With a background in participatory and strategic design, architecture, creative research, and community planning, Isabel Saffon’s my main interests revolve around understanding the role of design in expanding human rights. Her recent practice is focused in developing strategies of open-decision making to empower underserved communities to shape their built environment.

Isabel’s boundless curiosity has led her to form an interdisciplinary approach and practice internationally in Colombia, Japan, Paraguay and the US. She earned a professional degree in architecture (Magna Cum Laude) at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, where she discovered her passion for social innovation and public space as the backbone of the city. Driven to put her ideas into practice, Isabel traveled to Koshirakura, Japan, where she was part of a visiting program of the AA School of Architecture. 

She pursued an MS in Design and Urban Ecologies at Parsons The New School for Design. For the past two years she has been putting into practice alternative urban design methodologies that combine fieldwork, research, data visualization, and participatory action to use design as a tool for transformative urban change and advocate for social justice.