Profile
Gabriela Rend贸n (she/her/la/ella) is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development. She currently serves as the director of the MS Design and Urban Ecologies Progarm, the co-coordinator of the Graduate Minor in Design and Urban Justice, and the Founding Director of the Parsons Housing Justice Lab. At the lab, she leads the Housing Justice Oral History Project which intersects oral history, critical carthography, community organizing and advocacy.听Rend贸n鈥檚 expertise and research interests include community and spatial planning, housing and urban policy, socio-spatial restructuring, revitalization of immigrant neighborhoods, rise and settlement of Latinx urban communities, housing and tenants rights, gentrification and displacement, cooperative housing models, as well as other collective and non-speculative housing development schemes providing equitable development in profit-driven urban environments. Her trans-disciplinary practice earned her a position as Faculty Fellow at the Zolberg Institute for Migration and Mobility in 2023, as well as at the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought for the academic year 2022-2023. 听听
Rend贸n is co-founder and active member of Urban Front, a transnational consultancy advising and working with progressive governments committed to 听social and environmental justice. She is also co-founder of Cohabitation Strategies, a nonprofit that facilitates community-led local efforts through participatory frameworks leading to urban and social transformation. Over the last 20 years, Rend贸n听has worked on long-term urban and community-based projects commissioned by nonprofits, public agencies, municipalities, and national governments in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Her work has been exhibited at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the Portugal Triennial 2016, the Vienna Biennale 2015, the Istanbul Design Biennial 2012, and the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.听 听
Rend贸n has undertaken different roles within the New York City's housing and social movements since 2010. As a co-founder of The Shape of Cities to Come Institute, she helped establish it and continues to guide its direction as an active collaborator and member of the board of directors. She also serves in the board of directors of the Cooper Square Community Land Trust and the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association in the Lower East Side and has been involved in other community gorups and board of directors, including the Left Forum in New York City.
Drawing from the lessons learned while working with grassroots groups, urban movements, public agencies, municipalities and national goverments, Rend贸n has authored and co-edited publications on neighborhood restructuring, critical planning, urban housing, gentrification and displacement, including听Cooperative Cities听(Journal of Design Strategies),听Social Property and the Need of a New Urban Practice听(Taylor & Francis), and听Cities For or Against Citizens? Socio-Spatial Restructuring and the Paradox of Citizen Participation in Low-Income Neighborhooods (BK Books/A+BE). She is currently working on three books, Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn (NYU Press, forthcoming 2026)听Cohabitation Strategies: Thoughts and Actions for the Co-Production of Social Space (ORO Editions, forthcoming 听2026) and De Gryuter Handbook of Housing Justice (De Gruyter Brill, forthcoming 2027).
Rend贸n听earned a Ph.D. in Spatial Planning and Strategy and a MS in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and a BS in Architecture from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. Prior to teaching at 麻豆传媒色情片, she taught at the European Masters in Urbanism at Delft University of Technology. Rend贸n was born and raised in northeast Mexico. With generations entrenched along the Mexico/USA border territory, she developed a passion for immigrant and housing justice.
Recent Publications
Rend贸n, G. (2026) Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn听(forthcoming NYU Press).
Rendon, G., Robles-Duran, M. & Gandolfi, E. (2026) Cohabitation Strategies: Thoughts and Actions for the Co-Production of Social Space (ORO Editions, forthcoming 听2026).
Rend贸n, G. (2018).听Cities for or against citizens? Socio-spatial restructuring in low-income neighborhoods and the paradox of citizen participation. Delft: BK Books/AB+B Series.
Mitrasinovic, M. & Rend贸n, G. (Eds) (2017). Cooperative Cities.听Journal of Design Strategies. New York City: School of Design Strategies, 麻豆传媒色情片.
Heeswijk, J. van & Rend贸n, G. (2017). Lesson Plan for Public Faculty No. 11: Imagining a Curriculum in Sunset Park, In G. Sholette, C. Bass and Social Practice Queens (Eds.)听Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art.听New York City: Allworth Press.
Rend贸n, G. & Robles-Dur谩n, M. (2017). Social Property and the Need for a New Urban Practice. In D. Petrescu & K. Trogal (Eds.),听Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice. London: Taylor & Francis.
Rend贸n, G. (2016). Socio-spatial Practices, Strategies, and Pedagogies with a Dialectical Perspective. In M. Mitrasinovic (Ed.),听Concurrent Urbanities: Designing Infrastructures of Inclusion. New York: Routledge.
Babina, L., Gandolfi, E., Rend贸n, G., Robles-Dur谩n, M., & Uzwiak, B. (2015).听Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge: An Action-Research on South Philadelphia. Philadelphia: City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Rend贸n, G. (2014). Envisioning Public Cooperative Housing.听Stages Journal. Retrieved from http://www.biennial.com/journal/issue-2/envisioning-public-cooperative-housing
Babina, L., Gandolfi, E., Rend贸n, G., & Robles-Dur谩n, M. (2011).听Bordeaux Report: Evento 2011: L鈥檃rt pour une Re-evolution Urbaine. Bordeaux: Evento 2011: L鈥檃rt pour une Re-evolution Urbaine.
Robles-Dur谩n, M. &听 Rend贸n, G. (2013). Cohabitation Strategies: Una Experiencia sobre como Analizar y Entender el Sistema Urbano desde un Punto de Vista Ecol贸gico e Interdisciplinar.听URBS Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, 3 (1), 117-132.
Rend贸n, G. (2011). Citizens (dis)empowerment.听Atlantis Magazine. Delft:Polis, Podium voor Stedenbouw.
Rend贸n, G. (2011) Politics, practices and constraints of socio-spatial restructuring through citizens active engagement in deprived neighborhoods: The case of Tarwewijk, Rotterdam. In Q. Lei and E. Hasselaar (Eds.),听Making room for people: Choice, voice, and liveability in residential areas听(SUA Series). Amsterdam: Techne Press.
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Research Interests
Community planning and design, participatory action research, neighborhood decline and restructuring, immigrant neighborhoods, rise and settlement of Latinx urban communities, housing and tenants rights, gentrification and displacement, community control and shared ownership of housing and land.
Portfolio