Sebastian is an architect, teacher, and researcher committed to enhancing the living standards of people residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. His work focuses on public housing policies and social programs, which he combines with school and university education projects. Sebastian believes in an interdisciplinary approach and emphasizes active citizenship for co-creating the built environment.
He conducts research and projects primarily through fieldwork, collaborating with individuals from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Sebastian works on various initiatives with people of all ages, designing various participatory methodologies to identify, plan, and execute housing, care, and educational proposals. He divides his time between Santiago, Chile and Bristol, UK.
He is the Co-founder of Laboratorio 9x18 of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - PUC, an interdisciplinary cluster dedicated to applied research in urban regeneration and innovation in social housing. Through this laboratory, he has informed and piloted public policy proposals, set up an intersectoral roundtable, pushed for changes in regulations and ordinances, and supported and proposed improvements for central and local government housing programmes.
Sebastian has worked and volunteered at NGOs Techo and Fundación Vivienda, assisting families affected by severe housing precarity and emergencies such as fires and floods, migration, homelessness, domestic abuse, forced evictions, and families living in informal settlements. He has designed and implemented social programs and building solutions for emergency, progressive, and permanent housing with a community-based approach.
Through interdisciplinary, collaborative and service-oriented learning experiences in education, Sebastián has helped to develop interdisciplinary teaching and service methodologies for work in vulnerable territories, and he has trained neighbourhood leaders, rural dwellers, and non-Spanish speaking immigrants on various issues related to adequate housing with Laboratorio 9x18 and NGO Fundación Vivienda. He has also provided support and education to children with Special Educational Needs, including those with High Learning Potential (HLP), Critical Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (SEND), Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties (SEMH), and children who have been displaced and have English as an Additional Language (EAL).
Children inspire me to create environments that allow them to have free and safe childhoods. I want to involve them in creating these spatial and social habitats where they can enjoy and grow in their specific ways, displaying their individuality, and generating enriching diversity for the rest of us.Sebastián Ignacio Muñoz Pérez