Caracas, Venezuela
Session 2: June 19 - August 20, 2008

Luís Efrén Santana is an architect who received his degree from the Central University of Caracas in 2002. Urban Think Tank (U-TT) is a multi-disciplinary design practice based in Caracas, Venezuela dedicated to high-level research and design. U-TT’s design practice places the social reality of a site at the forefront of political discussion. Their work is aimed at reversing the top-down hierarchy of governance in the public sphere in favor of bottom-up, locally driven action.

Urban Think Tank Public Presentation, 8/13/08. Luis Efrén Santana (left center) and co-presenter Marcelo R. Elola (left, foreground) with guests

A member of Urban Think Tank (U-TT), the multi-disciplinary design practice based in Caracas, Venezuela, Efrén Santana examined how Los Angeles’ Latino immigrants adapt to the city and how they have changed its landscape. Santana’s research focused on issues of poverty, socio-economic growth and xenophobia.

Over the past twenty years, Los Angeles has experienced a surge in its Latino population. This is a complex issue that has raised questions of how an already established city should adapt to urban growth of populations that emigrate from developing countries with weak political infrastructures and high poverty rates. The rapid growth of immigrant populations has left huge gaps in both physical infrastructure and theoretical understanding.

As Los Angeles’ Latino population expands to inhabit the suburbs of the Los Angeles metropolitan region, a question is raised: how do these so-called urban immigrants integrate themselves into an already established socio-economic fabric, and how in turn is the rest of the population acclimating to them?

U-TT’s research in Los Angeles expanded on its ongoing study of the informal sector and its relationship to globalization, comparing this phenomenon in the context of an industrialized city with its counterparts in the Global South. In contrast to traditional notions of urban informality as a consequence of poverty or scarcity, the informal city that has emerged coincides tactically with advanced capitalism. Its improvisation and flexibility make it a key aspect of, not an exception to, the globalized economy – equally in the outskirts of Sao Paolo and the shish-kebab stands of Los Angeles. Understanding the dynamics of this new economy is therefore vital to countering its tendency towards greater inequality and social exclusion.

Urban Think Tank Public Presentation guests, 8/13/08

Urban Think Tank Public Presentation. Marcelo Elola (at left) and Luis Efrén Santana (at right) with guest, 8/13/08

UFI Salon in honor of Fellow Luis Efrén Santana. From left: Ulises Diaz of AdobeLA, Victor Cuevas of Latino Urban Forum, Luis Efrén Santana, Michael Pinto of SCIArc CommRojas of Latino Urban Forum, 6/25/08

Urban Think Tank Public Presentation, 8/13/08. Luis Efrén Santana (left) and Marcelo Elola (right)

Urban Think Tank Public Presentation, 8/13/08. Luis Efrén Santana with guest

UFI Salon in honor of Luis Efrén Santana, 6/25/08