JotaSamper
- Associate Professor
- ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
Jota Samper is associate professor and associate chair of Graduate Studies for Department Environmental Design at ñ. Jota is an architect and planner who has taught architecture, urban design, and planning. His work on Informal Settlements Research ( ) focuses on sustainable urban growth and the intersection of urban informality ("slums") and violent urban conflict. The main goal of ISR is to create innovative urban tools that visualize the challenges (climate, regulatory, and violence) presented in informal landscapes. He co-founded Mobility/Movilidad, a nonprofit dedicated to video archiving, mapping, and developing infrastructure with marginalized communities. He also directs the Community Engagement, Design, and Research Center (CEDaR). Born and raised in Medellín, he obtained his BA in architecture from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, a master's in city planning, and a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also worked as a lecturer. His project "Living rooms at the Border," with estudio teddy cruz, was exhibited at MoMA. He is the 2024 recipient of the Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC). He collaborates with colleagues from Oxford University on "The Changing Character of Conflict Platform." Samper's "Atlas of Informality" work has been presented to an audience of over 1.6 million in a TEDx talk.
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers
| Idler, A., Samper, J. and Tkacova, K., 2026. Visual Thinking in International Relations: Interactive Digital Maps, Spatial Conflict Dynamics, and Diverse Narratives.International Studies Perspectives, p.ekag004. | J14 |
| Samper, Jota. 2024. “How Learning from Informal Settlements Contributes to the Community Resilience of Neighbourhoods.” Built Environment 50 (1): 133–51. Journal impact factor 1.085 | J13 |
| Boanada-Fuchs, Anthony, Monika Kuffer, and Jota Samper. 2024. "A Global Estimate of the Size and Location of Informal Settlements" Urban Science 8, no. 1: 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci8010018. Journal impact factor 4.5 | J12 |
| Samper, Jota, and Weichun Liao. 2023. “Testing the Informal Development Stages Framework Globally: Exploring Self-Build Densification and Growth in Informal Settlements.” Urban Science 7 (2): 50. . Journal impact factor 4.5 | J11 |
| Samper, Jota, and Erika Andrade. 2023. “The Circular Economy in the Informal Settlements.” Technology|Architecture + Design 7 (2).Journal impact factor 0.74 | J10 |
| Samper, Jota, Jennifer A. Shelby, and Dean Behary. 2020. “The Paradox of Informal Settlements Revealed in an ATLAS of Informality: Findings from Mapping Growth in the Most Common yet Unmapped Forms of Urbanization.” Sustainability 12 (22): 9510.Journal impact factor 3.889 | J9 |
| Duque Franco, Isabel, Catalina Ortiz, Jota Samper, and Gynna Millan.2020. “Mapping Repertoires of Collective Action Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Informal Settlements in Latin American Cities.” Environment and Urbanization 32 (2): 523–46.Journal impact factor 4.443. | J8 |
| Samper, Jota, and Carlos Escobar.2020. “The Transformation of Medellin: Environmental Remediation and Community Development Is Having a Huge Impact on the Informal Settlements of Medellin in Colombia.” Landscape Journal, Bringing nature into the city. Place and health in the age of Covid-19, 3 (3–2020): 31–33. | J7 |
| Samper, Jota. 2018. “Transgressing Local Planning Cultures, the SPURS Program, and the International Studios.” China City Planning Review 27 (3). | J6 |
| Samper, Jota. 2017. “Eroded Resilience, Informal Settlements Predictable Urban Growth Implications for Self-Governance in the Context of Urban Violence in Medellin, Colombia.” UPLanD-Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & Environmental Design 2 (2): 183–206. | J5 |
| Samper, Jota, and Tamera Marko. 2017. “La Espina A Self-Built Medellín Neighborhood and Its Lessons.” Revista Harvard Review of Latin America, Displacements, XVI (NO. 2). | J4 |
| Samper, Jota. 2016. “Urban Upgrading in a Context of Violence: Perceptions of Security and Physical Space in the Case of theFavela-Bairro in Rio de Janeiro.” International Relations and Diplomacy 4 (12): 760–78. | J3 |
| Samper, Jota. 2012. “The Role of Urban Upgrading in Latin America as Warfare Tool Against the ‘Slum Wars.’” Critical Planning: The Journal of the UCLA Urban Planning Program. 19. | J2 |
| Samper, José Jaime, and Teddy Cruz. 2003. “Editorial: Una Nueva Revista.” Revista Piso, January 3, 2003.. | J1 |
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
| Samper, J., Chiu-Shee, C. and Ignaccolo, C., 2026. Decoding Inclusion: Processes, Politics, and Ethics of Signaling. InDesigning Signals of Inclusion(pp. 245-259). Routledge. | B12 |
| Samper, J., 2026, Public Realm Journeys of Inclusion Between the Formal and Informal Divide in Medellin. InDesigning Signals of Inclusion(pp. 17-31). Routledge. | B11 |
| Samper, Jota, Monika Kuffer, and Anthony Boanada-Fuchs 2024. "Urban and Peri-Urban? Investigation of the Location of Informal Settlements Using Two Databases." InUrban Inequalities from Space: Earth Observation Applications in the Majority World, pp. 77-98. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2024. | BC10 |
| Samper, Jota. 2023. “An Urban Design Framework of Informal Development Stages: Exploring Self-Build and Growth in Informal Settlements.” In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods, edited by Hesam Kamalipour, Patricia Aelbrecht, and Nastaran Peimani, 359–68. Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003168621-40. | BC9 |
| Samper, Jota. 2022. “Overcrowding Innovation: How Informal Settlements Develop Sustainable Urban Practices.” In Retroactive, by Loreta Castro Reguera and José Pablo Ambrosi, 120. Sixth Edition of Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Circo de Ideias. | BC7 |
| Samper, Jota. 2022. “Social Urbanism in Medellín Social Dynamics between Public Policies and Community Activism.” In Citizen-Led Urbanism in Latin America: Superbook of Civic Actions for Transforming Cities, by Lía Alarcón, Patricia Alata, Mariana Alegre, Tamara Egger, and Rosario Fassina, 536. IDB - Inter-American Development Bank. . | BC6 |
| Samper, Jota. 2019. “Mapping the Evolution of Informality in Latin America.” In Mobilising the Periphery: Incubator for Urban Innovation, edited by Kristin Feireiss and Áine Ryan, 5:100–101. Berlin: ANCB The Aedes Metropolitain Laboratory. | BC5 |
| Samper, Jota. 2018. “Nexus between Informality and Armed Conflict. Looking at Medellin Transformation True the Lens of Urban Conflict.” In Comparative Urban Design: Border-Making Practices in Medellin and Beirut Book Launch, edited by Catalina Ortiz, 2:90–105. Cities, Design and Transformation. The Bartlett Development Planning, UCL. | BC4 |
| Samper, Jota. 2018. “INformality Process Strategies.” In Does Effective Planning Really Exist?, by Christiano Lepratti and Paola Alfaro D´Alençon, 69–86. Syntagma-verlag. . | BC3 |
| Samper, Jose. 2016. “Moving towards Anticipatory Strategies: Merging Space and Development Strategies International Workshop as a Tool of Experimentation of Holistic Interventions.” In Formality and Informality, Public Space and Urban Equity: Parque Tercer Milenio, by Ximena Samper and Oscar Grauer, 145. Alfaomega Ediciones Uniandes.. | BC2 |
| Samper, Jota, and Tamera Marko. 2015. “(Re)Building the City of Medellín: Beyond State Rhetoric vs. Personal Experience —A Call for Consolidated Synergies.” In Housing and Belonging in Latin America. Vol. 105. Berghahn Books. | BC1 |