Rolf Schuett
President
Alejandro
Camprubi
Secretary General
Darinka
Golubovic
Treasurer
Ali A.
Alraouf
Board Member
Eunice
Yorgri
Board Member
Michel
Caron
Board Member
Viviane
Viniarski
Board Member
Viviane Viniarski
Board Member
My name is Viviane Viniarski. I am an urban designer and planner and a member of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA). My work focuses on spatial planning and sustainable land-use strategies involving green and blue infrastructure. I have experience working in the Middle East, the Caribbean, Europe and South America. Throughout the design process, I incorporate local techniques and nature-based solutions. I am currently a Board Member of the International Urban Professionals Forum (IUPF).
Eunice Yorgri
Board Member
My name is Eunice Yorgri. I am an urban development practitioner and a Board Member of the International Urban Professionals Forum (IUPF). My work sits at the intersection of planning, policy, and community partnerships—helping cities and regions translate evidence into inclusive projects, resilient infrastructure, and better everyday public spaces. I focus on turning strategy into delivery: aligning stakeholders, clarifying roles and timelines, and building the routines that allow good ideas to survive budgeting cycles and election calendars.
Michel Caron
Board Member
My name is Michel Caron. I am an urban and regional planner with core expertise in industrial zones, port and airport infrastructure, implementation strategy, and project management. Over a career spanning assignments from urban parcels to territories of 500,000 km², I have worked across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, Africa, North America, and the Caribbean—helping public agencies and private partners align spatial strategies with realistic delivery pathways. I serve as a Board Member of the International Urban Professionals Forum (IUPF).
Ali A. Alraouf
Board Member
My name is Prof. Ali A. Alraouf, Ph.D., FAIA, FRIBA. I am an architect, urban designer, planner, and professor of architecture and urbanism whose practice and research advance comprehensive sustainable design. As a Board Member of the International Urban Professionals Forum (IUPF), I champion a human-centered approach to shaping environmentally and socially just built environments across diverse cultural contexts.
Bio
I am the founder of Urbanus Strategies, leading multidisciplinary projects across the Caribbean, the United States, and Brazil. Previously, I worked as an Urban Designer in Zürich—contributing to post-conflict urban reconstruction in the Nagorno-Karabakh region—and as an Associate Partner at Gate Architects in Milan, where I managed mixed-use developments and masterplans in Brazil. Earlier experience with LW Design (Dubai & São Paulo) includes a waterfront development in Montenegro and large-scale masterplans in the Middle East and Europe. My practice began in Brazil with consultancy firms focused on regulatory planning, active-mobility networks, and World Bank–supported territorial zoning.
Education: Master of Advanced Studies in Urban and Territorial Design (MAS), towards socio-ecological transition and climate change, joint studies at EPFL ETH Zürich; Postgraduate in City Planning and Management, University of São Paulo (USP); BSc in Architecture and Urban Planning, Universidade Positivo; L3 exchange year in Paris (full scholarship).
Awards & interests: 1st Prize, ISOCARP YPP Workshop 2024 (Deep Planning for Strategic Cavern Development, Hong Kong). I work fluently in Portuguese (mother tongue), English, and Italian, with intermediate French and basic German. I value collaborative, evidence-based practice—bridging public institutions, private partners, and communities—to deliver resilient, inclusive, and climate-responsive urban places.
Bio
I coordinate multidisciplinary teams and facilitate dialogue between governments, utilities, civil society, academia, and private partners. Typical assignments include baseline diagnostics and options appraisals, co-design workshops, delivery roadmaps, and light-touch monitoring frameworks. Priority themes in my practice are equitable access to services, climate adaptation and nature-based solutions, safe and inclusive mobility, and high-quality public realm connected to health, livelihoods, and local culture. Wherever feasible, I advocate for open, verifiable data and transparent methods so that results can be scrutinised and improved over time.
My facilitation style is pragmatic and people-centered. I design processes that bring technical evidence and lived experience to the same table—combining quick wins with longer-term capacity building. I am comfortable moving between neighbourhood pilots and citywide frameworks, and I place special emphasis on documenting assumptions, risks, and trade-offs so decision-makers can act with confidence and accountability. Knowledge exchange is core: I regularly organise peer-learning clinics and practitioner roundtables to capture lessons and adapt them to new contexts.
As an IUPF Board Member, I am committed to the Forum’s statutes and ethical code, to elevating members’ voices in executive decisions, and to fostering a culture of respectful, evidence-based collaboration. My goal is simple: help our network connect, learn, and deliver—so that cities and territories become more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient.
Bio
For thirteen years with the City of Toronto Planning Department (to 2004), I contributed to waterfront planning, subway-corridor intensification, Official Plan work (Urban Design), Railway Lands guidelines, and appearances before planning tribunals. Since 2004, I have practiced internationally, advising on Special Economic Zones (SEZs), port-lands rationalization and city–hinterland relations, airport systems, regional and territorial plans, and implementation frameworks. Representative engagements include master planning and development strategies in Mauritania, Syria, Jamaica, Morocco, Canada (Arctic development and environmental MP/ZBL), Benin, Morocco (new town, Casablanca), the UAE (capital district, Abu Dhabi), Jordan (airport corridor and community plans), China (Hainan, Guangdong, Jiaonan, Huizhou, Tianjin, Qingdao), Viet Nam (Long Binh), Yemen (Sana’a), Malaysia (Kuching), and multiple municipal hearings and rehabilitation programs in Toronto.
Education & credentials: Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design; studies at the MIT Center for Real Estate (U.S. planning law and development finance); Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Toronto; an academic year at ENSA Paris-Belleville; and research at Université Laval on the dynamics of built-form transformations in Québec City. I am a Project Management Professional (PMP), certified by the Project Management Institute (since 2008).
Skills & focus: urban diagnostics; SEZ and conventional industrial planning; port-lands rationalisation and logistics impacts on urban expansion; regional, territorial, strategic and implementation plans; development advisory, rezonings and Official Plan amendments; expert witnessing and negotiation in legal and tribunal contexts.
Languages & publications: I work in French (mother tongue) and English (editorial capacity), with working knowledge of German. My writings include “Future of African Ports and their Host Cities,” “Becoming an Urbanist in Africa,” “Industrial Deconstruction and Rehabilitation Survey,” “City Patterns,” “Toronto Places,” “Alternative Perspectives on the Supply of Housing,” and “New Directions in Modern Architecture: France–USA, 20th Century.” I am committed to IUPF’s statutes and ethical code and to bringing evidence-based, implementation-oriented practice to complex urban and territorial challenges.
Bio
I received my education at Cairo University and the University of California, Berkeley, and have held permanent and visiting teaching and research positions at universities in the region and internationally. My academic and professional work is anchored in participatory, evidence-based processes that integrate design excellence with climate responsiveness, equity, and cultural identity.
Beyond academia, I advise multilateral and international organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNESCO, UN ESCWA, and ICOMOS. I provide consultancy on projects regionally and internationally, bridging policy and delivery through strategic planning, environmental and social frameworks, and design governance.
I write extensively for newspapers, periodicals, and architectural magazines and have published more than 165 refereed papers, essays, books, and book chapters. My writings span identity, social movements, creativity, critical studies, tradition, heritage, and globalisation in their relation to the built environment. Recent books include Towards Holistic Climate-Responsive Planning for Equitable Places and Communities (2024), City Reconstruction: Urban Policy Innovation Towards Sustainable Cities in the MENA Region (2025), and Architecture and Urbanism in Contemporary Qatar (2025). My work has been translated into Italian, German, Persian, Russian, Serbian, and Turkish, and I have been interviewed by Euronews, BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera.
My current research explores people-centered architecture and urbanism, knowledge-based urban development, post-carbon Gulf cities, museums in the Gulf, and the revitalisation of historic districts—topics I advance through editorial service, peer review, and juries for international competitions. I have been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, the University of Belgrade, ITMO University (St Petersburg), and the University of Niš, and have presented in more than 40 countries. In 2025, I received the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at ITMO University. In addition to teaching and research, I serve as Senior Advisor for research and development in Qatar’s urban planning sector and Head of an Urban Lab and Design Studio in Qatar.
I am committed to IUPF’s statutes and ethical code and to elevating members’ voices in executive decisions—strengthening knowledge exchange and turning comparative insight into practical, climate-responsive and socially just outcomes for cities and territories.