How can national plans for post-earthquake housing reconstruction be more efficient at a local level?
Exploratory research and literature review proved the question relevant.
Geo-espatial data analysis identified sample communities.
Semi-strucutred interviews and narrative inquires revealed urban-biases and unawareness about Mexican rural lifestyle.
House-by-house visits provided insights on local skills and rural-specific needs for reconstruction.
Shadowing unfolded the potential of undergraduate students and local universities.
Secondary research revealed narrative inconsistencies that informed further interviews.
Disaster Risk Reduction Policies after the Peace Agreement
A two-week research trip lead to a report on environmental protection and socioeconomic development for Ministry of Environment.
My Role: Co-author as an MIT-DUSP Student
Location: Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia (2018)
Team: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT CoLab
How can the mismatch between codes and reality inform better norms?
The research illustrates how construction norms and exceptions have produced the urban form of Mexico City. The investigation was condensed in a three-volume publication with the following topics: (1) Illustrated Dictionary, describing the urban and architectural concepts included in Mexico’s zoning and building code, (2) Norms Instructive, for optimizing norms and exceptions including policy and design recommendations (3) Buildings Catalogue, studying three projects developed in Mexico City that implement recommendations from the Instructive.
My Role: Co-editor with Saidee Springall at a|911
Client: Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA)
Location: Mexico City, México (2010-2013)
How can wildfires inform the city’s future master plan?
Personal interviews with seniority employees at the Municipality revealed new data sources and helped to list diverse urban priorities. These interviews helped to identify point persons.
Cognitive mapping with residents helped to understand the inefficient zoning and the lack of connectivity between work, commercial and residential areas.
Site visits, plans and satellite images showed some of the dynamics between informal settlements and the ravine ecosystem.
Positive deviators that resisted post-fire migration revealed social organization.
How can federal investment help to reduce local crime?
GIS mapping revealed a large amount of vacant land. In addition, community workshops pointed a vast amount of abandoned houses.
Surveys and community workshops complemented data from government agencies.
Showing that people had migrated but were now established, most families have been living in the area for over 70 years.
How should 30,000 USD impact a vacant lot in a highly marginal neighborhood?
Kids playing on streets revealed the lack of playscapes, loitering highlighted unemployment and suspicious behaviors identified potential hotspots for illegal activity.
Desk research and interviews proved all these theories right. In addition, interviews revealed cultural (sculpting, painting and theatre) and economic (bicycle making) activities that were happening inside homes, far from a general audience, due to the lack of safe shared spaces.
Participatory Action Research (PAR) helped to create personas. These were later translated into an architecture program. By this time, a neighborhood committee had been formed.
This committee reviewed the new project proposal.
How can mental health services attend most disaster survivors?
Prior to this project, people working on community aid identified that mudslide survivors faced mental health challenges that negatively impacted their disaster recovery. However, there were not enough psychologists to attend to the concerns of thousands of victims.
Literature review proved that post-disaster mental health crises remain unattended, affecting survivors for years to come.
On- site observations highlighted the central role of mothers in their families and communities. Mothers also spend most of their time inside survivor camps, while kids go to school and men go to work — time away from the pain of the disaster.
Interviews with mental health providers revealed cultural stigmas around mental health treatments.
Dialogue with mothers revealed their need to “free their minds” and their access to a basic cellphone.
Case studies provided reliable psychological treatments for addressing PTSD.
In evaluative research, the Libremente prototype showed a 100 percent participation rate and a 68 percent response rate in a group of over 30 participating mothers. This group included mothers sharing phones and at least one mother who was illiterate.
How can Mexico City efficiently map its public transit?
Record Guinness history revealed the city’s massive potential
Workshops with transit experts helped define the scope of work.
Personal interviews to discuss failed mappings efforts and riding buses revealed important things to consider, such as data labeling –routes tended to have confusing or similar names.
Focus groups with traffic engineers provided learnings from traditional mapping efforts and a base-map.
A pilot with sample groups revealed youth as the target audience for MapatonCDMX, and the need to simplify data collection.
In-school focus groups revealed students’ priorities for participation, as well as the opportunities and challenges of a civic open game.
Analysis of crime trends, case studies and experts recommendations led to risk reduction strategies for mappers.
Design workshops promoted collaboration between different government authorities.
