Learn Italian: In quanto urbanista, sconsiglio di costruire in questa zona. - As an urban planner, I advise against building in this area.

When using in quanto to express 'in the capacity of' or 'as a', Italian drops the article before the profession or role. While in English you say 'as an urban planner', Italian simply says in quanto urbanista.

Could I use come instead of in quanto here?

Yes, you could say Come urbanista and it would mean essentially the same thing. However, in quanto sounds slightly more formal and specifically emphasizes the authority or professional capacity of the speaker.

Does urbanista change depending on whether the speaker is male or female?

No, urbanista is used for both masculine and feminine singular, which is typical for Italian nouns ending in -ista like dentista or giornalista. Only the plural forms change, becoming urbanisti for men or mixed groups, and urbaniste for women.

Why do we need the preposition di before costruire?

The verb sconsigliare means to advise against, and it requires the preposition di when it is directly followed by an infinitive verb. Just like its opposite consigliare, the correct grammatical structure is sconsigliare di followed by the action.