Larissa joined Social Life in August 2021 after having spent the last eight years in New York City where she co-founded Make Public, a research organization focused on social impact research to guide and evaluate public realm developments towards greater equity. She is an urbanist whose experience in design and applied research supports inclusion in participatory urban processes and resultant spaces. Her expertise is at the intersection of public space development and issues such as health equity, climate justice and safety. Her practice includes value definition and social impact frameworks, multi-method research, community engagement, on-the-ground data collection, design strategy and policy proposal.
Larissa also worked as a researcher at Gehl Institute and the Healthy Materials Lab. Prior to moving to New York in 2013, she practiced in London as an architect and led urban research projects in Cuba and Chile focused on community development and emergency housing, respectively. Larissa also created and taught an undergraduate course; Visualizing Urban Change at Parsons School of Design at the New School. She received a bachelor of architecture from the Architectural Association and a master of arts in Theories of Urban Practice from Parsons School of Design.
