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About the Norman Foster Institute (NFI)

Vision

Bridging academia and practice, the Norman Foster Institute (NFI), launched in 2024, is an applied Research Centre for Sustainable Cities operating as a department of the Norman Foster Foundation (NFF).

It supports cities through evidence-based strategies and practical solutions to improve urban life. The Institute includes an Education and Research Unit, featuring the Master’s Programme on Sustainable Cities—with specialisations in City Science, Urban Design and Architecture—alongside short programmes and published research. Its City Advisory Unit co-develops sustainable strategies with cities, supported by the Centre for City Science (CCS), which provides data-driven tools for solution-finding.

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The Norman Foster Institute (NFI) is an applied research centre for sustainable cities, directed by Norman Foster and operating as a department of the Norman Foster Foundation (NFF). The NFI develops evidence-informed strategies to support cities in advancing sustainable urban development, addressing pressing environmental and social challenges. Its work focuses on creating practical solutions that improve urban planning, public space and policymaking—all with the aim of enhancing the quality of life for city residents.

The Education and Research Unit, the first branch of the NFI, is anchored by the flagship Master’s Programme on Sustainable Cities, which enables students to tackle real-world urban challenges. As part of the programme, students travel to partner cities to work directly with city administrations, gaining hands-on experience in shaping sustainable solutions. With specialisations in City Science, Urban Design and Architecture, the Master’s equips students with integrated perspectives on sustainable city design. The unit also offers short-format programmes—including workshops, think tanks and public debates—to foster interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. Beyond education, it contributes to the field through the publication of applied research on topics such as urban health, climate resilience and social cohesion.

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The City Advisory Unit, the second branch of the NFI, builds upon this foundation by working directly with cities to co-develop sustainable strategies at the neighbourhood scale. Drawing on the Institute’s expertise, this unit integrates advanced urban analytics, design thinking and context-sensitive sustainability approaches to respond to the specific challenges of each city. Its tailored methodology ensures that solutions are both locally grounded and globally informed, delivering measurable, actionable outcomes aligned with each city's long-term goals.

Supporting both branches is the NFI Centre for City Science (CCS) — a laboratory that generates analytics, KPIs, visualisation and simulation modelling, and that also develops its own innovative tools and methodologies to generate data-driven insights. These insights inform both the NFI’s educational programmes and its advisory work, ensuring that strategies are robust, technically grounded and implementable.

Through this applied, collaborative model—uniting global experts, students, practitioners and city administrations—the NFI bridges the gap between academia and practice. It demonstrates that interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to building a more sustainable and inclusive urban future.

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Network of Cities

Pilot cities
and case studies

Discover the Pilot Cities from NFI’s Master’s Programme on Sustainable Cities and the cities that our Centre for City Science is currently researching

Pilot Cities

Case Studies

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Academic Council and Faculty

NFI ACADEMIC COUNCIL

The Norman Foster Institute’s Academic Council provides oversight and guidance to ensure the academic quality and relevance of its programmes

Norman-Foster

Norman Foster

President and Programme Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | President, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF); Advocate to the United Nations Forum of Mayors

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Elena-Ochoa-Foster

Elena Ochoa Foster

Vice-President, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Vice-President, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF); CEO, Ivorypress

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Edgar Pieterse

Edgar Pieterse

Provost, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Founding Director, African Centre for Cities; Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town, South Africa

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Dava J. Newman

Honorary Dean, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Director, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

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Kent Larson

Programme Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Director, City Science Research Group, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States

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Aravena

Alejandro Aravena

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Executive Director, ELEMENTAL; Copec Chair, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

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Portrait-Shigeru-Ban

Shigeru Ban

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Founder and Principal Architect, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan

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Deborah Berke

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Dean, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States

Read Biography
Vishaan Chakrabarti

Vishaan Chakrabarti

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), New York, NY, United States

Read Biography
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Beatriz Corredor

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Former Minister of Housing, Spanish Government; President, Red Eléctrica, Madrid, Spain

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Ian Goldin

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Founding Director and Professor of Globalisation and Development, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

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Andres-Jaque

Andrés Jaque

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Dean, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University; Founder, Office for Political Innovation, New York, NY, United States

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Francis Diebedo Kéré

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Founder, Kéré Architecture and Kéré Foundation, Berlin, Germany

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Frédéric Migayrou

Frédéric Migayrou

Scientific Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Chair and Bartlett Professor of Architecture, The Bartlett School of Architecture, London, United Kingdom; Deputy Director of the MNAM-CCI at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

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Tim Stonor

Tim Stonor

General Advisor, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom

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Maria Vassilakou

Associate Director of City Advisory and Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI) | CEO, Vassilakou Urban Consulting GmbH; Former Vice Mayor, Vienna, Austria

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NFF | NFI Faculty

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

Mayor of Freetown, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Joseph G. Allen

Associate Professor; Director, Healthy Buildings Program, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Luis Alberto Alonso Pastor

Research Scientist, City Science Group; Principal Investigator, Andorra Living Lab Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

Pierandrea Angius

Studio Master, Architectural Association (AA), Design Research Lab (AADRL), London, United Kingdom; Senior Consultant, Ferrari S.p.A., Modena, Italy; Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, London Design Studio, Pennsylvania, PA, United States

Alejandro Aravena

Executive Director, ELEMENTAL; ELEMENTAL Copec Chair, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Kevin Austin

Deputy Executive Director, C40 Cities, London, United Kingdom

Shigeru Ban

Founder and Principal Architect, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan

Diego Antonio Barrado Timón

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Senior Lecturer of Human Geography, Department of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Deborah Berke

Dean, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States

Luís M. A. Bettencourt

Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution; Associate Faculty and Special Friend, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, United States

Frédérick Bordry

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Gauss Fusion; CERN Honorary Member - Special Advisor to the CERN DG; Former CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Geneva, Switzerland

Ricky Burdett

Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Caitlin Burton

Senior Vice President of Partnerships, Zipline International, Paris, France

Juan Carlos Calanchini González Cos

Academic Coordinator; Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

David Calas

Director, Studio Calas, Vienna, Austria

José Manuel Calvo

PhD Architect and Urban planner; Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design, IE University, Madrid Spain

María del Carmen Calvo Poyato

President of the State Council, Madrid, Spain

Juan Ramón Campos Blázquez

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM); Board Member, People4, Madrid, Spain

Vishaan Chakrabarti

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain; Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), New York, NY, United States

Claudia Chwalisz

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, DemocracyNext, Marseille, France

Beatriz Colomina

Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies (PhD programme), School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States

Beatriz Corredor

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Former Minister of Housing, Spain; President, Red Eléctrica, Madrid, Spain

Catherine Cummings

CSR and Public Affairs Director, Sanitas and Bupa, Madrid, Spain

Raül Daussà-Pastor

Consulting Director, Anteverti, Barcelona, Spain

Paloma Díaz Pena

Lead Architect, Norman Foster Institute (NFI-NFF), Madrid, Spain

Gemma Durán Romero

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Eduardo Estrada Alonso

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Óscar Fanjul

Founding Chairman and Former CEO, Ferrovial, Madrid, Spain

Norman Foster

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); President, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Sheila Foster

Professor, Climate School; Affiliated Faculty, Law School, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Beatrice Galilee

Founder and Executive Director, The World Around, New York, NY, United States

Beatriz Gandarillas Gutiérrez

Professor of Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Cristina Garrido

CEO, Anteverti; Curator Smart City Expo World Congress-Events Abroad; Director CitiesToBe, Barcelona, Spain

Beatriz Gil Gómez de Liaño

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Ian Goldin

Founding Director, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Pedro González Torroba

Advisor to the Office of the Mayor of Madrid; Associate Proffesor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Carmen Hidalgo Giralt

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Associate Professor of Human Geography, School of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Morris [Marty] Hylton III

President, Architecture Sarasota, Sarasota, FL, United States

Cristina Iglesias

Installation Artist and Sculptor, Cristina Iglesias Studio, Madrid, Spain

Andrés Jaque

Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, NY, United States; Founder, Office for Political Innovation, New York, NY, United States and Madrid, Spain

Francis Diebedo Kéré

Founder, Kéré Architecture and Kéré Foundation, Berlin, Germany

Claudia van der Laag Yamu

Professor of Urban Analytics, Department of Built Environment, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

Anne Lacaton

Co-founder and Co-director, Lacaton et Vassal Architectes, Paris, France

Kent Larson

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute, Madrid, Spain; Director, City Science Research Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

David Andrés León

Director, Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture and Design (MaCAD), Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), Barcelona, Spain

Mattia Federico Leone

Associate Professor, Università di Napoli Federico II (UNINA), Naples, Italy; Co-Director, Urban Climate Change Research Network European Hub

Susan Liautaud

Chair of Council, Board of Trustees, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, United Kingdom; Founder and Managing Director, Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited, London, United Kingdom

Luis Lloredo

Professor of Philosophy of Law and Political Philosophy, Universidad Carlos III; Ramón y Cajal Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Diego López Urruchi

Associate Director, Architecture and Technology Unit, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Júlia López Ventura

Regional Director, C40 Europe, Madrid, Spain

Niklas Maak

Arts Editor Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurt, Germany

Gosia (Małgorzata) Marczewska

Co-founder of PLAN ZERO, Warsaw, Poland

Irene Martín Luque

Head of Research, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Lorena Martínez González

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gregorio Maya

City Science Coordinator, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

José María Michavila

Former Minister of Justice of Spain, Madrid, Spain

Emanuele Naboni

Visiting Researcher and Associate Professor of Sustainable and Climatic Design, Institute of Architecture and Technology, Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark; Distinguished Professor, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

Jonathan Natanian

Founder, studioADAPT; Assistant Professor, Head of EDPL Lab Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Carmen Navarro Gómez

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Dava J. Newman

Director, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States

Henk Ovink

Executive Director and Founding Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economics of Water, OECD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

David Pascual-Ezama

Associate Professor, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Gil Penalosa

Founder & Chair, 880 Cities; Founder, Cities for Everyone, Toronto, ON, Canada

Carmen Pérez Esparrells

Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Public Finance, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Antoine Picon

G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Director of Doctoral Programmes, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Edgar Pieterse

Founding Director, African Centre for Cities; Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Olivia Poston

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Carlo Ratti

Director, Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States; Founding Partner, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Turin, Italy; Curator, 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy

Hermógenes del Real Álvarez

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Glyn Richards

Group Sustainability Director, Bupa, London, United Kingdom

Flora Roumpani

Research Associate, The Alan Turing Institute; Visiting Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Susana Saiz

PhD in Architecture; Director, Ove Arup & Partners, Madrid, Spain. WELL AP & Faculty, LEED AP, ILFI Accredited

Marco Sammicheli

Director, Museo del Design Italiano; Curator, Design, Fashion & Crafts, Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy

Juan Ignacio Sánchez Gutiérrez

Associate Professor, Department of Economic Structure and Development Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gareth Simons

Head of City Science, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Senior Research Fellow in Building Stock and Energy Modelling (Energy Institute); Research Fellow in Evidence Based Urban Design and Planning (Space Syntax), Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

Francesco Sindico

Professor of International Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, Scotland - UK on secondment with the Scottish Government as Carbon Neutral Islands project lead

Tim Stonor

Architect and Urban Planner; Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom

Amin Taha

Director, Groupwork; Tutor, ADS5 Architecture MA, School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Sergio Tirado Herrero

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Elena Tudela Rivadeneyra

Co-Founder, Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana (ORU); Associate Professor, Urban Environmental Area, School of Architecture, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico

Maria Vassilakou

Founder and CEO, Vassilakou Urban Consulting GmbH; Former Vice Mayor, Vienna, Austria

Naiara Vegara Gorroño

Vice President, Metropoli Foundation, Madrid, Spain

Mark Antony Wigley

Professor of Architecture; Dean Emeritus, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Catherine De Wolf

Director, Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA); Professor of Circular Engineering for Architecture; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland

Daniel Liang Xu

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI)

Carolina Yacamán Ochoa

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

Mayor of Freetown, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Joseph G. Allen

Associate Professor; Director, Healthy Buildings Program, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Luis Alberto Alonso Pastor

Research Scientist, City Science Group; Principal Investigator, Andorra Living Lab Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

Pierandrea Angius

Studio Master, Architectural Association (AA), Design Research Lab (AADRL), London, United Kingdom; Senior Consultant, Ferrari S.p.A., Modena, Italy; Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, London Design Studio, Pennsylvania, PA, United States

Alejandro Aravena

Executive Director, ELEMENTAL; ELEMENTAL Copec Chair, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Kevin Austin

Deputy Executive Director, C40 Cities, London, United Kingdom

Shigeru Ban

Founder and Principal Architect, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan

Diego Antonio Barrado Timón

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Senior Lecturer of Human Geography, Department of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Deborah Berke

Dean, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States

Luís M. A. Bettencourt

Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution; Associate Faculty and Special Friend, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, United States

Frédérick Bordry

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Gauss Fusion; CERN Honorary Member - Special Advisor to the CERN DG; Former CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Geneva, Switzerland

Ricky Burdett

Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Caitlin Burton

Senior Vice President of Partnerships, Zipline International, Paris, France

Juan Carlos Calanchini González Cos

Academic Coordinator; Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

David Calas

Director, Studio Calas, Vienna, Austria

José Manuel Calvo

PhD Architect and Urban planner; Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design, IE University, Madrid Spain

María del Carmen Calvo Poyato

President of the State Council, Madrid, Spain

Juan Ramón Campos Blázquez

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM); Board Member, People4, Madrid, Spain

Vishaan Chakrabarti

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain; Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), New York, NY, United States

Claudia Chwalisz

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, DemocracyNext, Marseille, France

Beatriz Colomina

Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies (PhD programme), School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States

Beatriz Corredor

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Former Minister of Housing, Spain; President, Red Eléctrica, Madrid, Spain

Catherine Cummings

CSR and Public Affairs Director, Sanitas and Bupa, Madrid, Spain

Raül Daussà-Pastor

Consulting Director, Anteverti, Barcelona, Spain

Paloma Díaz Pena

Lead Architect, Norman Foster Institute (NFI-NFF), Madrid, Spain

Gemma Durán Romero

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Eduardo Estrada Alonso

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Óscar Fanjul

Founding Chairman and Former CEO, Ferrovial, Madrid, Spain

Norman Foster

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); President, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Sheila Foster

Professor, Climate School; Affiliated Faculty, Law School, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Beatrice Galilee

Founder and Executive Director, The World Around, New York, NY, United States

Beatriz Gandarillas Gutiérrez

Professor of Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Cristina Garrido

CEO, Anteverti; Curator Smart City Expo World Congress-Events Abroad; Director CitiesToBe, Barcelona, Spain

Beatriz Gil Gómez de Liaño

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Ian Goldin

Founding Director, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Pedro González Torroba

Advisor to the Office of the Mayor of Madrid; Associate Proffesor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Carmen Hidalgo Giralt

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Associate Professor of Human Geography, School of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Morris [Marty] Hylton III

President, Architecture Sarasota, Sarasota, FL, United States

Cristina Iglesias

Installation Artist and Sculptor, Cristina Iglesias Studio, Madrid, Spain

Andrés Jaque

Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, NY, United States; Founder, Office for Political Innovation, New York, NY, United States and Madrid, Spain

Francis Diebedo Kéré

Founder, Kéré Architecture and Kéré Foundation, Berlin, Germany

Claudia van der Laag Yamu

Professor of Urban Analytics, Department of Built Environment, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

Anne Lacaton

Co-founder and Co-director, Lacaton et Vassal Architectes, Paris, France

Kent Larson

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute, Madrid, Spain; Director, City Science Research Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

David Andrés León

Director, Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture and Design (MaCAD), Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), Barcelona, Spain

Mattia Federico Leone

Associate Professor, Università di Napoli Federico II (UNINA), Naples, Italy; Co-Director, Urban Climate Change Research Network European Hub

Susan Liautaud

Chair of Council, Board of Trustees, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, United Kingdom; Founder and Managing Director, Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited, London, United Kingdom

Luis Lloredo

Professor of Philosophy of Law and Political Philosophy, Universidad Carlos III; Ramón y Cajal Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Diego López Urruchi

Associate Director, Architecture and Technology Unit, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Júlia López Ventura

Regional Director, C40 Europe, Madrid, Spain

Niklas Maak

Arts Editor Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurt, Germany

Gosia (Małgorzata) Marczewska

Co-founder of PLAN ZERO, Warsaw, Poland

Irene Martín Luque

Head of Research, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Lorena Martínez González

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gregorio Maya

City Science Coordinator, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

José María Michavila

Former Minister of Justice of Spain, Madrid, Spain

Emanuele Naboni

Visiting Researcher and Associate Professor of Sustainable and Climatic Design, Institute of Architecture and Technology, Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark; Distinguished Professor, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

Jonathan Natanian

Founder, studioADAPT; Assistant Professor, Head of EDPL Lab Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Carmen Navarro Gómez

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Dava J. Newman

Director, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States

Henk Ovink

Executive Director and Founding Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economics of Water, OECD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

David Pascual-Ezama

Associate Professor, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Gil Penalosa

Founder & Chair, 880 Cities; Founder, Cities for Everyone, Toronto, ON, Canada

Carmen Pérez Esparrells

Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Public Finance, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Antoine Picon

G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Director of Doctoral Programmes, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Edgar Pieterse

Founding Director, African Centre for Cities; Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Olivia Poston

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Carlo Ratti

Director, Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States; Founding Partner, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Turin, Italy; Curator, 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy

Hermógenes del Real Álvarez

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Glyn Richards

Group Sustainability Director, Bupa, London, United Kingdom

Flora Roumpani

Research Associate, The Alan Turing Institute; Visiting Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Susana Saiz

PhD in Architecture; Director, Ove Arup & Partners, Madrid, Spain. WELL AP & Faculty, LEED AP, ILFI Accredited

Marco Sammicheli

Director, Museo del Design Italiano; Curator, Design, Fashion & Crafts, Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy

Juan Ignacio Sánchez Gutiérrez

Associate Professor, Department of Economic Structure and Development Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gareth Simons

Head of City Science, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Senior Research Fellow in Building Stock and Energy Modelling (Energy Institute); Research Fellow in Evidence Based Urban Design and Planning (Space Syntax), Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

Francesco Sindico

Professor of International Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, Scotland - UK on secondment with the Scottish Government as Carbon Neutral Islands project lead

Tim Stonor

Architect and Urban Planner; Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom

Amin Taha

Director, Groupwork; Tutor, ADS5 Architecture MA, School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Sergio Tirado Herrero

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Elena Tudela Rivadeneyra

Co-Founder, Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana (ORU); Associate Professor, Urban Environmental Area, School of Architecture, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico

Maria Vassilakou

Founder and CEO, Vassilakou Urban Consulting GmbH; Former Vice Mayor, Vienna, Austria

Naiara Vegara Gorroño

Vice President, Metropoli Foundation, Madrid, Spain

Mark Antony Wigley

Professor of Architecture; Dean Emeritus, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Catherine De Wolf

Director, Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA); Professor of Circular Engineering for Architecture; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland

Daniel Liang Xu

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI)

Carolina Yacamán Ochoa

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

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Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

Mayor of Freetown, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Joseph G. Allen

Associate Professor; Director, Healthy Buildings Program, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Luis Alberto Alonso Pastor

Research Scientist, City Science Group; Principal Investigator, Andorra Living Lab Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

Pierandrea Angius

Studio Master, Architectural Association (AA), Design Research Lab (AADRL), London, United Kingdom; Senior Consultant, Ferrari S.p.A., Modena, Italy; Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, London Design Studio, Pennsylvania, PA, United States

Alejandro Aravena

Executive Director, ELEMENTAL; ELEMENTAL Copec Chair, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Kevin Austin

Deputy Executive Director, C40 Cities, London, United Kingdom

Shigeru Ban

Founder and Principal Architect, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan

Diego Antonio Barrado Timón

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Senior Lecturer of Human Geography, Department of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Deborah Berke

Dean, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States

Luís M. A. Bettencourt

Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution; Associate Faculty and Special Friend, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, United States

Frédérick Bordry

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Gauss Fusion; CERN Honorary Member - Special Advisor to the CERN DG; Former CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Geneva, Switzerland

Ricky Burdett

Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Caitlin Burton

Senior Vice President of Partnerships, Zipline International, Paris, France

Juan Carlos Calanchini González Cos

Academic Coordinator; Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

David Calas

Director, Studio Calas, Vienna, Austria

José Manuel Calvo

PhD Architect and Urban planner; Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design, IE University, Madrid Spain

María del Carmen Calvo Poyato

President of the State Council, Madrid, Spain

Juan Ramón Campos Blázquez

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM); Board Member, People4, Madrid, Spain

Vishaan Chakrabarti

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain; Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), New York, NY, United States

Claudia Chwalisz

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, DemocracyNext, Marseille, France

Beatriz Colomina

Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies (PhD programme), School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States

Beatriz Corredor

Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Former Minister of Housing, Spain; President, Red Eléctrica, Madrid, Spain

Catherine Cummings

CSR and Public Affairs Director, Sanitas and Bupa, Madrid, Spain

Raül Daussà-Pastor

Consulting Director, Anteverti, Barcelona, Spain

Paloma Díaz Pena

Lead Architect, Norman Foster Institute (NFI-NFF), Madrid, Spain

Gemma Durán Romero

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Eduardo Estrada Alonso

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Óscar Fanjul

Founding Chairman and Former CEO, Ferrovial, Madrid, Spain

Norman Foster

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); President, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Sheila Foster

Professor, Climate School; Affiliated Faculty, Law School, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Beatrice Galilee

Founder and Executive Director, The World Around, New York, NY, United States

Beatriz Gandarillas Gutiérrez

Professor of Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Cristina Garrido

CEO, Anteverti; Curator Smart City Expo World Congress-Events Abroad; Director CitiesToBe, Barcelona, Spain

Beatriz Gil Gómez de Liaño

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Ian Goldin

Founding Director, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Pedro González Torroba

Advisor to the Office of the Mayor of Madrid; Associate Proffesor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Carmen Hidalgo Giralt

Co-Director, NFI Programme on Sustainable Cities; Associate Professor of Human Geography, School of Philosophy and Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Morris [Marty] Hylton III

President, Architecture Sarasota, Sarasota, FL, United States

Cristina Iglesias

Installation Artist and Sculptor, Cristina Iglesias Studio, Madrid, Spain

Andrés Jaque

Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, NY, United States; Founder, Office for Political Innovation, New York, NY, United States and Madrid, Spain

Francis Diebedo Kéré

Founder, Kéré Architecture and Kéré Foundation, Berlin, Germany

Claudia van der Laag Yamu

Professor of Urban Analytics, Department of Built Environment, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

Anne Lacaton

Co-founder and Co-director, Lacaton et Vassal Architectes, Paris, France

Kent Larson

Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute, Madrid, Spain; Director, City Science Research Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States

David Andrés León

Director, Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture and Design (MaCAD), Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), Barcelona, Spain

Mattia Federico Leone

Associate Professor, Università di Napoli Federico II (UNINA), Naples, Italy; Co-Director, Urban Climate Change Research Network European Hub

Susan Liautaud

Chair of Council, Board of Trustees, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, United Kingdom; Founder and Managing Director, Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited, London, United Kingdom

Luis Lloredo

Professor of Philosophy of Law and Political Philosophy, Universidad Carlos III; Ramón y Cajal Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Diego López Urruchi

Associate Director, Architecture and Technology Unit, Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), Madrid, Spain

Júlia López Ventura

Regional Director, C40 Europe, Madrid, Spain

Niklas Maak

Arts Editor Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurt, Germany

Gosia (Małgorzata) Marczewska

Co-founder of PLAN ZERO, Warsaw, Poland

Irene Martín Luque

Head of Research, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Lorena Martínez González

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gregorio Maya

City Science Coordinator, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

José María Michavila

Former Minister of Justice of Spain, Madrid, Spain

Emanuele Naboni

Visiting Researcher and Associate Professor of Sustainable and Climatic Design, Institute of Architecture and Technology, Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark; Distinguished Professor, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

Jonathan Natanian

Founder, studioADAPT; Assistant Professor, Head of EDPL Lab Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Carmen Navarro Gómez

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Dava J. Newman

Director, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States

Henk Ovink

Executive Director and Founding Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economics of Water, OECD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

David Pascual-Ezama

Associate Professor, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Gil Penalosa

Founder & Chair, 880 Cities; Founder, Cities for Everyone, Toronto, ON, Canada

Carmen Pérez Esparrells

Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Public Finance, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Antoine Picon

G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Director of Doctoral Programmes, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Edgar Pieterse

Founding Director, African Centre for Cities; Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Olivia Poston

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI), Madrid, Spain

Carlo Ratti

Director, Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, United States; Founding Partner, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Turin, Italy; Curator, 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy

Hermógenes del Real Álvarez

Professor, School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Glyn Richards

Group Sustainability Director, Bupa, London, United Kingdom

Flora Roumpani

Research Associate, The Alan Turing Institute; Visiting Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Susana Saiz

PhD in Architecture; Director, Ove Arup & Partners, Madrid, Spain. WELL AP & Faculty, LEED AP, ILFI Accredited

Marco Sammicheli

Director, Museo del Design Italiano; Curator, Design, Fashion & Crafts, Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy

Juan Ignacio Sánchez Gutiérrez

Associate Professor, Department of Economic Structure and Development Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Gareth Simons

Head of City Science, Norman Foster Institute (NFI); Senior Research Fellow in Building Stock and Energy Modelling (Energy Institute); Research Fellow in Evidence Based Urban Design and Planning (Space Syntax), Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom

Francesco Sindico

Professor of International Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, Scotland - UK on secondment with the Scottish Government as Carbon Neutral Islands project lead

Tim Stonor

Architect and Urban Planner; Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom

Amin Taha

Director, Groupwork; Tutor, ADS5 Architecture MA, School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom

Sergio Tirado Herrero

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Elena Tudela Rivadeneyra

Co-Founder, Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana (ORU); Associate Professor, Urban Environmental Area, School of Architecture, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico

Maria Vassilakou

Founder and CEO, Vassilakou Urban Consulting GmbH; Former Vice Mayor, Vienna, Austria

Naiara Vegara Gorroño

Vice President, Metropoli Foundation, Madrid, Spain

Mark Antony Wigley

Professor of Architecture; Dean Emeritus, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Catherine De Wolf

Director, Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA); Professor of Circular Engineering for Architecture; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland

Daniel Liang Xu

Lead Researcher, Norman Foster Institute (NFI)

Carolina Yacamán Ochoa

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

Mayor of Freetown, Freetown, Sierra Leone

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Awards

Recognitions

2024
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NFI Partners

Partners

Institutional Partners of the Norman Foster Institute help drive its mission forward, united by a commitment to sustainable urban futures

Institutional Partners

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Academic Partners

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Patrons

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