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