Livingmaps Review

Julie Plichon
Empathy Walks

Julie Plichon has a background in Political Sciences, and graduated this year from the Bartlett School of Planning with an MSc (Distinction) in Urban Design and City Planning. In the coursework, she led ‘Jane Jacobs’ walks in Hammersmith, London, where participants were invited to use their senses to appreciate the neighbourhood. This experiment is designed to inform urban design by placing human scale and walkability at the core of the design process. Julie also has experience in engaging communities in London, as in 2016 she took part in the production of a weekly community market at St George’s Estate in Wapping. Her major research project in urban design received a distinction for producing an alternative typology for the disused open spaces in council estates, creating appropriation and meaningful places.

Sonia Baralic

United Kingdom

Sonia Baralic studied Human Geography in Manchester and Sweden, and recently graduated from the UCL Bartlett School of Planning with an MSc in Urban Design and City Planning, and a major research project which designed socio-economic processes to support the ‘physical regeneration’ of social housing for vulnerable communities. With a background in social enterprise and civic projects, she has founded community projects that tackle the parallel issues of food waste and food poverty, as well as coordinating community makerspaces and a food waste network in Brixton. Sonia is currently working within local government town centre regeneration, collaborating closely with local communities and civic initiatives in Loughborough Junction to design and deliver an affordable workspace and food business incubator scheme.

Leticia Sabino

Brazil

Leticia Sabino graduated at the Bartlett- UCL in MSc in Urban Design and City Planning in 2016, following her BA in Business Management. Leticia is the Founder of SampaPé! , 2012, (which means São Paulo on foot) an NGO based in São Paulo, Brazil, that promotes walkability from two perspectives: i.motivating citizens to walk through fun ways such as walking tours, playing out streets, etc. ii. advocating for better pedestrian infrastructure within the city. Leticia has expertise in promoting walking tours to bring awareness about different layers and perspectives which compose the city. She has recently volunteered at a Refugee Camp in Greece where, once again, the experience with other people has proved as the best opportunity to generate empathy.

Debanil Pramanik

India

Debanil Pramanik is a qualified architect from India and recently graduated from the Bartlett – UCL in MSc in Urban Design and City Planning in 2016. Has worked at the multidisciplinary Busride studio in Mumbai (Jan 2013 – Jul 2015) on a range of architectural, urban research and public realm projects. During this time was integrally involved with the Bandra project which looked at pedestrian behaviour and understanding their response to the built environment within Bandra, a vibrant suburb of Mumbai.This was done by extensive mapping based on parameters such as green cover, building heights, builtforms with heritage value and co relating it with pedestrian routes frequently used by people.The collected data was shared periodically with the community in the form of open public exhibitions.This data also formed the basis to introduce wayfinding mechanisms, micro economy modules and public realm interventions within the suburb.

Sofia Mazzuco

United Kingdom

Sofia Croso Mazzuco is a qualified architect and urbanist graduated in Brazil. She recently received a degree from the Bartlett, MSc (Distinction) in Urban Design and City Planning. Her major project is about adapting the passive participatory planning model, in the UK , to an active proposition that empowers the deprived community of Gospel Oak (Camden) through a social economy based on the circus arts. She has extensively interacted with the community itself to come to a meaningful regeneration proposition which consider empirical knowledge. Sofia is interested in the opportunities that public space offers to create empathy between citizens, and has worked on varied public space regeneration projects. One of them, ‘Cambuci Interactive Staircase’, was selected to be showcased at the 10th Architecture Bienalle in São Paulo. She currently lives in London and is seeking her own ways to belonging to the city.