Associate Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy, Department of Urbanism, TU Delft

Specialisation: Governance, Spatial Justice, and Just Urban Sustainability Transitions

I am an Associate Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy at TU Delft, specialising in the governance of urban sustainability transitions through the lens of spatial justice and public value. My work investigates how public, private, and civic actors interact in the planning, design, and governance of the built environment, both formally and informally. I study these interactions as arenas of negotiation, where competing claims over land, infrastructure, and resources reveal deeper tensions between democracy, sustainability, and equity.

My current research focuses on spatial justice as a framework for understanding and shaping just urban transitions, an approach that connects normative theories of fairness with applied tools for governance, policy design, and spatial analysis. I coordinate the Spatial Justice Work Package and serve on the Steering Committee of the Horizon Europe project UP2030, which supports European cities in achieving climate neutrality through inclusive planning and design.

I have also contributed to the Union for the Mediterranean’s Strategic Urban Development Action Plan 2040, in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission, and lead or co-lead several international educational initiatives, including the AMBITION Erasmus+ project and the Planning and Design for the Just City Summer School.

With a multidisciplinary background in architecture, urbanism, and economic geography, my career has evolved across institutions in Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Trained at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), I later joined the Institut Français d’Urbanisme (today part of the École d’Urbanisme de Paris) and the University of Hertfordshire (UK) before completing my PhD at TU Delft in 2008. Since then, I have worked within the Department of Urbanism, first under Professor Vincent Nadin and now as part of the chair led by Professor Caroline Newton.

My teaching and research sit at the intersection of spatial planning, design, governance, and sustainability, understood as the dynamic interplay between social, economic, and environmental systems. Following Scott Campbell’s proposition that planning must mediate “two converging yet distinct social movements: sustainability and social justice” (Planning Theory & Practice, 2013), I argue that genuine sustainability is unattainable without justice. Addressing inequities in the distribution of the burdens and benefits of urban development is essential for the legitimacy and durability of sustainability transitions.

Within this context, my work aims to reconnect socio-technical transitions to their socio-spatial and democratic dimensions, countering the persistent bias that privileges environmental and technological innovation while overlooking justice, participation, and redistribution. My framework integrates the three dimensions of spatial justice (distributive, procedural, and recognitional) to operationalise fairness in planning, policy evaluation, and design practice.

In the field of Urban Transitions to Sustainability, I study how governance structures, spatial policies, and institutional arrangements shape the capacity of cities and regions to transition toward low-carbon, inclusive, and resilient futures. My research combines theoretical analysis, participatory methods, and policy engagement to identify pathways that align ecological responsibility with social inclusion and democratic renewal. This work is pursued through collaborative partnerships in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and institutionalised through the TU Delft Centre for the Just City, which I co-founded in 2022 with Caroline Newton.

Ultimately, my ambition is to strengthen the role of spatial planning as a democratic and justice-oriented discipline, capable of mediating between conflicting demands, empowering citizens, and guiding urban and regional transformations toward more equitable and sustainable futures.