Team
An interdisciplinary and international research community
The UrbanLab is an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Louvain, bringing together expertise in architecture, urban and landscape design, engineering, ecology, geography, data science and environmental management. Founded and directed by Professor Daniela Perrotti, the Lab studies how cities organise and transform energy, materials, water, food, land and ecosystem services. Its research combines quantitative analysis with spatial, social, political and design-based approaches. The team develops models, maps, scenarios and decision-support tools in collaboration with public authorities, communities, practitioners and industry partners. Its work supports urban transitions that are more resource-efficient, climate-responsive, socially inclusive and attentive to both human and non-human forms of agency.
Daniel Otero Peña
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Design
University of Louvain
Spatial urban metabolism; GIS; resource governance; public space; landscape infrastructure; environmental justice; vulnerable communities; research through design.
Pramit Verma
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Ecology
University of Louvain
Urban ecology; interconnected cities; household energy; urban green space; land-use change; spatial statistics; remote sensing; explainable artificial intelligence.
Ehsan Ahmadian
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Systems
University of Louvain
Agency; actors and institutions; urban resource-use assessment; model classification; stakeholder engagement; social-ecological systems.
Elisabetta Rosa
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Studies
University of Louvain
Information and knowledge structures; urban margins; housing precarity; informality; nature-based solutions; urban social-ecological systems.
Nicola Bertoldi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy of Science
University of Louvain and Sorbonne Nouvelle University
Philosophy and history of science; agency; conceptual engineering; environmental humanities; computational text analysis; social ecology.
Sareh Moosavi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Landscape Planning
University of Louvain and University of Melbourne
Environmental planning; landscape architecture; climate-positive design; nature-based solutions; biodiversity corridors; metabolic and life-cycle thinking.
Yasmina Choueiri
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Geography
University of Louvain
Informal infrastructures; material-flow analysis; water justice; energy–water nexus; social-network analysis; circular-economy policy.
Kai Whiting
Postdoctoral Researcher in Social Ecology
University of Louvain
Social metabolism; resource-service cascade; energy services; material services; ecosystem services; human needs; wellbeing; exergy and circularity.
Koenraad Danneels
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Studies
University of Louvain and KU Leuven
History of urbanism; ecological urbanism; urban metabolism; landscape architecture; activism; more-than-human urbanism; environmental history.
Marlène Boura
Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Science
University of Louvain
Environmental data; spatial biodiversity analysis; ecological mapping; animal-inclusive planning; multispecies urbanism.
Giulia Scialpi
Doctoral Researcher in Circular Construction
University of Louvain
Dorothy Julian Nalumu
Doctoral Researcher in Nature-Based Solutions and Informal Settlements
University of Louvain
Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos
Doctoral Researcher and Yale CEA Researcher
University of Louvain and Yale University
Daniel Otero Peña
Recent PhD Graduate in Urban Design
University of Louvain
Ursula-Crisy Cardenas-Mamani
Doctoral Researcher in Urban Metabolism and Ecosystem Services
University of Louvain
Christina Bristow
Doctoral Researcher, Co-Supervised by the University of Reading
University of Reading and University of Louvain
Owusu Amponsah
Professor of Urban Planning and Research Collaborator
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Sustainable and inclusive cities; informal urbanism; housing; green infrastructure; policy analysis; livelihoods; monitoring and evaluation.
Chiara Palermo
Professor in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University
Aesthetics; philosophy of art; landscape; temporality; sensible experience; images; human and non-human relations.
Léna Chalmeau
Researcher in Environmental Politics
Catholic University of Lille and University of Louvain
Environmental politics; agency; resource governance; institutions; collective action; power and urban sustainability.
Mounya Daoudi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Planning
Polytechnic School of Architecture and Urbanism, Algiers
Urban metabolism; circular construction; Algiers; urban health; spatial vulnerability; planning frameworks; resource efficiency.
Roberta Pistoni
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
École nationale supérieure de paysage de Versailles–Marseille
Landscape planning and design; energy transition; ecological transition; infrastructure; sufficiency; climate mitigation; co-design.
Ruichang Mao
Assistant Professor
Henan University; formerly University of Southern Denmark
Industrial ecology; urban material stocks; built environment; material-flow analysis; GIS; infrastructure; embodied carbon; Chinese cities.
Mazia Chaker-Aissi
Lecturer
University of Science and Technology of Oran Mohamed-Boudiaf and EPAU VUDD Laboratory
Urban symbiosis; Algiers; energy demand; carbon mitigation; urban metabolism; circular resource exchange; sustainable urban development.
Bruna Esperi
Research Data and Knowledge Support
University of Louvain
Cities are not closed systems
Their metabolism extends across territories, infrastructures, ecosystems and communities. Understanding these relationships is essential to creating urban environments that are more resource-sensitive, socially just and ecologically resilient.