What is City Lab Discovery?
City Lab Discovery provides unique professional development opportunities for urban planners and city managers. We connect you with the local experts that have led major change in their city.
Meet The Team
“Join us for an unforgettable experience.”
Jordi Honey-RosésFounder of City Lab Discovery
A California native, with Catalan roots, Dr. Honey-Rosés has walked the streets of Barcelona since his childhood and is passionate about urban history. He is thrilled to oversee the professional education programs at City Lab Discovery, which serve as a bridge between city leaders, planners and civic change makers from around the world.
Chief Architect of the city of Barcelona (2019 – 2023). During this period, he led many urban transformations with the aim of achieving healthier, friendlier and fairer cities. During his tenure as Chief Architect, he oversaw the Barcelona Superblock project, a transformational program that has made city streets greener, healthier and with stronger social and economic relations.
He also implemented Barcelona’s School Streets program, Protegim les Escoles, which has improved the environmental quality and safety of more than 200 school environments, as well as public space transformations on Meridiana Avenue, Parc de Glòries and Via Laietana, among others. Co-founder of Territoris XLM, an office dedicated to urban planning and public space design. Professor at the Department of Urbanism, Territory and Landscape (DUTP) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and at the Master Metropoli at Metropoli Institute of Barcelona (IMB).
An architect and planner, Meg Walker served as Senior Vice President at Project for Public Spaces in New York City where she worked for twenty years with communities around the US to transform their public spaces and buildings, downtowns, waterfronts, and neighborhoods into vibrant, sociable, and sustainable places. Outstanding examples include a new public space plan for downtown Detroit, a street activation plan for downtown Seattle, and a public space design for the Pearl Brewery development in San Antonio, Texas.
Meg Walker is currently an Assistant Visiting Professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where she has taught core courses in the graduate program in Urban Placemaking and Management and has advised thesis students since 2010. She was also a visiting professor at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University and at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. Ms. Walker is the chair of the board of En Garde Arts in New York City, an innovative, site-specific theater company that uses the city as its stage to promote young artists in the performing arts. She also served on the Board of Trustees for the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY for eight years. She holds a B.A. in government from Wesleyan University and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. Ms. Walker has spent many months visiting family in Barcelona over the past five years and has enjoyed getting to know the city, its public spaces, museums, and delightful events. She is the lead curator of Art and Public Space.
Meg leads the Arts & Public Space program.
Alison Sant is an urban designer, author, and teacher. She co-founded the Studio for Urban Projects, an interdisciplinary design collaborative that has worked for nearly 20 years at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, art, and social activism. The Studio focuses on public programming, urban prototyping, and civic dialog that aims to bring social justice and sustainability to the design of cities. In her role as partner, Alison has been a design captain for the Market Street Prototyping Festival, a designer-in-residence at the Exploratorium’s Bay Observatory, and a member of the Bionic team for the Bay Area Resilient By Design Challenge. In 2016, the Studio for Urban Projects was honored for contributing to its field by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a member of the YBCA100.
Alison is the author of From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities, named among the best books of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Planetizen. She is currently working on a new book entitled Streetlife (Island Press). Sant’s writing has been featured in U.S. News and World Report, Streetsblog, Earth Island Magazine, New Cities, City Lab, Planetizen, and Fast Company. She has taught at the College of Environmental Design, the University of California Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of Art. Alison currently teaches at Harvard Extension School’s Sustainability & Environment Program.
Alison leads the New York City Streets program.
Sílvia Casorrán Martos (Barcelona, 1979) has a degree in Environmental Sciences and an MBA, with studies in The Netherlands (Utrecht) and in Mexico (Guadalajara). She has 20 years of professional experience in the fields of sustainable mobility and the transformation of public space, working from both private and public sector.
From 2015-2020 she was the lead officer at the Cycling Office for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, a role she founded, and she coordinated the Cycling Cities Network in Spain. In the period 2019-2023 she served as the Mobility Councillor for Sant Martí District in Barcelona. In the period 2021-2023 she served as Deputy to the Chief Architect in Barcelona. For more than 15 years she has been an activist among sustainable mobility social movements.
Earlier in his career, as founding director of Van Alen Institute, Gastil led a program of urban design competitions, publications, and exhibitions, focused on open space and waterfronts, including the exhibition and publication Open: New Designs for Public Space and the book, Beyond the Edge: New York’s New Waterfront. His focus on waterfronts has continued in his work and scholarship, including his essay, “Complexity and Continuity in the Transformation of Pittsburgh’s Rivers and Riverfronts,” and Success Looks Different Now: Design and Cultural Vitality in Lower Manhattan.
Gastil has taught studio and seminars and published widely, including visiting professorships and full time appointments at institutions including at University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, and University of California, Berkeley, and is on the affiliate faculty of the University of Washington, Landscape Architecture. From 2019-2022, he headed the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught and advised on the future of urbanism in post-industrial cities. He serves on the board of Riverlife, Pittsburgh, and CALL/City as Living Laboratory.
Ray leads the Seattle program.
Alba Hurtado is a fifth-year architecture student at the Escola Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, currently finishing her studies. In addition to her academic pursuits, she has a keen interest in student representation, design, and feminist & sustainable architecture and urbanism.
Alba participated in the evaluation of Barcelona’s the School Streets project, and will be supporting the Barcelona Program with her experiences about Barcelona and the Old City as a local student.
Elena is an architect graduated with honors from ETSAB, UPC. Currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Architecture. Her professional journey includes collaborations with a handful of local architecture firms, where she has gained experience across diverse domains, including hospitality, commercial, residential architecture, and also installations.
Elena is currently contributing to the Barcelona Program at City Lab Discovery. With ETSAB recognized as a leader in the field of urbanism in Europe, Elena brings an unique local perspective on the relationship between architecture and the lived experiences of residents, enriching her contributions to the discipline.