Adriana is an architect and urban planner with more than 15 years of experience in climate and urban resilience, housing, and community development. She founded UrbanSEED in 2016 to advance integrated, participatory approaches to sustainable and resilient urban growth and recovery, bridging the scales of architecture and urban planning, and the continuum between post-disaster reconstruction and long-term development.

Her work links the physical dimensions of housing, infrastructure, and public space with the social dynamics of community engagement, governance, and livelihoods. Through UrbanSEED, she collaborates with international partners to advance nature-based and community-driven solutions for resilience and disaster risk reduction across Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

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Before returning full-time to UrbanSEED, Adriana served as Principal at Miyamoto International, where she expanded the firm’s portfolio in urban resilience and climate adaptation, and as Housing and Urban Planning Advisor with the United Nations, leading Haiti’s first and largest housing reconstruction and urban rehabilitation program and later providing global advisory services on housing and urban development to multiple UNOPS offices.

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She holds Master’s degrees in Architecture and in City & Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley—where she was awarded the John K. Branner Fellowship—as well as a Bachelor of Science in Architecture (Honors) from the University of Virginia and a Certificate in Leadership from Harvard Business School.

 

Adriana is also the founder of FAVELissues, an interdisciplinary platform discussing urban informality and urban development for which she regularly contributes and administers, and a co-founder of BUILDING LOCAL, a non-profit organization which organizes international design-build workshops exploring the aesthetic, assembly and tectonic qualities of vernacular materials and construction techniques such as earth, stone, bamboo and wood.

 

Moreover, Adriana serves in the Steering Committee for the DC Accessory Dwelling Units Workgroup (DC ADU) led by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and is one of nine members in the American Red Cross Recovery Technical Advisory Group. 

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Areas of Expertise:

• Participatory planning and co-creation processes

• Urban resilience and climate adaptation

• Post-disaster reconstruction and disaster risk reduction

• Urban informality and informal settlement upgrading

• Housing development and PPP advisory

• Nature-based solutions and landscape-driven planning

• Policy advisory and strategic planning

• Community development and local governance

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