Helena Cruz

After graduating in Geography from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), she obtained a master’s degree in Urban Management from the Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam and a PhD in Geography from the UAB. A specialist in territorial and urban planning, she works in the areas of design and governance of urban policies and as an advisor on projects of urban transformation, in sociodemographic studies, and in processes of citizen participation. Together with Mònica Beguer, she heads the urban planning office Territoris XLM, which has received several awards, including Second Prize in the Institute of Catalan Studies Urban Planning Awards of Catalonia of 2016 and 2022, as well as being a finalist, in 2021 and 2023, in the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention, in the category of Planning. In 2023, Territoris XLM also received a Special Mention in the New European Bauhaus Prizes, which aim to promote the values of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion. Together with Mònica Beguer, she is head of the courses Urbanisme al servei de les persones. Salut, medi ambient i benestar social (Urban Planning in the Service of People: Health, Environment, and Social Welfare) and Introducció al planejament urbanistic (Introduction to Urban Planning) at the Sert School.

Helena Cruz has been a researcher at the Institute of Government and Public Polices (IGOP) at the UAB, and at the Barcelona Institute for Regional and Metropolitan Studies (IERMB). Prior to this, she taught in the Geography Department at the UAB, and at the Mediterranean School of Tourism (affiliated to the University of Girona), as well as being guest researcher at the University of California Los Angeles, the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, the National University of Ireland Maynooth, and the Università Ca’Foscari. She is currently technical secretary of the Advisory Board of the Barcelona Neighbourhoods Plan, and a member of the Scientific Board of the BIT Habitat Foundation.