RISE 2019 Conference

Rafael De Balanzo Joue is an Architect, Landscape Architect and Doctor (Ph.D.) in Sustainability Science. He is adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens College at City University of New York (CUNY), CUNY Fellow of Collaborative Online International Learning, Visiting Professor at Barcelona Autonomous University, and Director of the Action Without Borders Project of the International Union of Architects. Prior to working at CUNY, Rafael was Lecturer at ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona, Spain. He has also been Visiting Professor at different institutions in Europe, the US, and Latin America, received awards from the Belgium Government, the Spanish and Catalan Architects Institute, and worked as a consultant for the UN/Habitat III. Rafael expertise in architecture focused on sustainable architecture projects. Currently, he specializes on introducing the resilient thinking approach into urban planning participatory processes. He is also a consultant for the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Urban Agenda in Spain. In 2019, Rafael was a member of the multi-disciplinary team (EMF Studio and Raons Publiques) that won the Urban Design Competition for the Three Hills Park in Barcelona. He also was the recipient of the 2019 Colombia Fulbright Chair for Resilience at Del Tolima University. In addition, Rafael is a member of Hunter College Rebuild Puerto-Rico Research Group, and Principal Investigator for the “Art against Austerity and Displacement” research project granted by the Queens College Research Foundation. He recently published an article entitled “Crisis and Reorganization in Urban Planning: The Barcelona Case Study" in Ecology and Society.