GGIS Colloquium | David Isern, School of Architecture

David J. Isern is a Peruvian architect, multidisciplinary designer, and educator who focuses and works on the transversality of space, heritage, and food and in the intersections of cultural traditions, urban memory, and gender across the Americas. His work engages with decolonial, feminist, and insurgent theories that provide a foundation for understanding and applying everchanging practices in the urban ayllu (community). 

His research uses ethnographic, participatory, speculative design, and visual analytical methods to intersect the urban cultural spaces and design practices with citizens’ and grassroots organisations’ engagement to generate innovative and progressive initiatives in the urban ayllus. David’s current work engages with the Peruvian urban context by understanding the role of Adean women who migrate to cities within Perú to find peace, reunite with their families, and create a better life. In doing so, these women develop new communities and, through insurgent actions in the urban space, particularly those related to food and cooking, contribute to the growth of these cities, making them the primary agents of urban growth, placemaking, policy activators, and cultural custodians. 

David's Illinois Faculty page