I received a degree in Architecture (2001, Chile), a MSc in Architecture (2006, P. Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile), and a PhD in Urban Studies (2017, BSP, UCL).

My research profile lies in the intersections between urban design, urban planning, and social theory. I am focused on the (qualitative) analysis of places, cities, and the urbanisation process through the lenses of political ontology, structure and agency, intersubjectivity, planetary urbanisation, and the overall comparatives between comprehensive and strategic planning.

I am specifically interested in planning policy and extended suburbanisation, suburban coalescence, clustering, retrofitting and density, and the emergence of interstitial spaces. The last is framed within my research background on ‘urban interstices’: in-between spaces that lie between developments and which manifest at different scales within, between, and beyond the domain of cities. I argue that interstitial spaces help to divert the focus on urbanisation from its 'cityism', and expand the reflection around the urban as solely associated to cities and other forms of agglomeration. These insights have been extensively developed in my book “The Interstitial Spaces of Urban Sprawl: Geographies of Santiago de Chile’s Zwischenstadt” (Routledge: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429320019) and other published articles. The one that describes the outcomes of my PhD research on interstitial spaces was awarded the Urban Studies Best Article 2018: “Mind the gaps! A research agenda for urban interstices” (https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017732), authored with Prof Nicholas Phelps (University of Melbourne).

I am currently supervising PhD projects in urban design and planning policy, and developing research on Belfast’s interstitial spaces: peacelines, peacewalls, and the so-called 'interfaces'. 

I have been previously teaching in Chile, the UK, and New Zealand, with focus on planning policy, urban design theory, and contemporary planning and design practice. I am currently teaching research methods and ethics (EVP3011, Independent Research Project), urban design theory and morphological analysis (EVP7039, Spatial Literacy/ EVP3003, Planning Practice Study Visit), and planning and design for urban quality (EVP1001, Planning, Health and Wellbeing). Previously, I taught and coordinated EVP1014 (Institutional and Policy Context of Planning Practice).