Viviana Fernandez Prajoux

Viviana Fernandez Prajoux holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urbanism from the Polytechnic University in Madrid, where her thesis focused on participatory planning in urban management. 

Between 2022 and 2025, she worked as a researcher and collaborator at the Public System Centre of the University of Chile. She served as a guest professor in Participatory Design and Planning for the Master's program in Sustainable Environments at the Universidad Austral in Chile. 

She was a member of the jury for the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy in 2003. Between 2009 and 2019, she assessed government programs related to housing and urban development for the Budget Directorate in Chile. From 2016 to 2021, she evaluated research and development functions at several Argentine universities, including Córdoba, San Juan, General Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, and Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos. 

Her research and publications reflect her focus on participatory urbanism. In 2013, she published the article “Citizen Decision on Public Space: The Case of Two Projects in Las Condes, Santiago Metropolitan Area, Chile” in the journal Planning, Learning and Action, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London. In 2017, she co-authored the chapter “Community Participation in the Design and Construction of the Built Environment in Puerto Rico and Chile: Intertwining Community and Academia” with Omayra Rivera, published in the book Global Dwelling: Intertwining Research, Pedagogy, and Community Participation, edited by Leandro Madrazo for the OIKONET Network.