Joan MacDonald


Joan MacDonald is Chilean architect known for her work in housing and urban policy. She was Deputy Ministre of Housing and Urbanism in Chile from 1990 until 1994 and the director of the Metropolitan service of Housing and Urbanisation in 1997. In 1995 she became a consultant for the sustainable settlement commission of CEPAL until 2005. Between 2003 and 2014 she was the president of SELAVIP, an organisation that worked providing popular housing for developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. She was trained as an architect in Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Católica de Cordoba in 2011. In 2011 she received a prize for her academic career from the Chilean chartered institute of architects.

Selected publications