Team

Barbora Melis Foerster graduated in Urban Planning in 2010 at the Technische Universitaet in Berlin, after a period of study at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. Barbora has over ten years of experience as an urban planner at an international level, both on behalf of public bodies, such as the Veneto Region, and in professional practice, in Italy, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Barbora carries on academic activities, at the University of Portsmouth (UK), on the themes of inclusion and diversity as tools of urban resilience, from the female perspective in city planning. Barbora is currently doing her PhD research in collaboration with the New York Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute (USA). She was a member of the Curatorial Team of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021. Barbora Melis Foerster is actually coordinating the activities of New York H21 based office.

Project coordinator in Mexico, J. Antonio Lara-Hernandez awarded his Ph.D. in Architecture in the University of Portsmouth, UK, and his Master studies in the Domus Academy in Milan. He is an urban consultant collaborating in the department of urban resilience research at the Institute of Mobility and Urban Territorial Development in Yucatan, Mexico. His research and professional experience include works in Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He focuses on research topics related to informality in the urban landscape, as well as studies on urban sustainability and resilience. Antonio is a member of the curatorial team of the Italian Pavilion of the Architecture Biennale 2020 led by Prof Alessandro Melis. Dr. Lara-Hernandez is also collaborating at the Research Centre for Sustainable Cities in Campeche (Mexico) and the Cluster of Sustainable Cities in the University of Portsmouth (UK). Antonio has published several academic articles on the impact of the transformation of the built environment at the streetscape level towards the diversity of temporary appropriation in world heritage city centres.