Fall 2014 seminar: M.R.P. candidate, city and regional planning
Gabriel Halili is a Filipino architect who received his B.S. in architecture at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. He is interested in understanding cities through different lenses including architecture, urban planning, politics, social media, and technology and their application in the Southeast Asian context. His experiences in metro Manila as both a resident and an architect led him to pursue a master of regional planning degree at Cornell University. Coming into the program he brings with him questions related to informality and the role of planners and architects in the cities of the Global South. As a graduate student in the program, his interests broadened to include politics, social media, and technology as lenses to understand cities and their formation. Currently, Halili’s research is on the relationship between social media and placemaking. He is looking into how practitioners are using technology and social media as tools to create urban spaces that better reflect the needs of the public.