Alba Victoria Zamarbide Urdaniz
Alba Victoria Zamarbide Urdaniz was the winner of the 2018 ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Cultural Management for her PhD thesis, “Re-defining the role of ‘buffers’ in the management of the historical territory. The discrepancies between theoretical concepts and practical interpretations of ‘buffer’ zones in Eastern and Western Cultural World Heritage sites”, defended at Waseda University, Japan.
Alba Victoria Zamarbide Urdaniz is a Spanish architect and urban planner whose work combines heritage, territorial management, participatory planning and sustainable development. She graduated in Architecture from the University of Navarra in 2011, specialising in architectural history and heritage preservation, before joining Waseda University’s Shigeru Satoh laboratory in Tokyo. She subsequently developed research and consultancy work connecting heritage policy with local communities and territorial development.
Her experience includes participatory urban planning and rural development projects in Japan, as well as international heritage initiatives in Vietnam and Europe. Her research advocates integrating bottom-up community values and governance into heritage management and exploring more flexible approaches alongside conventional planning and protection tools. Her award-winning research was published as Buffers beyond Boundaries in 2019.
