I hold a degree in Architecture (Chile, 2001), a MSc in Architecture (Theory & History, P. Universidad Católica de Chile), and a PhD in Urban Studies from The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. Prior to joining QUB, I held teaching and research positions in Chile, New Zealand, and the UK.  

I am currently acting as Programme Director for the BSc in Planning, Environment & Development. Full course details, including modules and how to apply, are available here. 

My research sits at the intersection of urban planning, urban design, and social theory, with a particular interest in the spatial, ontological, and morphological dimensions of cities and the urbanisation process. Rooted partly in my architectural background and engagement with spatial theory, I examine how the built environment is produced, experienced, interpreted, and acquires meaning and agency. I am primarily a qualitative researcher, drawing selectively on spatial ontology, urban phenomenology, and urban morphological analysis to investigate the relationship between spatial structures and social life, and between built form, context, function, and events.

A central concern across my work is urbanisation as an uneven process of spatial change: how cities expand, densify, fragment, dissolve, and reconstitute across different contexts. This has led to research on extended (sub)urbanisation, (rur)urbanisation, and the sustainability of dispersed urban development, as well as on ‘interstitial geographies’ – the spaces, landscapes, and liminal conditions that lie between established urban formations. I have extended this interest to ‘interface urbanism’, examining intra-urban boundaries and spatial interfaces in divided and (post)conflict cities as sites of in-betweenness, relational segregation, and contested urbanism. This body of work includes my monograph The Interstitial Spaces of Urban Sprawl… (Routledge, 2022) – that situates the comprehensive scope and scales at which interstitial spaces manifests – and  more recent work on interstitiality at community level.

I teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with a focus on research methods, urban design theory, and contemporary planning practice. Current modules include Planning, Health and Wellbeing (EVP1001), Independent Research Project (EVP3011), and Spatial Literacy (EVP7039). I previously taught EVP1014 (Institutional and Policy Context of Planning Practice), EVP2013 (Planning Theory & Society), and EVP3003 (Planning Practice Study Visit). My teaching draws on local and international case studies and is closely informed by my research interests.