Rafael De Balanzo Joue

Department: Math and Science
School: School of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Email: rdebalan@pratt.edu
Phone: 718.636.3764
Websites: https://linktr.ee/UrbanResilienceThinkingDesign; Instagram; Twitter
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Biography

Rafael de Balanzo Joue is the founder of Resilience Thinking Design Studio, a multidisciplinary collective bringing together artists, engineers, economists, environmental scientists, and landscape architects. He is a Europe-licensed architect, scientist, and educator based between New York City and Barcelona. Rafael holds a PhD in Sustainability and has over 30 years of professional experience spanning Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

Teaching:

At Pratt Institute, Rafael serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor, affiliated with the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Department of Math and Science) and the School of Architecture and Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.

He teaches courses on sustainability, resilience thinking, and regenerative design. He currently leads the Pratt Earth/Public Sphere (PEACE) initiative, which investigates the nexus between climate justice, design, and public space. Additionally, Rafael is involved in Pratt’s transdisciplinary research on innovative approaches to STEAM education. Beyond Pratt, he is a guest professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape of Bordeaux and the Politecnico di Milano (Polimi). is teaching two courses [Ecology for Architects & Sustainable Communities course] at the Pratt School of Architecture (SoA) for undergraduate and graduate level at the Graduate Center of Planning and Environment (GCPE). He is also a Pratt NSF-funded project fellow, Exploring Transdisciplinary Approaches to STEM Teaching and Learning, Director of the Pratt Barcelona Program and co-leader of the Pratt Public Sphere., with nearly three decades of international work on transdisciplinary approaches, his research and work has intentionally focus in Sustainability science using the resilience thinking design approach to understand the social-technological-ecological systems dynamics and cycles of change in linked complex adaptive systems such as cities, communities, and habitats.

He is an EU registered architect, MLA, and Ph.D. in Sustainability Science, and the Urban Resilience Thinking Design Studio founder principal.

He is also currently CUNY adjunct assistant professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Science and the School of Business at Queens College, and QC NSF Fellow for the NSF-funded grant MakeSTEAM-Q Project fellowship: “An Interdisciplinary Design Program: Incorporating Making and Design Thinking to Enhance Undergraduate STEM Education, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, EINA Art & Design School and Erasmus + research project Fellow for ARDES online Sustainability Course and guest professor at ENSAP School of Architecture in France and Politecnico di Milano University in Italy. His research in Sustainability science used the resilience thinking design approach by understanding the social-technological-ecological systems dynamics and cycles of change in linked complex adaptive systems such as cities, communities, and buildings. He is a member of the Habitat Action Without Borders Work Program of the Architects Without Borders International (ASF-int), he received the 2021-2023 Russell Sage Research Project Grant Award and the 2022-23 CUNY Interdisciplinary Research Grant. He previously received architecture awards from the Belgium Government and the Associations of Spanish and Catalan Architects and he was the recipient of the 2019 Colombia Fulbright Chair for Urban Resilience at Del Tolima University, Ibague, Colombia. He is also a Social Practice CUNY Graduate Center fellowship 2022/23. He is a former lecturer at the University Pompeu Fabra, ELISAVA School of Engineering and Design, Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Southampton, Winchester School of Art, UK.