ABOUT
Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) is an experimental nonprofit collective dedicated to advancing socio-spatial justice through critical research, popular education, political organizing, and transformative action. Co-founded in 2008 by Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendón, and Miguel Robles-Durán in Rotterdam—and later expanding to New York City in 2010—CohStra emerged in response to the mounting contradictions of neoliberal urbanization. Operating between two defining crises of the 21st century—the 2008 Global Financial Crash and the COVID-19 pandemic—the collective developed and applied transdisciplinary, anti-capitalist methodologies to expose, challenge, and subvert the forces of speculative urbanization, financialization, and displacement.
Rejecting the compartmentalization of knowledge and the institutional constraints of conventional urban practice, CohStra synthesized radical theory and grassroots action into a radical framework for urban transformation. Inspired by the Situationist International’s concept of Unitary Urbanism, the collective evolved its methods into Unitary Urban Praxis—a dynamic approach that prioritized co-production, self-organization, and collective resistance against the systemic inequalities embedded in contemporary urbanization. Over more than a decade, CohStra’s work became a critical reference for scholars, organizers, and practitioners seeking counter-hegemonic strategies to reclaim urban space.
In 2021, the collective formally dissolved, paving the way for Urban Front, a new transnational initiative co-led by Gandolfi, Rendón, and Robles-Durán, in collaboration with Marxist geographer David Harvey and other twenty allies. This transition was not an endpoint but a strategic evolution—deepening the fight against capitalist urbanization and reaffirming the commitment to building just, non-exploitative urban futures. Today, CohStra’s legacy continues to inspire new generations of urbanists, activists, and communities determined to reclaim the city as a site of solidarity, struggle, and progressive transformation.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Lucia Babina is a cultural activist whose focus is on research and reactivation of sustainable ways of cohabitation and coexistence. Her aim is to reflect on the current global unevenness and injustice by means of collective and artistic process. She is the co-founder of iStrike and iStrike.ultd in Rotterdam, an environmental organization aimed at creating multidisciplinary platforms of analysis, comparison, and international exchange. With iStrike and Strike.ultd she co-produced projects such as: Ars&Urbis International Workshop (Douala, Cameroon, 2007), Salon Urbain de Douala (Douala, Cameroon, 2007), Moving in Free Zones #1 and 2 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2007 and 2009), Talking About! (Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2009). She is co-author of The Cook, the Farmer, His Wife and Their Neighbour as part of Stedelijk Goes West (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009); Market Academy Naschmarkt as part of Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria, 2010); TheBrantClub as part of Musagetes’ Guelph Program (Guelph, Canada, 2012); Food Circle_Collective Kitchen together with Atelier LUMA and Petit à Petit (Arles, France, 2017-2018); and Morland Living Lab (Paris, France, 2019). Lucia gives lectures and produces writing contributions for several international platforms.
Emiliano Gandolfi is an urbanist, educator, and independent curator deeply engaged in cultural strategies as tools for communal agency and urban justice. He co-founded Cohabitation Strategies, coordinating transdisciplinary collaborations and translating between theoretical frameworks and local knowledge to foster communal imagination, urban pedagogies, and public manifestations of citizen rights. He defines his role as an urban curator, caring for processes that intertwine socially engaged art, architecture, and activism with the politics of urban transformation. Gandolfi is also a founding member of Urban Front, an international consulting group supporting progressive governments in implementing sustainable planning and development grounded in grassroots knowledge. Formerly, he was Director of the Curry Stone Design Prize, an award celebrating design as a catalyst for social change. He co-curated the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and previously was as a curator at the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. His work has been widely published and exhibited at leading international venues, including the Venice Biennale, Lisbon Triennale, and MoMA.
Gabriela Rendón is a Mexican born urban planner, researcher, author, and educator based in New York City. She is a co-founder of Cohabitation Strategies and Urban Front, a transnational consultancy actively involved in advancing and implementing progressive governments agendas. Rendón practice focuses on excluded, stigmatized and peripheral yet fertile urban areas for testing new paradigms for community, housing and urban development challenging neoliberal urbanization. Over the last 20 years, she has been involved in cooperative, non speculative, and community controlled housing development projects, working closely with urban social movements propelling such efforts. Rendón is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development and Founding Director of the Housing Justice Lab in Parsons School of Design at The New School. She is currently working on a book titled Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn (NYU Press, forthcoming) and co-editing De Gruyter Handbook of Housing Justice (De Gruyter, forthcoming).
Miguel Robles-Durán is an urbanist, theorist, designer, educator, and podcaster recognized for advancing Unitary Urban Praxis—an anti-capitalist, transdisciplinary approach to urbanization that integrates eco-socialist theory and policy with strategic actions to reclaim and transform urban environments in the pursuit of social and environmental justice. In 2008, he co-founded Cohabitation Strategies, a non-profit cooperative dedicated to socio-spatial development and countering neoliberal urbanization. In 2019, he co-founded Urban Front, an international consultancy that collaborates with progressive governments to advocate for the Right to the City. Additionally, alongside Marxist geographer David Harvey, he co-founded Politics In Motion, a media platform dedicated to counter the destructive forces of capitalism and envision alternative futures. Robles-Durán is a tenured Associate Professor of Urbanism at The New School / Parsons School of Design. Prior to this, he held academic positions at TU Delft, The Berlage Institute, and Zürich University of the Arts. His work has been exhibited at prominent institutions such as MoMA, MAK Vienna, MAXXI Rome, and La Biennale di Venezia.
COLLABORATIONS
Cohabitation Strategies has worked in different cities around the world with a wide range of local and international practitioners, including geographers, lawyers, anthropologists, sociologists, political-economists, environmentalists, artists, architects and urbanists. Projects collaborators include: Thomas Purcell, Guillermo Delgado, Philip Lühl, Angel Lara, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Teddy Cruz, Erik Swyngedouw, David Harvey, Ruedi Baur, Imke Plinta, Alejandro Echeverri, Lorenzo Romito, Michelangelo Pistolleto, Lucia Sanroman, Shari Hersh, Damon Rich, Marjetica Potrc, Aetzel Griffioen, Peter Zuiderwijk, Merijn Oudenampsen, Jan Konings, Carlos García-Sancho, Taufan Ter Well, Florian Arrijuria-Minaberry, Anne-Cecile Paredes, Fanny Liatard and Emmanuelle Roussilhes-Pouchet.
Long-term alliances and partnerships no related to projects we have established with cultural, art, and educational institutions across cities include: Berlage Institute (Rotterdam), Casco (Utrecht), Civic City (Zurich, Geneva), Creative Time (New York City), CUNY’s Graduate Center (New York City), Curry Stone Design Prize (San Francisco), Fabrica Urbana, M7Red (Buenos Aires), The Center for Urban Ecologies (San Diego), The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center (New York City), The New School (New York City), Political Equator (Tijuana/San Diego), URBAM (Medellin), SKOR (Amsterdam), Stalker (Rome), Van Alen Institute (New York City). Project collaborations and partnerships with social, cultural, art, and educational entities across cities include:
Arles: LUMA, Petit à Petit: Coopérer pour Vivre Ensemble, Solid’Arles. BeNeLux: Right to the City BeNeLux Chapter and TodaysArt Festival. Bordeaux: Bordeaux Biennale Evento 2011. Edmonton: Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association, Art Gallery of Alberta, Canadian Native Friendship Centre, Housing and Homelessness City of Edmonton, iHuman youths, Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, Quarters Arts Society, and RISE. Istanbul: 1st Istanbul Design Biennial, Musibet, Galata Greek Primary School, and Kayıtdışı. Guelph: Alliance Jeunesse FemilRlee, Brant Avenue, City of Guelph, City of Guelph Community, EDEP, Farmstart Training, Everdale, Food Roundtable, FutureWatch, Garden Fresh Box, Guelph and District Lab, Guelph Wellington Local, Immigrant Service, Musagetes Foundation, Onward Willow, University of Guelph, University of Guelph Rural Studies. Milano: Anpi, Associazione genitori Calasanzio, Associazione Venti 2008, Azione Solidale, Cascina Linterno, Cenni di Cambiamento, Degradi, Fondazione, Gas, Genitori Scuola Infanzia via Marx e Scuola Primaria San Giusto, Il Giro del Giro, Il grafo, Mapping San Siro, mare culturale urbano, Mondo Donna, Nives Bezzo, Orti San Carlo, Parrocchia Sant’Elena, and Vivere San Siro. New York City: Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, Right to the City Alliance, Storefront for Art and Architecture. Philadelphia: 7th Street Civic Association, AAU Summer Program 2015, Amuneal Manufacturing, Asian Americans United, Ballin Up Scholastics and Sports, Bethanna Community Umbrella Agency, Bhutanese Community Organization, Café Canela, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Cambodian Psychedelic Band, East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association, Fleisher Art Memorial, Free Library of Philadelphia, Friendly Market, Friends of Mifflin Square, High School Students, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, Independent Rock Music School, Karen Traditional Dance Group, Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, Mighty Writers, Mural Arts’ Youth Violence Reduction Partnership Program, PA Migrant Education, Philadelphia Mural Arts, Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative, PhillyRising, Public Workshop, Puentes de Salud, Snyder Avenue Congregational Church, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Southeast by Southeast, Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative, TEND landscape inc, The City of Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, The City of Philadelphia Streets Department, The Food Trust, The Guild, The LandHealth Institute, The Trust for Public Land, Trash Academy, United Communities Southeast Philadelphia, United Communities Southeast Philadelphia, and University of Pennsylvania. Rotterdam: Atelier Tarwewijk, Collective Works, Stichting Freehouse Rotterdam, Wijkwaardenhuis, ART Hotel Rotterdam, Berlage Institute, Deelgemeente Charlois, Cultureel Denkwerk, Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Kosmopolis Rotterdam, Musagetes Foundation, Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi), Technical University of Delft (TUD), Woonstad dS+V, Stimuleringsfonds creatieve industrie, and Zürich University of Applied Sciences and Arts (ZHdK).Toronto: Blackwood Gallery and University of Toronto Mississauga. Venice: La Biennale di Venezia.
Furthermore, Cohabitation Strategies has worked with municipal governments in the following cities: Bologna, Valencia, Caracas, Medellin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Casarano, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Newark, New York City, Guelph, Philadelphia, Milan, Quito and Vienna.