Wikipedia

Miguel Robles-Durán

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Robles and the second or maternal family name is Durán.

Miguel Robles-Durán (born July 25, 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) is an urbanist, urban theorist, designer, educator, and podcaster. His work is distinguished by a transdisciplinary approach to urbanization that integrates urban political-ecology, Marxist political economy, critical geography, and progressive urban planning and policy advocacy. He is a tenured Associate Professor of Urbanism at The New School[1] / Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.

Miguel Robles-Durán
Born (1975-07-25) July 25, 1975 (age 48)
Mexico City, Mexico
EducationBerlage Institute, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Southern California Institute of Architecture
Known forUrbanism, Urban design, Urban theory, Activism

Early life and education

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Born in Mexico City, Mexico. At the age of nine, Robles-Durán moved to the border region between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California, in the midst of the rapid urban transformation stimulated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1993, he left for Monterrey, Mexico, to study architecture at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), and in 1996 complemented his undergraduate education at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), in Los Angeles, California, under the guidance of the architect Teddy Cruz. He returned to Monterrey to finish his degree and received his bachelor's degree in Science in Architecture in 1998. In 1999 Robles-Durán returned to Tijuana and along with his partner, Gabriela Rendon, opened an architecture studio named Rhizoma.[2] Among the many projects that Rhizoma built was the award-winning “Galeria Jardin” (2000), which received The Honor Award of The American Institute of Architects, San Diego Chapter in 2001 and the “Serial House #1” (2004), which was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to be part of Strange New World[3] (2006), a traveling exhibition retrospective of art and design from Tijuana.[citation needed]

Robles-Durán began his academic career in Tijuana, teaching architecture and urban design at the Universidad Iberoamericana del Noroeste from 2000 to 2003. At the age of 28, Robles-Durán closed his architecture practice to focus on the larger aspects of urbanization. In 2004 he left Baja California to study in the Netherlands, where he received an advanced master's degree in Architecture and Urbanism from Rotterdam's Berlage Institute.

Academic career

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While living in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Robles-Durán began to develop the concept of Unitary Urban Theory and studied the political economy of urbanization from a strong driven Marxist perspective, designing his own curriculum in collaboration with the Berlage Institute[4] and the Delft School of Design at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Robles-Durán continued his academic career in Europe in 2005 as adjunct professor of Urban Design at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in the Human Settlements Post-Graduate Masters Program and as Gast Docent at Delft University of Technology in the Post-Graduate and Architecture Theory Department. After that he held positions as adjunct professor at the Delft University of Technology Architecture / City Interiors department in 2006, Unit Professor and Director of the “Social In-Habitat” Graduate Unit in Urbanism at Berlage Institute in 2006, Assistant Professor and Unit head of “Urban Asymmetries” at Delft University of Technology in 2007 and Associate Professor and co-director with the French-Swiss graphic designer Ruedi Baur of “Civic City” Postgraduate Program at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK) in 2009.

In 2010, Robles-Durán left Europe and moved to New York City, where he was appointed by Parsons The New School for Design, a division of The New School, as assistant professor of Urbanism. There, he developed and directed the Masters in Science program in Design and Urban Ecologies.[5] Robles-Duran held the position of director of the program until the beginning of 2014, and today continues his academic career as a tenured associate professor of Urbanism at this institution.

Profesional Career

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Urban Front In collaboration with David Harvey, Robles-Durán co-founded Urban Front[6] in 2019, a transnational consultancy for the Right to the City with a presence in South America, North America, and Europe. Urban Front works with progressive governments and social sectors to support with the design and development of critical urban strategies in the fields of housing rights, environmental justice, social welfare, cultural policy, sustainable development, and political strategy.

Politics In Motion Since March 2021, Robles-Durán hosts Cities After[7], a bi-weekly podcast and YouTube program[8] that delves into the capitalist contradictions of urbanization and the future of cities. Originally co-produced by Robles-Durán and Democracy at Work, a media organization founded by Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff, the program has been produced exclusively by Politics In Motion[9] since May 2023. Politics In Motion is a not-for-profit anti-capitalist media organization that Robles-Durán co-founded along with Marxist geographer David Harvey.

The Shape of Cities to Come Institute He is also a founding board member of The Shape of Cities to Come Institute[10], a New York City-based not-for-profit co-learning and strategizing platform housed at The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center. The Institute supports urban organizers, activists, thinkers, cultural workers, and artists from across the city's progressive grassroots communities and movements.

National Center for the Right to the Territory (CENEDET) From 2013 to 2017, at the invitation of president Rafael Correa, Robles-Durán and David Harvey co-directed the National Center for the Right to the Territory (CENEDET)[11] in Ecuador. focused on research and advocacy for territorial rights and urban justice, contributing significantly to progressive urban policies in the region.

Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) From 2008 to 2022, Robles-Durán co-directed Stichting Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra)[12], a not-for-profit cooperative for socio-spatial research, design, and development that was based in Rotterdam and New York City. The cooperative focused on socio-spatial research, design and development for urban justice and was co-founded by Robles-Durán together with Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, and Gabriela Rendón. During this period, CohStra developed sixteen urban projects[13][14][15][16] in the fields of collective housing, progressive urban policy, urban solidarity economy, environmental justice, social architecture, and socially engaged arts in Austria, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Turkey, United States, and Venezuela.

Robles-Durán’s urban praxis theories, developed with Cohabitation Strategies, have significantly impacted the critique of neoliberal urbanization. According to the urban theorist Neil Brenner, the work of Cohabitation Strategies “offers a vision of how the spaces that are being degraded under neoliberalized urbanism could become the anchors for an alternative vision of the city as a space of common life and collective self management”[17].

Robles-Durán's work with Cohabitation Strategies has been showcased at various prestigious venues, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Dutch Pavilion at Venice Biennale of Architecture[18], the MAK Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, The National Museum of 21st-century Arts, MAXXI in Rome, the Istanbul Design Biennial, the Rotterdam Biennial, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Shenzhen Biennial, the Lisbon Architecture Triennial, and Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto.

In May 2021, Cohabitation Strategies concluded its operations as an independent cooperative and merged with Urban Front. This merger aimed to further develop Robles-Durán’s concept of unitary urban praxis.

Non-Profit and Advocacy Work Robles-Durán is on the advisory board of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the City University of New York and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) Right to Housing Program and was research adviser of the Right to the City Alliance.

Research

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Robles-Durán's main research is centered on the strategic definition and coordination of transdisciplinary urban projects, as well as on the development of tactical design strategies and civic engagement platforms that confront the contradictions of neoliberal urbanization, such as homelessness, housing crises, gentrification, the effects of financialization on the real-estate industry, inter-urban competition, and urban social movements. In 2007, Robles-Duran's research work on Social Inhabitation earned him the Designing Politics —The Politics of Design[19] award, given by the HFG Ulm at Ulm School of Design, Germany. Among his writing projects is the book “Urban Asymmetries: Studies and Projects on Neoliberal Urbanization”[20] (2011), written and co-edited with Tahl Kaminer and Heidi Sohn, which reviews the dire consequences that neoliberal urban policies have had upon the city and which discusses possible alternatives to market-driven development.

Urban Projects

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Writings

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  • “The Rise of the Instant Activist: and how it’s transforming the practice of architecture, urbanism, and the way our cities are built” (Revised version), Article in South as a State of Mind Arts and Culture Publication, fall / winter 2015 issue # 5
  • The Haunting Presence of Urban Vampires, Article, Harvard Design Magazine #37, Cambridge. (2014)
  • “For the Brief Moments of Confrontation” in Make_Shift City: Renegotiating the Urban Commons, Jovis Press; Bilingual edition. (2014)
  • Social Housing - Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice, “Unitary Urbanism: A Citizens’ Occupation”, Book Contributor (Essay), Sternberg Press, Berlin.
  • “Prelude to a Brand New Parallel Urban World”, Article, Volume Magazine #30, Amsterdam/New York
  • Urban Asymmetries: Studies and Projects on Neoliberal Urbanization, Book (Ed.), 010Publishers, Rotterdam.
  • Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization, “The Rise of the Instant Activist”, Book Contributor (Essay), NAi Publishers, Rotterdam.

Interviews

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References

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  1. ^ "The New School".
  2. ^ "worldviewcities.org is coming soon". www.worldviewcities.org.
  3. ^ "Strange New World".
  4. ^ "Berlage Institute".
  5. ^ "Design and Urban Ecologies (MS) | Parsons School of Design". www.newschool.edu.
  6. ^ https://www.urban-front.com/
  7. ^ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cities-after/id1564753541
  8. ^ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQyx6mX9qMzGwXZbNw0E6vuL0EiNXfOKc
  9. ^ https://www.politicsinmotion.org
  10. ^ https://www.shapeofcitiestocome.org
  11. ^ https://www.academia.edu/15507745/Transforming_the_Productive_Matrix_in_Ecuador_CENEDET_Working_Paper_
  12. ^ http://www.cohstra.org
  13. ^ https://www.cohstra.org/?portfolio=playgrounds-for-useful-knowledge
  14. ^ https://www.cohstra.org/?portfolio=uneven-growth
  15. ^ https://www.cohstra.org/?portfolio=the-power-of-two
  16. ^ https://www.cohstra.org/?portfolio=bordeaux-report
  17. ^ https://books.google.com.co/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iAgqDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA113&ots=IDLL_JqoGN&sig=t8chEdNXklZ1BAHOAn5-auQn2RQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
  18. ^ https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2021/emerging-communities/cohabitation-strategies
  19. ^ "Designing Politics - The Politics of Design Award".
  20. ^ "Formats and Editions". www.worldcat.org.
  21. ^ "post". post.
  22. ^ "Faculties for Architecture". facultiesforarchitecture.org.
  23. ^ Barandiaran, Xabier (September 25, 2014). "Secuestro y confesión de Miguel Robles-Durán (cohstra.org)".
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