J. Antonio Lara-Hernandez is an architect, urban researcher and educator whose work explores the relationships between public space, everyday urban life, health, resilience and socio-spatial transformation. He is currently Research Coordinator and Lecturer in Architecture at Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand; Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; and continues his professional and research involvement with Heliopolis 21.

His research has developed particularly around Temporary Appropriation, Architectural Exaptation and Flux Cities, examining how people and other actors continually adapt, reinterpret and transform the built environment. His recent work extends these interests towards urban health, children in public space, complexity and relational and more-than-human approaches to cities.

Antonio holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Portsmouth and has held academic and research positions in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Mexico. He was a member of the curatorial team of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. His book Architectural Exaptation: When Function Follows Form (Routledge, 2024), co-authored with Telmo Pievani and Alessandro Melis, received the 2024 ISOCARP Gerd Albers Award for Best Book.

He is also involved in the Flux Dynamics Initiative, an international collaborative research initiative exploring complexity, relationality and more-than-human perspectives on urban habitats.