Introducing the Emerging ChangeMaker Retreat Cohort

Over the course of the retreat, participants engaged with experts from leading organisations, collaborated in workshops and scenario exercises, and examined how interdependent actors can shape more sustainable and resilient futures.

They took part in discussions, site-based learning, and cross-disciplinary exchanges that deepened their understanding of strategic foresight, systems thinking, and impactful leadership. The retreat provided a platform for shared enquiry and collective imagination, equipping the cohort to apply their insights within their own contexts and future practice.

Solomon Ayres, University College London

Solomon is a PhD student and recent master’s graduate in Engineering and Architecture from UCL, with experience in self-build housing and fire-safe engineering. Raised in Chile and the UK, he developed a deep interest in climate resilience, modern infrastructure, and socially responsive urban development. His academic background combines architecture with environmental and structural engineering, which he employs through part-time consultancy. His PhD focuses on fire safety in sustainable construction, with an emphasis on improving communication between disciplines. He has led student societies and fostered student–industry collaboration. He is committed to resilient, innovative design that addresses the challenges of climate change and evolving urban environments. | LinkedIn

Daniel Blanco, University of the Andes

Daniel is a Colombian architect and visual artist focused on landscape and participatory design in rural contexts. His practice explores how the tools and gestures of noticing as making can build bridges between people and their ecosystems—through emotional drawing, local manufacturing techniques, and collaboration with natural and social scientists. He earned a Meritorious Art Degree from the Universidad de los Andes, where he completed the dual-track program in Architecture and Fine Arts. Daniel co-founded CEPA, a publishing cooperative for printed media experimentation, and works as a Regional Exhibition Designer at the National Museum of Colombia. He also leads Tizón, his independent practice, and teaches as an adjunct professor at the Universidad del Rosario, exploring craftsmanship, exhibition, furniture, comics, and imagination as tools for transformation. | LinkedIn

Marney Coleman, University of Michigan

Marney serves as the Sustainability Manager for the Trammell Crow Company (TCC), a global real estate development firm. She focuses on leveraging sustainability to drive value creation and risk mitigation for investors, occupiers, and communities. Her role centres on integrating sustainability into design and construction through analysing physical climate risk on new sites, supporting embodied carbon measurement and reporting, incorporating renewable energy, and investigating procurement of lower-carbon materials—most notably concrete. Before joining TCC, Marney completed a dual MBA and MS in Sustainability from the University of Michigan in 2023, where she focused on the intersection of sustainability and the built environment. | LinkedIn

Sebastian Delgado, Catholic University of Peru

An architect, Sebastian received the 2023 Excellence Award and the 2023 Student Research Award, and graduated with honours in 2024. He has earned scholarships for urban and territorial research programs with NSAP-Bordeaux, the University of Geneva, UNAM (Holcim Foundation program), and the Catholic University of Chile. He has worked as an academic research assistant at the PUCP Faculty of Architecture and at the National University of Engineering of Peru. He has experience in urban and territorial research and planning projects, design work at the 51-1 Architecture office, and currently collaborates with Marta Maccaglia at the Semillas Association. His research areas include cultural landscapes, Andean studies, astronomy in the central Andes, Quechua-Aymara linguistics, and the Qhapaq Ñan—the ancient road system of the Andean region. | LinkedIn

Stephanie Koziol, Cornell University

Stephanie’s path into real estate began with a desire to understand community development after a post-pandemic housing crisis affected her hometown in Idaho. Recognising that investment shapes cities, she was drawn to real estate development. She sees finance as the mechanism through which sustainability can be scaled and institutionalised across the built environment. Stephanie recently accepted a role as an analyst at Affinius Capital, where she works on multifamily developments across the U.S., including adaptive reuse projects, senior housing, and master-planned communities. Prior to joining Affinius, she earned a Master of Real Estate from Cornell University. | LinkedIn

Connaught Lee, Sciences Po

Connaught works as a policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he advises governments on decarbonising buildings. Trained in political science and urban governance at Sciences Po Paris, he crafts evidence-based narratives to advance sustainable urban development. His work combines analytical rigour with creative insights drawn from experience in graphic design, public art, and city diplomacy. He has contributed to policy reports on financing public rental housing in Asian metropolises, SDG localisation in cities, multi-level governance for net-zero buildings, whole-life carbon, and affordable housing in Indonesia. He speaks Cantonese, English, Mandarin Chinese, French, and Dutch. | LinkedIn

Jacob Meyers, Delft University of Technology

Jacob works at the intersection of architectural reuse, research, and advocacy. He is an Executive Committee member of Docomomo Singapore, a modernist architecture conservation non-profit, and has worked for Studio Lapis, Singapore’s only architectural conservation and research consultancy, focusing on the adaptive reuse of 1960s–80s buildings. Jacob studied architecture at the Bartlett, University College London as a DesignSingapore Scholar, and is currently completing his master’s studies in architecture at TU Delft as a Justus & Louise van Effen Foundation Scholar. His current work investigates the reuse potential of twentieth-century mass housing stock. | LinkedIn

Carmelo Nastasi, University of Sydney

Carmelo is a multi-award-winning designer and architecture graduate from the University of Sydney, with a keen interest in process-driven, purpose-built architecture that considers vernacular site histories and sustainable outcomes. His experience spans high-level master planning, large-scale retail, education and transport precincts, as well as exhibition and furniture design. Carmelo is particularly interested in advocacy and thought leadership, researching climate-adaptive architecture in various projects, including recent work with the Australian Institute of Architects. His research examines how cities of the future can evolve by embedding resilience and future-focused thinking today. He brings this experience into the classroom as a sessional academic in architecture at the University of Sydney. | LinkedIn

Adriana Rodriguez, Monterrey Institute of Technology

Adriana is a Mexican architect focused on regeneration, education, and interdisciplinarity to prioritise the well-being of all forms of life. She leads the Architecture Program at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Santa Fe Campus. She co-founded Holobionte: Urban Permaculture Laboratory (1st place PNC, Latin American Landscape Architecture Biennial 2024). Her interests include the long-term impacts of architecture, deep understanding of place, community engagement, and care-based educational processes. Adriana graduated from Tecnológico de Monterrey, with training experiences in Bern, Lausanne, and Delft. She worked with Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura for over five years, serving as Project Leader and Head of Projects. She holds a master’s degree in Architecture, Design, and Sustainable Construction from the Universidad del Medio Ambiente in Valle de Bravo, Mexico. | LinkedIn

Antonio Santa, University of Stuttgart

Antonio is a political scientist from Medellín, Colombia, with six years of experience in empirical research across the public sector, museums, and academia. A DAAD EPOS scholarship recipient, he completed the MSc in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design, co-developing holistic urban projects in Stuttgart and Cairo with a focus on strategic planning and climate-responsive design. His master’s research examined how marginalised communities self-organise for climate adaptation in Medellín, resulting in a compendium of alternative urban assemblages that address the climate crisis and foster transformation aligned with SDGs 11 and 13. Committed to systemic urban transformation and well-being for all, he aims to lead initiatives rooted in regenerative design that integrate climate and restorative justice. | LinkedIn

Océane Seba, Paris-Malaquais School of Architecture–PSL

Océane is an architect and engineer trained at the École d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais–PSL and CNAM. She has contributed to international projects including the Sharaan Desert Resort in Saudi Arabia with Ateliers Jean Nouvel, a sustainable maternity ward in Tanzania supported by the Holcim Foundation, and the Fencing Pavilion for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Focused on reuse and architectural obsolescence, she envisions resilient, resource-conscious futures. Currently completing her HMONP qualification in Paris while working with Bauzeit Architekten in Switzerland, she explores design, strategy, and political practice, positioning architecture as a tool for equitable and sustainable transformation. | LinkedIn

Maggie Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Maggie is a structural engineer at Arup’s Boston office, working on existing and new building and bridge projects. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, she completed her B.S. in Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 2022, followed by a master’s degree at MIT in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a focus on structural mechanics and design. At MIT, she published research on barriers to using computational tools—such as parametric design and optimisation—to reduce embodied carbon in structural engineering practice. She is active in Arup’s sustainability initiatives and aims to reduce the embodied carbon of the firm’s projects. | LinkedIn

Laura Suvieri, University of Catania

Laura is a building engineer and PhD student at the University of Catania, leveraging digital workflows to support the ecological transition of the built environment. She develops GIS-based, data-driven methods to score the preliminary reuse potential of vacant buildings, piloting these tools with municipalities in Italy. A former visiting researcher at TU Graz in the Counterintuitive Building Types project, she now collaborates with the University of Perugia and The City College of New York to translate vacancy data into actionable policies, advocating for a sustainable, reuse-driven building stock. | LinkedIn

Katie Taylor, University of Sydney

Graduating from the University of Sydney, Katie is an emerging architect, artist, and researcher who positions architecture as a tool for historical reconciliation, ecological stewardship, and community-driven change. Her practice weaves theoretical discourse, artistic exploration, and meaningful collaboration with communities. Taking an interdisciplinary and experimental approach to decarbonisation, decolonisation, and the Anthropocene, she explores how design can enable reparative engagements with history while advancing sustainable futures. Katie’s research with Pritzker Prize laureates Lacaton + Vassal was exhibited as part of the Rothwell Chair in Architectural Design Leadership. She was a founding member of CIRCA Journal, part of the winning team in the 2024 NSW Government Housing Pattern Book Competition, and has an upcoming exhibition extending the inquiries of her master’s thesis. | LinkedIn