Renata Nogueira Herculano

Renata Herculano is an urban planner with over 15 years of experience in urban planning and design, public policy, and the conceptual development of projects across multiple scales.

She holds a master’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism, with additional training in Civil/Production Engineering and specializations in city management and urban design in the United Kingdom. She is the founder of Mutum Urbanismo, a Brazilian firm that supports companies, municipalities, and communities in developing urban solutions rooted in local culture, landscape, and strategic territorial development. Renata has led or contributed to more than a hundred projects across Brazil and abroad, combining technical expertise with participatory methods and place-based strategies.

She currently serves as Deputy Secretary for Urban Planning in Belo Horizonte, the sixth-largest capital city in Brazil, home to over 2.3 million people and at the center of a metropolitan region with more than 5.7 million inhabitants. In this role, she coordinates cross-sectoral urban policies focused on downtown regeneration, the social use of vacant land, and the strengthening of neighborhoods as spaces of everyday life, belonging, and cultural diversity. Herculano believes in the power of cities to foster well-being, equity, and collective imagination — and works at the intersection of technical planning, public policy, and people’s lived experiences.