What Estudio Teddy Cruz does

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman is a research-based urban and architectural design practice co-directed by Teddy Cruz (Professor of Public Culture and Urbanization) and Fonna Forman (Professor of Political Theory and Founding Director of the UCSD Center on Global Justice) and embedded at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla. The practice uses the San Diego–Tijuana border region as a working laboratory for issues including urban informality, migration, climate vulnerability, housing precarity, and the decline of public space. Its core operational layer is the UCSD Community Stations network — field hubs embedded in low-income neighborhoods on both sides of the border (EarthLab, Casa, Divina, Alacrán) — through which it runs collaborative research, teaching, and pilot projects such as the Manufactured Sites scaffolding system, the Mecalux Frame prototype for incremental housing, the Santuario Frontera refugee-shelter project, and the Cross-Border Commons land-conservancy initiative.

The practice's underlying technology is a participatory urban-research methodology rather than a software or hardware platform. Documented proprietary outputs include modular construction systems using milk crates, tires, corrugated metal, rammed earth, and cinder blocks (Manufactured Sites); an adaptation of lightweight metal shelving for incremental housing (Mecalux Frame); and visualization projects such as the Political Equator, MEXUS cross-border interdependence atlas, and the Medellín Diagram. Methodologically, it is supported by long-running partnerships with grassroots organizations (Casa Familiar, Colonos de la Divina Providencia, Embajadores de Jesús, Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek), Mexican academic partners (UABC, UAM, UNAM), and cross-border civic collaborators including Corpovisionarios.

Commercially, the entity is not a revenue-generating business. It is funded through UCSD faculty positions, research grants, and institutional support, with dissemination routed through MIT Press monographs (Spatializing Justice, 2022; Socializing Architecture, 2023; Unwalling Citizenship, forthcoming) and exhibitions at major cultural institutions including MoMA, Cooper Hewitt, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, M+ Hong Kong, and the 2018 Venice Architectural Biennale, where the practice represented the United States. Customer relationships are with mission-aligned community organizations and academic partners rather than paying clients, and pricing is not applicable to the academic-practice model.

Name

Estudio Teddy Cruz

Legal name

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman

Website

https://estudioteddycruz.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman is a UC San Diego-based research and architectural design practice that uses the San Diego-Tijuana border region as a laboratory for studying urban informality, migration, and climate resilience. It serves low-income border communities, academic institutions, and cultural venues through the Community Stations network, design prototypes, and MIT Press publications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Architectural Research Services

NAICS

Architectural Services (541310), Architectural Services (54131), Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (5413)

SIC

Services-Engineering Services (8711)

akta.pro primary industry

Architectural Design Services (BPAHAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Independent Living Community Development & Construction (Senior Housing Developers) (HLADAAAH)

Keywords

• Architectural design research
• Urban planning research
• Community engagement design
• Border urbanism studies
• Informal settlement research

Headquarters

HQ city

La Jolla

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Academic/Research Funding: Funded through UC San Diego as an academic research practice. Teddy Cruz is Professor of Public Culture and Urbanization; Fonna Forman is Professor of Political Theory and Founding Director of UCSD Center on Global Justice.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Research-based urban and architectural design practice operating at UC San Diego, focused on the San Diego–Tijuana border region. The practice delivers collaborative research, architectural prototypes for informal urbanization, and design frameworks that address social inequality, migration, climate change, and cross-border interdependence. Outputs include the Community Stations field-hub network, architectural prototypes, monographs with MIT Press, and museum exhibitions.

Product overview

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman is a research-based urban and architectural design practice led by Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman at UC San Diego. The practice operates primarily through the Community Stations network—a system of field hubs in San Diego–Tijuana border communities—alongside multiple research projects including The Political Equator, MEXUS, The Medellín Diagram, and Manufactured Sites. The studio produces publications and engages in exhibitions to disseminate its methodology. The work focuses on borders and migration, informal urbanization, emergency housing, bioregional climate resilience, civic infrastructure, and public culture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• UCSD Community Stations: A network of field hubs located in low-income neighborhoods across the San Diego-Tijuana border region, where education and research are done collaboratively with community partners.

Products and services

• UCSD Community Stations Network Network of field hubs located in low-income neighborhoods across the San Diego–Tijuana border region where education and research are conducted collaboratively with community partners to promote cross-border citizenship culture grounded in socio-ecological interdependence.
• Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks Monograph published by MIT Press in 2022 that documents spatial justice research and design approaches developed by the practice.
• Socializing Architecture: Top-Down / Bottom-Up Monograph published by MIT Press in 2023 exploring architectures of social engagement and the practice's top-down/bottom-up methodologies.
• Manufactured Sites Research project presenting maquiladora-made framing systems that support the recycling of San Diego's urban waste into Tijuana's incremental architectures, including the Manufactured Sites scaffolding system and Mecalux Frame prototype for incremental housing.
• Santuario Frontera Sanctuary neighborhood project in Laureles Canyon, Tijuana, partnering with refugee shelter Embajadores de Jesús to expand emergency housing capacity, embedded in fabrication, training, and small-scale economic development.
• Cross-Border Commons Land conservancy initiative that identifies and bundles slivers of land in informal settlements in Tijuana, connecting them with an estuary in San Diego to form a socially and ecologically continuous jurisdiction.
• The Political Equator Experimental visualization project tracing an imaginary line from the Tijuana–San Diego border across a world atlas between latitudes 30 and 38 degrees North, linking contested thresholds globally.

Quantifiable outcome

• UCSD Community Stations network established across San Diego-Tijuana border region
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and major.

• UC San Diego Center on Global JusticecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFonna Forman serves as Founding Director of UCSD Center on Global Justice. The practice is affiliated with this university center which focuses on climate justice, borders and migration, and participatory urbanization. The center provides institutional support and academic framework for the practice.
• UCSD Community StationscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA network of field hubs located in low-income neighborhoods across San Diego-Tijuana border region. Cruz and Forman lead this initiative which serves as infrastructure for co-existence between divided communities, where research, teaching and urban advocacy are done collaboratively.
• Casa FamiliarcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity-based non-profit organization in San Diego. Long-standing partnership on housing and community development projects including the Casa Familiar: Living Rooms at the Border and Senior Housing With Childcare project in San Ysidro.
• Colonos de la Divina ProvidenciacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity organization in Tijuana. Partnership established for the UCSD-Divina Community Station, focusing on collaborative community development in this informal settlement.
• Groundwork San Diego-Chollas CreekcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity partner organization focused on environmental justice and community development in San Diego. Led by Leslie Reynolds (Executive Director), Patrice Baker (Director of Community Development), and Allie Sifrit (Director of Education).
• Embajadores de JesúscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity partner in Tijuana. Partnership focused on the Santuario Frontera project - sanctuary neighborhood in Laureles Canyon informal settlement. Pastor Gustavo Banda-Aceves established refugee shelter for hundreds of migrants.
• Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerExhibition partnership for Wohnungsfrage exhibition in Berlin (2015) featuring Retrofit Gecekondu project.
• Corpovisionarios (Antanas Mockus think tank)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Cross-Border Citizenship Culture Survey (2011-ongoing) with former Mayor of Bogotá Antanas Mockus and city officials in San Diego and Tijuana.
• Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration with Napoleón Gudiño (Investigator, Oceanology Research Institute) and Carlos Vera Hernandez (Managing Director, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology).
• Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration through Philippe Ollé-Laprune (Director, University Extension and Special Projects).
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration with Marycely Heraldine Córdova Solís (Professor, International Relations, School of Political and Social Sciences).

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• WORKac: Practice focused on architecture's intersection with social and ecological systems, including public-interest work. Comparable intellectual positioning around architecture as a tool for civic and ecological engagement, though with a more conventional commercial project base.

Direct peers

• ELEMENTAL (Alejandro Aravena): Chilean practice known for incremental housing and participatory design in informal settlements. Highly comparable methodology around bottom-up architecture, modular incremental construction, and addressing informality, paralleling ETC+FF's Mecalux Frame and Manufactured Sites work.
• MASS Design Group: Architecture firm focused on social impact through built work in underserved communities. Closely aligned with ETC+FF on community-engaged design, public-interest architecture, and integration of research with practice.
• Recetas Urbanas: Seville-based practice of Santiago Cirugeda focused on informal urbanism, tactical interventions, and self-built architecture. Highly aligned with ETC+FF's methodology of incremental, modular, community-led construction in informal contexts.
• Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO: Mexico City-based practice with deep engagement in affordable housing, social infrastructure, and cross-border cultural collaboration. Shares ETC+FF's Latin American context, social-housing focus, and interest in modular/community-led housing models.
• Rural Studio: Auburn University-based community-engaged design practice serving low-income rural communities. Comparable academic-embedded structure, mission-driven ethos, and integration of teaching with community-built projects.
• Shigeru Ban Architects: Internationally recognized practice for humanitarian and emergency housing design. Comparable focus on novel structural systems, modular and rapidly deployable shelters, and architecture addressing displacement, mirroring ETC+FF's Santuario Frontera and incremental housing work.
• Urban Think Tank: Research-based practice investigating urbanism in informal settlements with parallel work in Latin America. Shares ETC+FF's interest in cross-disciplinary urban research, informal urbanization, and connecting academic inquiry with built interventions.
• Lacaton & Vassal: French practice (2021 Pritzker Prize) known for social housing, low-cost additions, and preserving/transforming existing informal fabric. Comparable values around architecture for underserved communities and incremental improvement of living conditions.

Broad incumbents

• Studio Gang: Established US architecture practice with social and ecological sustainability themes. Shares interest in community-engaged design and bioregional thinking but operates at much larger commercial scale and broader building-type portfolio.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses2 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/estudio-teddy-cruz

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Estudio Teddy Cruz