Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) is honored to have been invited to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by Hashim Sarkis. Prof. Sarkis asked CohStra to respond to the question: How Will We Live Together? 

Co-founded in the city of Rotterdam in 2008 by Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendon and Miguel Robles-Duran; Cohabitation Strategies was formed as a non-profit cooperative for socio-spatial development with the specific focus of challenging the traditional disciplinary divisions and social inequities involved in the production of neoliberal urbanization. 

After thirteen years of long-term experimental work on sixteen complex urban projects in Europe, North America and South America spanning numerous topics such as housing, cultural production, territorial development, economics, policy and community advocacy, Cohabitation Strategies responded to Prof. Sarkis’ question by presenting its manifesto for the future of urban practice, titled “How to Begin Again”. 

Expanding on Situationist International terminology, How to Begin Again, was conceived as a 4-step spatial initiation towards Unitary Urbanism, a term that CohStra redefined as: An anti-capitalist and transdisciplinary practice that attempts to bridge popular and scientific knowledge to co-produce social and environmental justice in cities.

With this installation for La Biennale di Venezia’s Arsenale/Corderie, CohStra concludes operations as an independent cooperative. In order to continue expanding the practice of Unitary Urbanism, Cohabitation Strategies announces that beginning May 2021 it is joining URBAN FRONT, a transnational consultancy focused on helping progressive public and social sectors address the critical urban problems of the 21st century. URBAN FRONT was co-founded by 23 highly experienced unitary urbanists across Asia, Europe, North and South America, including CohStra’s Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendon and Miguel Robles-Duran. All future CohStra projects will now be developed with URBAN FRONT.

For more information, please visit www.urban-front.com

Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) is a non-profit cooperative for socio-spatial research, design and development based in New York City, Rotterdam and Ibiza. CohStra was founded in the city of Rotterdam –right after the 2008 financial crash– by Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendón and Miguel Robles-Durán. Since then CohStra has initiated operation centers in various cities across Europe, South and North America. Its action research endeavors to facilitate transformative and progressive urban intervention projects. This is undertaken through the active engagement with a range of locally embedded actors from governments, municipalities, cultural institutions, non-profit organizations and civic groups to researchers, artists, designers and independent activists that coalesce around the desire for social, spatial and environmental justice – in short, the Right to the City. Learn more about what we do