Javier Vergara Petrescu

Founder and Executive Director

MSc City Design & Social Sciences, London School of Economics
Architect Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Javier is the Founder and CEO of Ciudad Emergente. He has specialized in issues of social innovation, citizen participation and technologies applied to the city, working in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Javier is an Architect from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and has a Master's Degree in City Design from the London School of Economics.

He is Co-founder of Plataforma Urbana and Plataforma Arquitectura / ArchDaily, and in 2006 he was chosen one of the 100 Young Leaders of Chile by the Center for Strategic Leadership of the Adolfo Ibáñez University. Javier is a regular lecturer in different Universities in America and has been a guest lecturer on Tactical Urbanism at Columbia University and the Latin GSD of Harvard.

His work in Ciudad Emergente has been exhibited in multiple cities including the MoMA in New York and in 2021 he received the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor Award, one of the most prestigious awards given by the United Nations to projects that promote sustainable urbanization in the world.

To learn more about Javier, you can watch his talk "Urban Design through Prototyping in Latin America: Civic Innovation and Tactical Urbanism Strategies" for the Columbia University GSAPP. 

javier@ciudademergente.org 
@vergarapetrescu