Carles Baiges Camprubí is an architect from ETSAB-UPC in Barcelona and has a Master’s degree in Urban Sociology from Universiteit van Amsterdam. He is one of the founding members of the cooperative of architects Lacol and member of La Borda cooperative housing. Lacol has been awarded with several recognitions, including the Emerging category of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Awards 2022, and has been selected in the biennials of architecture in Venice (2016, 2021), Buenos Aires (2017) and San Sebastián (2019). La Borda has also won the European Collective Housing Award and was awarded at the European Responsible Housing Awards and the World Habitat Award.

Ada Colau Ballano served as the first female mayor in Barcelona, from 2015-2023. She has dedicated much of her career to social and human-rights activism. She helped launch the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) in 2009. In 2014, she founded Guanyem Barcelona (Barcelona en Comú), the citizens’ political party that won the municipal elections in 2015. In 2019 she was re-elected Mayor of Barcelona.

At the City Council, she prioritizes public policies focused on the fight against inequalities, the right to decent housing, the launch of a more sustainable city model, and the strengthening of citizen participation. She has also shown her commitment to regulating the impact of tourism, fostering a more diverse, inclusive, and green economy and improving public services. Feminism, solidarity, and the promotion of diversity also play a central role in her municipal policies.

Renato Cymbalista is an Architect and Planner. He is professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (USP). Since 2022, Cymbalista has served as the Director of Human Rights and Policies for Memory, Justice and Reparation at USP. He is also one of the founders of FICA, a non-profit real estate fund. He regularly teaches as an invited professor at international universities including Paris I, Paris VII, Parsons, BTU Cottbus. This coming winter semester, 2024-25, Cymbalista will join he Technisches Universitat Berlin and Bauhaus University Weimar as a Mercator Fellow. Cymbalista is the author and organizer, among other titles, of “What does an Ethical Landlord Look Like”, and “The Guide of the Difficult Places of São Paulo”.

Barika X Williams is the Executive Director of the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development Inc. (ANHD), a leading nonprofit focused on creating housing and economic justice for all New Yorkers. She is a leader and a national voice on how community development in marginalized neighborhoods can advance racial justice.

Previously, Williams held the position of Assistant Secretary for Housing under the Governor of New York State. In this role, she oversaw pivotal housing initiatives for the state, including the management of a $20 billion housing plan and expanding tenant protections throughout New York. Her professional journey also took her along the path of Real Estate development. At the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, and later at NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, she pioneered novel projects and published on topics including affordable housing practices, foreclosure prevention, disaster recovery, and the links between health, education, and housing.

The ACTIONING SUMMITS are an unprecedented effort to affirm how architecture, planning, development, and preservation are anticipating desirable and alternative futures. During a period of eight months, these summits will convene activists, architects, artists, designers, developers, ethnographers, historians, planners, policymakers, politicians, thinkers, and community organizers from around the world to address together eight crucial methodological shifts in the way the disciplines of the built environment operate and collaborate with each other.

The summits will offer a space and opportunity to situate specialized knowledge within specific histories and contexts. During the ACTIONING SUMMITS, participants will discuss a concrete methodological shift elaborated through the tools, practices, protocols, and forms of engagement that have unfolded as part of specific projects or processes they have actively participated in.

Please visit GSAPP’s event calendar to learn more about each ACTIONING SUMMIT. All summits will be live streamed on GSAPP’s YouTube channel.

The ACTIONING SUMMITS are curated by Andrés Jaque, Dean, and Bart-Jan Polman, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming and Curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery.

This event content is equivalent to 1.5 AIA/CES total learning credit. Please contact events@arch.columbia.edu for more information.

Columbia University campus access is restricted to Columbia affiliates (with a valid CUID) and to pre-approved guests. To attend an event at GSAPP, please register through the link below at least two business days in advance of the event to request campus access and bring your ID.

Register here to attend ACTIONING SUMMIT 2.