Urbanists and cultural activists Lucia Babina and Miguel Robles-Durán of Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) talk with us about the concept of authorship when developing collaborative projects with communities that are not their own. Rather than claiming authorship on the projects they initiate, they see CohStra’s role as “transferring a way of looking at things,” and producing practical knowledge to address pressing social issues.
Cohabitation Strategies brought their approach to Philadelphia with Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge, working in South Philadelphia with Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. The pair designed a series of “interventions” intended to galvanize community members to work collaboratively through the use of play, games, and performance.
Lucia Babina is a cultural activist and founding member of Cohabitation Strategies, an innovative urban design and performance group based in New York, Rotterdam, and Ibiza. Babina’s research focuses on reactivation of sustainable ways of cohabitation and coexistence. She is the co-founder of iStrike and iStrike.ultd in Rotterdam, an environmental organization aimed at creating multidisciplinary platforms of international exchange. With Miguel Robles-Durán, Babina participated in the Center-funded project, Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge, presented by Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Miguel Robles-Durán is an urbanist and founding member of Cohabitation Strategies, an innovative urban design and performance group based in New York, Rotterdam, and Ibiza. He is a faculty member of the graduate program in design and urban ecologies at The New School/Parsons, and serves as a senior fellow at “Civic City,” a post-graduate program based at the Haute École d’Art et de Design in Geneva, Switzerland. With Lucia Babina, Robles-Durán participated in the Center-funded project, Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge, presented by Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
