ecosistema urbano is a Madrid based office of architects, designers and professionals specialized in urban innovation projects, operating within the principles of design thinking at the intersection between different disciplines: architecture, landscape design, engineering, and sociology.
Ecosistema was founded in year 2000 by Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo. Their approach can be defined as urban social design by which they understand the design of environments, spaces, dynamics and tools in order to improve the self-organization of citizens, social interaction within communities and their relationship with the environment. Ecosistema Urbano has used this philosophy to design and implement projects in urban contexts from different countries: USA, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, France, China, Russia, Paraguay, Bahamas, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Honduras, etc...
ecosistema urbano is specialized in urban consultancy, architectonic and urban design, public space quality assessment, and urban transformation processes.The scope of its work goes from the initial conceptualization to the final implementation of the projects, and its clients comprehend local and national governments as well as multilateral agencies.
In recent years, their research has developed around the design of public spaces focusing especially on the improvement of bioclimatic conditions in contexts and climates as diverse as Norway or Bahrain.
As a part of their methodology, Ecosistema Urbano has been developing different tools and participatory techniques to involve citizens in the creative and transformative processes of urban environments. During the last decade Ecosistema has successfully experimented with social software, communication platforms, and the possibilities offered by the new technologies to achieve the creation of more democratic urban environments.
Since 2000, ecosistema urbano has received prizes and awards in more than 45 occasions by numerous international organizations (awarded by UN-Habitat on 3 occasions) and their work has been covered by media from more than 30 countries (specialized publications, tv programs, international press,...). Their projects have been exhibited in many galleries, museums and international institutions (Venice Biennale, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, Shenzhen Biennale, London Design Museum, Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Berlin, National Museum of Norway, Chicago Art Institute, Lisbon Triennale,...).
Ecosistema urbano’s latest projects include the Banyan Hub, a mixed used bioclimatic building in West Palm Beach (US) (400,000 sq.ft.), a New interactive public space for Malaga University Campus (2 mile long boulevar) (Spain), an Upgrading project for Dhaka neighborhoods (Bangladesh) or a landscape revitalization project for Hermosillo Historical Centre (Mexico).
Tato and Vallejo have led workshops, lectured and taught at the world's most prestigious institutions.
Belinda is currently an Associate Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where she has been teaching since 2010 and Jose Luis is Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
In 2017 Ecosistema Urbano opened a US branch to expand their business in North America.
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