Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.

Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder

Felipe Correa

Senior Advisor for Urban Strategy, Science & Society

Architect, Urbanist, Educator, and Author; Founder and Managing Partner, Somatic Collaborative

Felipe Correa is an architect, urbanist, and author whose work sits at the intersection of design, policy, and economic development. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Somatic Collaborative, through which he has directed applied research and design projects across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, ranging from urban regeneration initiatives to the planning of new city extensions. He is currently collaborating with the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program to develop new research and public engagement initiatives exploring how urban design, scientific evidence, and civic decision-making intersect.

Correa is the author of multiple books, including São Paulo: A Graphic Biography (University of Texas Press, 2018),  Beyond the City: Resource Extraction Urbanism in South America (University of Texas Press, 2016), Mexico City: Between Geometry and Geography (Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2015), and A Line in the Andes (Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2014), winner of first prize at the Pan American Architecture Biennale. His most recent book, Collective Living and the Architectural Imaginary (Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2026), co-authored with Anthony Averbeck and Devin Dobrowolski. The book draws on sixty redrawn case studies spanning a century of housing design to argue that domestic space, as both an architectural and cultural project, is one of the most powerful instruments for shaping urban and civic life.

He previously served as the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor and chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Virginia (2018–2022), and before that as Associate Professor and Director of the Urban Design Degree Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

His work has been exhibited and presented at Cornell University, Columbia University, Tulane University, the University of Pennsylvania, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, The National Arts Club, the Venice Biennale and the Pan-American Architecture Biennale, and published in journals including Architectural Design, Architectural Record, Harvard Design Magazine, Topos, and Volume.