Carlo Castelli
Carlo is an architect and masterplanner with 25 years' experience delivering innovative urban solutions and the founder of Urban Purpose.
Carlo leads and advises teams on major international and inter-disciplinary urban projects at various scales, with particular expertise in integrated spatial and socio-economic strategies and transport-related urban development.
He advocates a 'purpose case' approach to city-making which aims to put quality of life and well-being at the core of the holistic integration of economic, social, environmental and cultural values.
Carlo is the Chief Technical Advisor of the UNDP capacity-building and strategic advisory programme with the Riyadh Regional Municipality in Saudi Arabia. He has voluntary roles such as the co-chair of the ULI Europe Urban Regeneration Council and a member of the LSE Global Real Estate Group's Executive Committee.
Carlo speaks regularly in international conferences and has provided strategic advice and technical leadership to some of the world's most interesting urban projects, including The New London Agenda with the NLA, a regeneration project in Newham, London, the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation Plan (with Jacobs), Al Mouj Muscat (with AECOM), a new touristic destination, the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop (with Jacobs), Meridian Water regeneration project in London (with Jacobs) and the KKIA Concept Masterplan in Riyadh (with AECOM)
Ethan Kent
Ethan Kent works to support public space organizations, projects, and leadership around the world to build a global placemaking movement. Ethan has traveled to more than 1000 cities, in 60 countries, to advance the cause of leading urban development with inclusive public spaces and placemaking. In 2019 he co-founded PlacemakingX to network, amplify and accelerate placemaking leadership and impact globally. Ethan has helped initiate and grow 30+ regional placemaking networks covering much of the globe, while also supporting the PlacemakingUS network, and the Social Life Project.
He builds on more than 20 years of working on placemaking projects and campaigns with Project for Public Spaces. Ethan has been integral to the development of placemaking as a transformative approach to economic development, environmentalism, transportation planning, governance, resilience, social equity, design, placekeeping, digital space, inclusion, tourism and innovation. Ethan has keynoted well over 100 top urbanism conferences and helped organize dozens of the placemaking conferences that have most shaped the movement. Placemaking Projects Ethan has led a broad spectrum of Placemaking efforts, providing comprehensive public engagement, user-analysis, planning and visioning for high profile public spaces on six continents.
Project highlights have included Times Square and Astor Place in New York City; Garden Place in Hamilton, New Zealand; Sub Centro Las Condes in Santiago, Chile and Parramatta Square in new South Wales Australia. Ethan has worked on major waterfront projects in Auckland, New Zealand; Hong Kong, China; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Nassau, Bahamas; Vancouver, Canada; and Brisbane, Australia
Dr. Luisa Bravo
Luisa is a distinguished public space scholar, activist, and cultural entrepreneur who brings more than two decades of expertise as both an academic and practitioner. Her work has taken her to over 30 countries, where she has conducted research and lectured at leading universities while contributing to major UN summits, including Habitat III (Quito, 2016), multiple World Urban Forums (2018–2024), and UN high-level meetings in New York. In 2013, she founded the non-profit organization City Space Architecture, through which she has launched groundbreaking initiatives such as The Journal of Public Space, the Public Space Academy, and the Public Space Museum. Her leadership has also led to strategic collaborations with UN-Habitat and the Davos Baukultur Alliance of the World Economic Forum. Through her interdisciplinary work that connects academia, policy, and practice, Dr. Bravo has become a prominent voice championing public space culture and civic participation via research, education, and global cooperation. She serves European and international institutions as an expert evaluator and advisor, contributing her expertise to programs including Horizon Europe, EIT Culture & Creativity, Safe and Sound Cities, and the Global Platform for the Right to the City. Dr. Bravo also holds the position of Adjunct Professor of Urban Design at the University of Florence in Italy.
Norah Alyusuf
Norah is a global strategist specializing in quality of life, urban innovation, and international engagement. As Chief Global Engagement Officer at Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 Quality of Life Program Center, she leads initiatives that advance well-being, sustainability, and human-centric urban development.
With over 20 years of cross-sector experience-including leadership roles at BlackRock, Standard Chartered, and Alnahda Society-she leverages innovation and emerging technologies to drive transformative impact. She heads the Global Quality of Life Initiative, a platform developed with 120+ experts that introduces new frameworks and metrics for evaluating urban livability and strengthens Saudi Arabia's role in global sustainability efforts.
Her work is complemented by her certification as an Integrative Health and Wellness Coach, inspired by a personal family health crisis, broadening her leadership approach to include holistic well-being and community resilience.
Beyond policy, Norah promotes cultural, sports, and social dimensions of quality of life. She is a founding board member of the Saudi Polo Federation, Chairwoman of the Richard Mille AlUla Desert Polo Tournament, advisor to the Masar Godolphin Scholarship, and one of the first Saudi women to compete internationally in endurance racing.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with executive training from IMD, she is known for blending strategic vision with empathetic leadership, shaping innovative global policy platforms and advancing sustainable, people-centered urban futures.
Dr. Adel Alzahrani
Adel is one of the Arab world's most influential voices in urbanism, design governance, and livability, with growing international recognition.
As a former Deputy Minister for Urban Planning & Lands, he shaped Saudi's National Urban Policy, authored the 19 Saudi Architectural Identities and national urban design and public realm frameworks, founded the National Urban Design Studio, and led major regeneration and spatial planning reforms aligned with Vision 2030.
Today, as Executive Director of Community Development Charters at ROSHN, Dr. Adel is architecting the ROSHN DNA and the groundbreaking Living Code, the Kingdom's emerging national standard for walkable, human-centered, high-quality communities. He leads the design governance, transforming guidelines into intelligent systems that elevate urban quality across all ROSHN developments portfolio.
He is a designer, policymaker, and urban thinker shaping the next Saudi urban decade.
Josephine Yilan Liu
Josephine is a cognitive urbanist exploring how cities shape what people do, value, and become. Through Transformative Cities, she bridges cognitive science and urban design to show how space itself can stabilise new behaviours, norms, and identities.Before founding Transformative Cities, she co-founded Urban Future, now Europe's leading event on sustainable cities. Trained in architecture and cognitive science, with experience across Europe and China, her work develops practical methods for designing environments that foster belonging, adaptability, and meaning-advancing a new cognitive turn in urbanism.