsterdam
2010 Fulbright Summer Research Grant, Dissertation fieldtrip
2009 PhD Jamboree Scholarship, SCARP, University of British Columbia, Canada
2008 Chicago Consular Corps Scholarship, best international student at University of Illinois
2007 Fulbright – DNP PhD Scholarship [3-year sponsorship]
2001 Best GPA of MSc in Urban Regional Studies, National University of Colombia
Research Grants (Selected)
2022 Principal Investigator, Archivo Vivo [Living archive]: weaving gendered (hi)stories of urban reclamation in Moravia. Funded by Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts. Phase 2 Commission Projects. £25,000
2021 Co Investigator, ‘Activating abandoned heritage in Medina, Tunis’, funded by GCRF UCL, £110,000.
2020 Co Investigator, ‘GREAT Gridding Equitable Urban Futures in Areas of Transition (GREAT) in Cali, Colombia and Havana, Cuba’, UKRI-GCRF (Re)Thinking the Off-Grid City, £1,000,000.
2019 Principal Investigator, ‘Framing living heritage as tool to prevent spatial violence’ funded by British Academy, Heritage, Dignity and Violence Programme, £300,000.
2018 Principal Investigator, ‘Activating Learning for Slum Upgrading: A Co-designed Storytelling Platform for Medellin’ funded by GCRF UCL Early Career Researcher Scheme, £110,000.
2017 Co Investigator, ‘Knowledge into Action for Urban Equality (KNOW)’ funded by ESRC Grand Challenges Research Fund, £7m.
2017 Principal Investigator, ‘Leveraging Heritage for Sustainable Urban Development In Yangon, Myanmar’ funded by UCL Global Engagement Fund, UCL, £2,500
2016 Principal Investigator, ‘Reimagining La Habana: mapping participatory platforms and citizens’ urban visions’ funded by UCL Global Engagement Fund, UCL, £2,000
2016 Principal Investigator, ‘Building territorial peace in Colombian informal settlements’ funded by Research Catalyst Awards, UCL, £2,000
2013 Principal Investigator, ‘Macro-projects of national social interest: the tensions between the national housing policy and local spatial planning’, funded by National University of Colombia, US$4,000
2013 Principal Investigator, ‘Circulating Urban Models: genealogies and trajectories of urban policies in Latin American cities’ funded by National University of Colombia, US$10,000
2009 Principal Investigator, ‘Large-Scale Urban Projects in Colombia: The Broken Promises of the Urban Reform Agenda?’ funded by National University of Colombia, US$5,000
Recent Publications (Selected)
2022 Ortiz, C, Smith, H and Travlou, P. CHAPTER 14: From social urbanism to strategies of collective action in Medellin. In: Stavrides, S and Travlou, P (eds) Housing as Commons: Housing Alternatives as Response to the Current Urban Crisis, Bloomsbury Publishing, 336 p.
2022 Ortiz, C. Sentipensante: il centro di un’urbanistica decoloniale, In: Di Campli, A and Boano, C (eds.) Decoloniare l’urbanistica, Lettera Ventidue, 148 p.
2022 Ortiz, C. and Millan, G. Critical Urban Pedagogy: convites as sites of southern urbanism, solidarity construction and urban learning, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 0(0) 1–28.
2022 Castan Broto, V, Ortiz, C, Lipietz, B et. al. Co-production outcomes for urban equality: learning from different trajectories of citizens’ involvement in urban change, Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, 4 – 100179.
2022 Ortiz, C. Storytelling Otherwise: Decolonising Storytelling in Planning, Planning Theory, Vol. 0(0) 1–24.
2022 Ortiz, C. Democratizing Pathways for Equality in Latin America, GOLD VI Working Paper Series #12. Barcelona: United Cities and Local Governments.
2021 Ortiz, C. Decálogo para el Mejoramiento Integral de Barrios en Tiempos de Pandemia. II Encuentro de la Red de Asentamientos Populares, FAU UNNE, 405-420 p.
2021 Ortiz, C., et. al. Mapping participatory planning in Havana: patchwork legacies for a strengthened local governance, Environment and Urbanization, vol. 33, 3: pp. 1-26.
2021 Kolovou, M., Sakuma, S., Ortiz, C. Astolfo, G., Rhoads, E. Trajectories of spatial violence in Southeast Asian cities, DPU Working Paper – No. 207, DPU, University College London. 65 p.
2020 Ortiz, C. & Yepes, M. (ed) Atlas of Moravia’s Living Heritage. The Bartlett Development Planning Unit – UCL, Centro de Desarrollo Cultural de Moravia, Coonvite, Moravia Resiste, 159 p.
2020 Ortiz, C. and Di Virgilio, M. Laboratorios de Vivienda (LAVs) Asentamientos Precarios y Vivienda Social: Impactos del Covid-19 y Respuestas (Working Paper). Urban Housing Practicioners Hub.
2020 Ortiz, C. Sinergias para la solidaridad: ¿de lo urgente a la imaginación post-pandémica estratégica?, In: Bonilla, L. & Dammert, M. (ed) Múltiples miradas para renovar una agenda urbana en crisis, Cuadernos CLACSO.
2020 Duque, I. Ortiz, C., Samper, J. and Millan, G. Mapping repertoires of collective action facing the COVID-19 pandemic in informal settlements in Latin American cities, Environment and Urbanization, vol. 32, 2: pp. 523-546.
2020 Duque, I. and Ortiz, C. Medellin in the headlines: The role of the media in the dissemination of urban models, Cities, Vol 96.
2019 Ortiz, C. and Millan, G. ‘How to use storytelling for urban learning?’ Development Planning Unit, University College London. 103 p.
2019 Ortiz, C. and Boano, C. ‘Performative infrastructures: Medellín’s governmental technologies of informality’ In: Rocco, R. and Ballegooijen, JV (eds.), The Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanization. Routledge. 320 p.
2018 Ortiz, C. (ed.) Comparative Urban Design: Exploring border-making practices in Medellin and Beirut. Series: Cities, Design and Transformation, Volume 2. Development Planning Unit, University College London. 236 p.
2018 Betancur, J. & Ortiz, C. (2018) Urban Assemblages and Dis-asemblages: Medellin hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forums. In: Sweet, B. (ed) Disassembled Cities: Social and Spatial Strategies to Reassemble Communities, Routledge, Global Urban Studies.
2018 Ortiz, C. The State of the Art of Planning Practice and Education in Colombia. disP – The Planning Review 54:1, 35-37.
2017 Ortiz, C & Lipietz, B. (Eds) Grounded Planning: People-centred strategies for city upgrading in Thailand and the Philippines, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, Asian Coalition of Housing Rights and Community Architects Network, 156 p.
2017 Ortiz, C. and Boano, C. ‘The Medellin’s shifting geopolitics of informality: The Encircled Garden as a dispositif of civil disenfranchisement?’ In: Rokem, J. and Boano (eds), Urban Geopolitics: Rethinking Planning in Contested Cities. Eds. Routledge.
2015 Irazabal, C, Ortiz, C. et. al., Enabling community-higher education partnerships: common challenges, multiple perspectives. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Volume 17, Dec., p 22–29.
2015 Samper, J. Ortiz, C. Soto, J. Rethinking informality: Strategies of Urban Space Co-Production. School of Architecture and Planning – Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 232 p.
Advisory Activities (Selected)
2018 – 2020 Senior Consultant, Future Cities Program, Foreign Commonwealth Office, UK
2014 & 2020 Senior Consultant in Urban Development, Inter-American Development Bank IDB’s
2012 –2013 Technical Coordinator, ‘Strategic Spatial Plan of Medellin’, Municipality of Medellin
2006 – 2007 Technical Coordinator, ‘Strategic Spatial Plan of Itagui’, Municipality of Itagui
2005 – 2006 Technical Coordinator, ‘Strategic Spatial Plan of Medellin’, Municipality of Medellin