Alfredo Brillembourg
Founder/director at Urban Think Tank
Alfredo Brillembourg received his Master of Science in Architectural Design from Columbia University. Brillembourg is a fellow of the GRIP Institute at the University of Bergen and held the chair for Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland from 2010 to 2019. Founded U–TT Design Group with offices in New York, São Paulo, Geneva, Cape Town and Oslo.
Behind The Scenes
Short description:
We are interested in finding out where we stand today when it comes to alternative conceptions of urbanisation. What are the forces vis-à-vis the political beliefs and frameworks that inform contemporary roles and models for architectural practice? Since the tail-end of the 1990s, one can witness a growing frustration of a generation of architects and spatial practitioners, who are no longer willing to accept the truism and conventional understanding of the architect as the sole power who is in charge of space.
We, as Urban Think Tank (U-TT), have spent a long time thinking of how our work in South Africa has contributed to advancing ideas around upgrading communities. We also want to share ideas about architecture, cities, and the role of the architect in addressing the inequities that beset societies everywhere. And how these ideas translate into transformative practice. And, most importantly, are we architects just talking to one another, failing to engage with practical realities of real change?
View from your window:
I am a displaced Venezuelan and have spent virtually the last 20 years living in Europe - trying to make Caracas, a city I love dearly, a better place. When I look out my window in Olso I see seagulls and a peaceful nature, but when I wake up in the global south I see grinding poverty and generations of homelessness and this is as painful as it is outrageous in this world.
What's your contribution?
I would like to offer a strategic partnership with my recently formed magazine called Parangolé. It wants to be an annual journal that challenges ideas on urbanisation, design and architecture by initiating a global dialogue on topics such as mobility, migration, fluidity and multiplicity, The journal wants to join forces with online journals and expand on the cultural social and political significance of what it means to live in the city.
What brings you here?
I was very taken by the title of your online presence! I would like to contribute to your cause and find synergies with my print magazine which pays homage to the work of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, extending his central tenet that “life is movement” from the body to the city. The first issue of Parangolé, titled Motherland, focuses on the space of habitation for those who live in precarious and transitory conditions due to economic hardship, conflict, and violence. People on the move face unique challenges and vulnerabilities that must be identified and addressed in urban settings. With Motherland, researchers and practitioners are brought together to think about these issues and solutions.
Meet Alfredo Brillembourg here:
