People

About me

In the current political context, the first thing I would like to say about myself is that I believe climate change is real, that we are in the midst of multiple environmental and social crises, and that all of these crises —societal, environmental and climatic—are the result of our careless relationship with the planet and with each other. Addressing these challenges mobilises my work, my thinking, my dreams, my life. I am convinced that there is still a place in academia - in research and teaching - to address these issues. 

Responsibilities

Research

My research interests include grassroots, radical, and insurgent spatial and planning practices, urban activism, and spatial justice; more recently I have become increasingly interested in home and home-city geographies and the way individuals arrange their living environments. Ontologically and epistemologically, I position myself within feminist and decolonial perspectives and I mobilise (and advocate for) critical, creative, and narrative methodological approaches. 

In August 2023, I started my role as project manager (work package 2) and researcher of the project T-winning Spaces 2035 funded by the Academy of Finland. The aim of our work package is to investigate the social and spatial implications for working futures and to propose and design novel spatial and land-use concepts focusing on work conducted predominantly at and from home and adjacent living environments. Our approach aslo aims to recognise and respond to multiple social, environmental, and climatic crises and challenges that disable working futures for a diversity of people.

Since September 2017, I have been working on my doctoral research which lies at the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and critical urban studies. My research critically investigates appropriations of abandoned urban spaces in different Latin American cities. 

Teaching

I have over 10 years teaching experience, both in Mexico and Finalnd. My teaching vocation began in 2012 in Mexico, where I became part of the teaching corps of the School of Architecture at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. I have developed the curricula and taught about eight courses since. Currently, I teach the courses of Sustainable Architecture with Sofie Pelsmakers and Urban Planning and Design Theory II with Panu Lehtovuori at Tampere University. I have also supervised two master’s thesis, both of which deal with neoliberal planning, tactical and insurgent practices, and new roles for architects in the climate emergency. I believe that the purpose of teaching and learning today should be to make determined efforts to reveal and address the major societal challenges of our historical moment: the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social and environmental inequities and injustices, and brittle democracies. However, these immense and overwhelming challenges cannot be dealt with individually nor in the abstract, within disciplinary silos, inside the comfort of the classroom, ignoring other people’s experiences, and without engaging with communities beyond our academic boundaries. Therefore, I strongly advocate engaged, situated, and activist scholarship.

Research unit

Architecture

About me

Panu Lehtovuori is the Professor of Planning Theory at the Tampere University, School of Architecture. Before the current position, he was the Professor of Urban Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. Lehtovuori’s research interests focus on contemporary forms of public urban space, new urban design approaches, the resource-efficiency of built environment and the evolution of planning law. Lehtovuori belongs to the Tampere Urban Studies Network TURN and is co-leader of the Urban Planning Research Group. Besides his academic and educational work, Lehtovuori is active in Livady Architects, SPIN UNIT and Nordic Urbanism. Currently, he is permanent expert in the renewal process of the Land Use and Building Act.

About me

Florencia Quesada Avendaño is adjunct professor in World Cultures, University of Helsinki. Trained as a historian her research interests include urban cultural history, sustainable tourism, violence and urban segregation. Currently, her research focuses on Guatemala City, first on a historical analysis of the urban and cultural transformation of the capital between 1880 and 1930. Guatemala City is also the subject of another project that she is involved that looks at fragile cities of the global South, specifically the impact of violence and environmental risks on precarious settlements.