Abstract

Vishaan visited the city of Valdivia in January 2020, in the context of the Congress of the Future, a national activity that brings together outstanding professionals from different areas of knowledge. Vishaan is particularly interested in the cities of the future. Throughout his professional career he has been involved in areas such as engineering, art history, academia, independent architecture, urban planning, and professional development in different places and cities around the world. Considering such background, he is a socially relevant, comprehensive, and realistic voice concerning cities of the future. The questions focus on his experience as Dean and University Professor, his ability to learn from mistakes, a strategy that understands a city before making any interventions, a vision on the future of public transport, and finally, his impressions regarding the city of Valdivia. More than just encouraging a thoughtful conversation, the questions are aimed at getting specific answers. The purpose of the interview is to contribute to knowledge and to build a record that sets a precedent for future actions to be implemented by Valdivia and other intermediate cities. The idea behind this is for cities to become increasingly smarter, cleaner, efficient, fairer, and sustainable.