Gabriela Rendón is an urban planner, researcher, author, and educator committed to social and spatial justice. As an associate professor of urban planning and community development and founding director of the Parsons Housing Justice Lab at Parsons School of Design, her work moves fluidly between classrooms and communities, bridging critical scholarship, progressive policy frameworks, collective practice, and radical imagination. Rendón has a prolific practice outside academia through the nonprofit Cohabitation Strategies and the international consultancy Urban Front. With over two decades of experience across Western Europe, South America, and North America, she has helped align communities' priorities with government agendas through strategies, initiatives, plans, and policies aiming to achieve shared goals.
Born and raised in northeast Mexico with deep ancestral roots along the Mexico–U.S. border, Gabriela Rendón remains committed to the immigrant and housing justice aims that were shaped by her early border experiences. Witnessing firsthand the stark inequalities and socio-spatial injustices of the borderlands, she was deeply influenced by the resilience and ingenuity of underserved communities. “My first urban mentor was the Mexican–U.S border region itself—its communities, cities, and ecosystems divided by an infamous wall. Its contradictions were striking, often visually violent, yet full of possibilities. I learned so much from the communities who turned these contradictions into creative solutions for their daily struggles.”
After more than five years working as an architect on both sides of the border, Rendón sought to deepen her understanding of the political, social, and economic forces shaping urban territories under capitalism and geopolitical influence. This led her to pursue graduate studies in urbanism at Delft University of Technology, supported by scholarships from the European Union and the Mexican government. In the Netherlands, she furthered her work in immigrant neighborhoods while exploring the country’s rich social housing legacy.
Amid the global financial crisis and in Rotterdam, Rendón co-founded Cohabitation Strategies, a nonprofit organization for socio-spatial research, design, and development. Her appointment at The New School expanded her work to New York City, where she connected with urban social movements committed to social and spatial justice. “New York City provides scholars and students lessons about the far-reaching consequences of profit-driven development while simultaneously offering a powerful testament to resistance. The city's countless activists, tirelessly working toward a more just and equitable urban future, challenge us to reimagine and create new urban paradigms.”
As part of Cohabitation Strategies, Rendón led projects in multiple countries, collaborating with civic and nonprofit organizations, art and cultural institutions, local public agencies, and national governments across cities. After marking a decade of work, Cohabitation Strategies underwent a transformation motivated by the pandemic-driven global recession, evolving into Urban Front, a transnational consultancy with a broader and more ambitious scope. With operation centers in New York City, Quito, Barcelona, and Rotterdam, Urban Front was established by more than 20 critical urbanists deeply inspired by urban geographer David Harvey, a founding and active member of this new organization. From its inception in 2019, Rendón has been committed to propelling the organization’s vision forward, collaborating with progressive governments to tackle pressing urban challenges.
Rendón policy-focused projects include developing land legislation to introduce community land trusts in the Republic of Ecuador and designing a rent stabilization program for Mexico City aimed at curbing rising rents and mitigating gentrification in central neighborhoods. Other projects include Cooperative Housing Trusts: A Hybrid Tenure Model for New York City, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art; and Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge, commissioned by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Her work has been exhibited at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the Istanbul Design Biennial 2012, the Vienna Biennale 2015, the Portugal Triennial 2016, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Rendón has authored and co-edited publications on housing, cooperative urban practices, and neighborhood restructuring. She is co-editor of “Cooperative Cities” (Journal of Design Strategies) and co-author of Cohabitation Strategies: Visions and Actions for the Co-Production of Social Space (ORO Editions, 2025). She is currently working on the book Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn (NYU Press, expected in 2026), and co-editing, alongside Silvia Emanelli, De Gruyter Handbook for Housing Justice (De Gruyter, expected in 2027). Rendón holds a PhD 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.