All Things Urban

Faezeh Mohammadi is an Iranian urbanist and programme maker who started out as a Bachelor's student of Urban Planning & Design at the University of Tehran and moved to The Netherlands to continue her studies with a Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning. In this interview, Faezeh shares her experience of pursuing an early career as an international graduate in a “migrant destination” and gives valuable advice on how to overcome these challenges.

Coming from a background in Geography, Paulina specialised in Cities & Sustainability at Aalborg University and gained experience working in mobility research at the University of Amsterdam and sustainable urban development at a Germany-based project developer. After working remotely from Lisbon during the pandemic, Paulina is now based in Berlin as a city dialogue consultant for German Railways, bringing their mission of sustainable mobility to life in collaboration with municipalities across the country.

Mariko Sugita is an independent editor, journalist, and researcher on architecture and urbanism. She owns the website Traveling Circus of Urbanism and manages the cultural space Bridge To in Kyoto where she hosts an “urbanist in residence” program. Mariko co-founded For Cities, a new urban experience design studio based in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Amsterdam.

Dorraine Duncan and Jhordan Channer are co-founders of Island City Lab, a think-tank confronting urban issues in cities across island nations. Whilst Dorraine studied environmental policy and urban planning and Jhordan architecture at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, they gained internship experience in Singapore and Guangzhou, South China. After graduation, they moved to New York City, where Dorraine worked in municipal planning and Jhordan in urban design. They were both fellows at the Urban Design Forum before they returned to Kingston, Jamaica, where they are now based.

Camila Jordan is an environmental engineer turned urban planner, policy researcher and community advocate. While initially working as an environmental analyst, she volunteered for several years at TETO, a Latin American NGO that builds emergency housing for underserved communities. She then obtained a Master’s in Public Administration in Development Practice at Columbia University, New York City, where she led a pilot program to create more social housing. Camila is currently the executive director at TETO Brazil.

Manali Sheth initially studied Ethnomusicology in California and traveled to Turkey and India before shifting her career through an urban planning crash course. She received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Washington in Seattle while doing research at the Urban Freight Lab. Manali then joined Arup as a logistics consultant, and she is currently working at the Shared-Use Mobility Center in Chicago.

Jos Kenter is an urban designer, illustrator and researcher based in Rotterdam. He studied his Bachelor's and Master’s in Urbanism at TU Delft, and graduated with a thesis about autonomous vehicles and what their arrival to cities might mean for urban planning. Jos is currently working on the development of future scenarios for Dutch cities and regions as Junior Urban Designer and Researcher at RUIMTEVOLK.

Franca Fellmann grew up in Switzerland supporting progressive ideas from a young age. During her Bachelor’s in Geography and Sociology, she discovered her interest for sustainable urban development and moved to Rotterdam for a Master’s degree in Urban Management and Development. Franca is currently interning at the Cantonal and Urban Development division of the Canton of Basel-City.

Erica Belcher studied arts and culture in Maastricht, Netherlands, before moving to the UK for her master’s degree at the London School of Economics. She then worked as a policy researcher in think tanks, immersing herself in the world of local governance where she became progressively interested in urbanism. Her next step as policy data analyst brings her to work on UK national issues of data science and statistics.

Manasvini Hariharan studied architecture in her hometown Chennai, India, before shifting to urbanism. She traveled to Tours, France, on a scholarship for a Master’s degree in urban planning, then returned to Mumbai to apply her skills on the ground in the city. She later moved to Seoul, South Korea, to work as a planner and strategist in urban regeneration projects, along with researching high-rise living.