Cuban architect and urban researcher, Gabriela Garcia Portuondo, has focused her practice and research on the regeneration of urban settlements in Havana, with special emphasis on sustainable development. Trained at the Architecture Faculty of the University City “José Antonio Echeverría”, Gabriela began her professional career at the Office of the Historian on Havana City, where she worked for 3 years. In 2018, she participated in the UNESCO´s World Heritage Young Professionals Forum in Bahrein. The same year, Gabriela was awarded the Chevening Scholarship from the UK: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office which allowed her to study MA International Architectural Regeneration and Development at Oxford Brookes University. In 2020, Gabriela co-founded the International Forum “Our City, Our Space” and the collaboration network Placemaking-Cuba alongside Leysi Rubio, both supporting bottom-up community development initiatives that work towards accomplishing the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
