Gabriela discovered the power of her own feet while breaking the city of Barcelona in 2006, when she was an exchange student at the Faculty of Architecture of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Walking, she fell in love with urban design and street life. She then went on to explore the different design scales that manifest within the city, working on social housing projects; public spaces and services; and the development of urban plans in formal and informal areas of cities in Brazil, the United States, Spain and Ghana.
She is graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (2009) and holds a master’s degree from GSAPP, Columbia University (2011). Her experience as an urban designer and architect (in that order) was shaped by her experience in the public area (Cohab-SP and São Paulo Urbanismo), private (Vigliecca & Associados and Aecom), third sector (Ashoka) and academy (Columbia University).
It was, however, her time in the New York City Department of City Planning and learning about the active design concept that inspired the founding of Cidade Ativa, where she has been working since 2014 formulating innovative proposals for the transformation of our cities and consolidating partnerships to turn ideas into action.