Urban-Think Tank

The exhibition on view at Architekturmuseum der TU Munchen illustrates the multi-facetted Urban-Think Tank’s research methods and the provocative questions it raises.

Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) was conceived as an “Interdisciplinary Design Collective”, its architects and founders, Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner, seeing themselves as strategic planners.

U-TT began in Caracas (Venezuela) in 1998, dedicated to practical fieldwork on its own doorstep: the detailed analysis of the urban reality of Caracas, in particular the favelas and their social and economic relationship with the city.

**Top**: Urban-Think Tank, Empower Shack, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Jan Ras / U-TT. **Above**: Urban-Think Tank,Torre David Caracas, Venezuela. © U-TT, photo: Daniel Schwartz

U-TT’s urban-planning designs grew out of this research, based on a conceptual approach which aimed at a gradual rapprochement between the planned and the informal areas of the city. Through teaching at New York’s Columbia University, and venturing into international exhibitions and publications, U-TT has brought its activities and research to the attention of a global audience. Their sensational study of the Torre David skyscraper in Caracas and the exhibition “Torre David / Gran Horizonte” which resulted from it won them the Golden Lion award at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012.

Taking as examples twenty different informal settlements from all over the world, the exhibition “Sí / No: The Architecture of Urban Think Tank” illustrates the multi-facetted research methods, analyses and development studies which U-TT carries out, the provocative questions it raises and some of the buildings it has produced.

U-TT, The Anglican Church upgrade, Baruta, Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Daniel Schwartz/U-TT at ETH

U-TT, Reactivate Athens, Greece. Photo: Daniel Schwartz/U-TT at ETH

U-TT, The Metrocable of San Augustin, Baruta, Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Iwan Baan

Left: U-TT, Torre David, Caracas, Venezuela. © U-TT, photo: Iwan Baan. Right: U-TT, Torre David, Caracas, Venezuela © U-TT, photo: Daniel Schwartz/U-TT at ETH

U-TT, Fava School for autistic children, Baruta, Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Iwan Baan

until February 21, 2016
Sí / No: The Architecture of Urban Think Tank
Architekturmuseum der TU Munchen
Arcisstraße 21, Munchen

Urban-Think Tank

The exhibition on view at Architekturmuseum der TU Munchen illustrates the multi-facetted Urban-Think Tank’s research methods and the provocative questions it raises.

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