NCID-1267
Clara Irazábal Zurita
Associate Professor
Columbia University
Education/Degree:
1 Architecture (University of California, Berkeley)
About
Clara Irazábal is the Latin Lab director and assistant professor of urban planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York City. She received a PhD in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and has two master's degrees in architecture and urban design and planning. In her research and teaching, she explores the interactions of culture, politics, and placemaking, and their impact on community development and socio-spatial justice. She primarily focuses on Latin American cities and Latino communities in the US.
Current Work
Dr. Irazábal is very proud of the teaching, service, and research projects that the Latin Lab that she directs at Columbia University has undertaken along its three lines of work: 1) Immigration and Ethnic Urbanism, where they have, for example, worked with a rural-to-urban community of immigrants in Medellin, Colombia for them to realize their right to permanency in a territory that is been claimed by the city for a project that threatens to displace them. 2) Urban Rehabilitation and Resilience, where they have offered the Secretary of Housing in Rio de Janeiro rationales and strategies to promote inclusionary and affordable housing in a central area of the city that has been renovated for the 2016 Olympics. And lastly, 3) Regional and Transnational Planning, where they have offered recommendations to municipalities in Leste Fluminense, Brazil, to strengthen their coalition of governments and face the growing demands for housing and services brought about by the incoming petrochemical complex that is opening in the region.
Research Area Keyword(s)
urban planning and urban studies, Latin American