It was a great pleasure to welcome Teodora Capelle (founder of STENTS and expert on climate change adaptation and circular economy solutions) to the fourth episode of the ISOCARP Spotlight. We discussed urban mining, circular economy and the evolving roles of urban planners within our rapidly developing cities and various exciting projects in European cities.

Teodora Capelle is an architect, urban planner, and founder of STENTS consultancy. Until recently, she was Senior Project Manager at BUUR Bureau for Urbanism – a leading Belgian multidisciplinary research, planning and design agency, today part of Sweco Belgium. During her projects she has focused on cross-sectorial climate change adaptation and circular economy solutions in response to environmental and urbanisation impacts. She has been involved in various Horizon 2020 projects strategically integrating dynamic participatory co-design processes, resource and energy efficiency concepts, nature-based solutions and densification strategies for preserving qualitative urban space. Teodora also coordinated the master planning of USquare (known as the former Brussels barracks) implementing regional circular economy targets at the planning level – a plan which was awarded by the European Committee of regions initiative “Green Deal Going local”.

She gathered extensive experience as a project manager and consultant to public and private actors in Belgium and beyond, while also serving as a member of the Belgium Chamber of Architects. She notably contributed to Brussels’ vision for the automotive industry towards optimisation, intra-modality, integrated value chains, the “Buildings As Material Banks” (BAMB) project which European partners worked together to enable a systematic shift in the building sector by creating circular solutions, as well as the development of the concept for sustainable energy retrofitting which was recognised as the Laureate of Exemplary Buildings by Brussels’ Minister of Environment.

Teodora was trained as an architect at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning, and the Katholieke Universeit Leuven where she was repeatedly involved as a Scientific Collaborator. She also acquired an MBA from Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management. She has been an ISOCARP member since April 2021 and Active contributor of One Planet Network a UN initiative since 2018.