María Alicia Becdach is a practitioner architect and urban planning consultant based in Ecuado founder of the firm MABARQ-URB.  Her urban projects address informality in fragile ecosystems, one of them being the Urban Development and Territorial Plan for the Galapagos Islands with a focus on preserving environmental services. Also, her studio does consultancy services which include planning and zoning technology solutions for cities in the USA. This process contributes towards taking smart decisions about how the city grows and develops. The process shapes the regulations towards smart growth and advocating for the compact city taking into consideration the preservation of natural areas and the efficient use of existing equipment and services.  The studio also does residential and urban equipment design which have been featured in many important design publications. Her research and teaching has focused on informal settlements, rapid urbanization and urban inequalities. Formerly she served as a professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Universidad de las Am√©ricas in Quito, Ecuador. She holds a bachelor of Architecture from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.