Profile
Gabriela Rendón (she/her/la/ella) is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development, co-coordinator of the Graduate Minor in Design and Urban Justice, and 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. Rendón’s 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.
Rendón is co-founder and active member of Urban Front (2019-present), a transnational consultancy advising and working with progressive governments committed to social and environmental justice. She is also co-founder of Cohabitation Strategies (2008-2021), a nonprofit that facilitates community-led local efforts through participatory frameworks leading to urban and social transformation. Over the last 20 years, Rendón 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.
Rendón 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, Rendón has authored and co-edited publications on neighborhood restructuring, critical planning, urban housing, gentrificaiton and displacemet, including Cooperative Cities (Journal of Design Strategies), Social Property and the Need of a New Urban Practice (Taylor & Francis), and 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 two books, Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn (NYU Press, fortcoming 2026) and Cohabitation Strategies: Thoughts and Actions for the Co-Production of Social Space (ORO Editions, fortcoming 2026).
Rendón 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 The New School, she taught at the European Masters in Urbanism at Delft University of Technology. Rendón 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
Rendón, G. (2026) Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn [fortcoming NYU Press].
Gandolfi, E., Rendón, G. & Robles-Duran, M. (2026) Cohabitation Strategies: Thoughts and Actions for the Co-Production of Social Space. [fortcoming ORO Editions].
Rendón, G. (2018). Cities for or against citizens? Socio-spatial restructuring in low-income neighborhoods and the paradox of citizen participation. Delft: BK Books/AB+B Series.
Heeswijk, J. van & Rendón, 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.) Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art. New York City: Allworth Press.
Rendón, G. & Robles-Durán, M. (2017). Social Property and the Need for a New Urban Practice. In D. Petrescu & K. Trogal (Eds.), Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice. London: Taylor & Francis.
Mitrasinovic, M. & Rendón, G. (Eds) (2017). Cooperative Cities. Journal of Design Strategies. New York City: School of Design Strategies, The New School.
Rendón, G. (2016). Socio-spatial Practices, Strategies, and Pedagogies with a Dialectical Perspective. In M. Mitrasinovic (Ed.), Concurrent Urbanities: Designing Infrastructures of Inclusion. New York: Routledge.
Babina, L., Gandolfi, E., Rendón, G., Robles-Durán, M., & Uzwiak, B. (2015). Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge: An Action-Research on South Philadelphia. Philadelphia: City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Rendón, G. (2014). Envisioning Public Cooperative Housing. Stages Journal. Retrieved from http://www.biennial.com/journal/issue-2/envisioning-public-cooperative-housing
Robles-Durán, M. & Rendón, G. (2013). Cohabitation Strategies: Una Experiencia sobre como Analizar y Entender el Sistema Urbano desde un Punto de Vista Ecológico e Interdisciplinar. URBS Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, 3 (1), 117-132.
Babina, L., Gandolfi, E., Rendón, G., & Robles-Durán, M. (2011). Bordeaux Report: Evento 2011: L’art pour une Re-evolution Urbaine. Bordeaux: Evento 2011: L’art pour une Re-evolution Urbaine.
Rendón, G. (2011). Citizens (dis)empowerment. Atlantis Magazine. Delft:Polis, Podium voor Stedenbouw.
Rendón, 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.), Making room for people: Choice, voice, and liveability in residential areas (SUA Series). Amsterdam: Techne Press.
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
Parsons Housing Justice Lab
Housing Justice Oral History Project
Urban Front
Shape of Cities to Come Institute
Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge