IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section A

Kutlwano is a South African based spatial practitioner. She finds everyday experience to be her research drive to show a more inclusive reading of personal and collective stories. In these story findings and tellings, she looks for value in the intangible gestures which exist, giving platform to omitted material experiences. Her curiosity on climate anxiety and social grievances led her through her studies in Architecture, Landscape Architecture Honours at UCT with distinction and Postgraduate Diploma at the Bartlett, UCL as well as Regenerative Design Postgraduate Programme at UHasselt.

Amira Osman is a Sudanese/South African architect, researcher, academic, activist, public speaker, and author. She is a Professor of Architecture at the Tshwane University of Technology and holds the position of the South African Research Chair in Spatial Transformation (Positive Change in the Built Environment).

Dr Ngaka Mosiane, a Senior Researcher in the Gauteng City Region Observatory at the University of the Witwatersrand, is an urban geographer whose research explores the transformative potential of cities through multiple vantage points. First, he draws research material from the peripheries of the Gauteng City-Region to examine how its ordinary people reshape their lives and overcome their marginality. Second, he draws from the ‘extended urbanisation’ research, reflecting on how spaces located outside the apparent edge of the GCR are not only functionally linked to its metropolitan core areas but are also potentially developing into self-sustaining areas.

Wendy Tsoriyo is an urban and regional planner with over a decade of academic and applied research experience. She brings extensive expertise in community-based research, stakeholder engagement, project implementation, and participatory urban development and management. She has worked alongside communities in informal settlements, peri-urban areas, and marginalised rural and urban communities. Her research interests include spatial justice, land management, urban resilience and human settlements planning.

Simphiwe Mlambo is an architectural researcher at the GSA (University of Johannesburg) and a lecturer at the Universities of Pretoria and Tshwane University of Technology. She holds a Master of Architecture (2022) with Distinction. Her research explores colonial cartography, African mythology, black spatial identity, and inclusive urbanism in the Global South. At the GSA, she co-leads the ADR seminar series and contributes to “From Land Grab to Land Back: Rematriation Futures” with WAI Think Tank.

Tlhologello Sesana is an award-winning innovator, academic, entrepreneur, architect, maker and storyteller who draws inspiration from her own indigenous culture(s). As the co-founder of Sesana Sesana Studio, she explores her research interests through innovation and artisanship. Her practice uses these modalities to shape narratives, confront history, and foster healing at various scales, from furniture to public exhibitions and building systems. She graduated from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) with a Master of Architecture degree. She has gained experience in the academic sphere as a lecturer and external examiner for local and international universities.