A Critical Review of Caribbean Mass Tourism / IUSD Lecture by Sofia Saavedra Bruno

Dr.ir. Saavedra Bruno will present SUPERSUDACA’s critical review of the socio spatial consequences of Caribbean Mass tourism, that received a best entry award at Rotterdam’s International Architecture Biennial. This will be followed by a presentation on how an academia as practice can tackle these socio-ecological challenges while paving the way for an integral planning approach towards community-based tourism models for coastal areas. The lecture illustrates how direct interventions built by students with minimum resources can have an impact at a larger scale. More specifically how they helped guarantee access to sea for three local communities in a coastal area of Curaçao.

Sofia Saavedra Bruno Ph.D., MArch, M.Civil Eng-Arch combines design practices and co-creative (research) processes with entrepreneurship and societal service in Europe, Northern Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, most recently as a complex project manager at ORG Permanent Modernity Brussels. In parallel, she teaches and engages in transdisciplinary action research as a volunteering Post Doc Researcher at KU Leuven and a founding member of Supersudaca, an international network of architects doing research on contemporary themes affecting society and territory. Her research focuses on Planning & Sustainable development, regenerative tourism, governance of the commons, transdisciplinary action research, and social innovation. Her research has been awarded on several occasions and published widely in journals as sustainable frontiers and Harvard design magazine.