Paty Rios, Research & Architecture Lead at Happy City, is a global leader in promoting sociability and social wellbeing in built environments. She has an interdisciplinary background in architecture, urban design, ethnography and engagement. Paty has developed lasting partnerships with private, community and government organizations including the Government of Mexico, BC Housing and Concert Properties. She led Happy Homes, a multi-year research-action project resulting in a powerful toolkit to boost social wellbeing in multi-unit housing. Paty brought together over 40 interdisciplinary experts to develop policy and design recommendations that address barriers keeping stakeholders from designing sociable homes.
During her PhD, she developed a participatory and interdisciplinary methodology to design urban parks promoting social cohesion and during her postdoctoral research designed an inclusive methodology for urban policy design. Paty enables breakthrough co-creation sessions by providing a safe and respectful collaboration space and promoting a human-centered design approach where the participants are at the center of all decisionmaking stages.