Urban-Think Tank

What Urban-Think Tank does

Urban-Think Tank (U-TT), founded in 1998 by Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner in Caracas, Venezuela, is a privately held interdisciplinary architecture and urbanism practice focused on social change through design in informal settlements and underserved urban communities. The firm operates as Urban Think Tank Design Partners LLC in the United States and maintains seven offices across the Americas, Europe, and Africa (New York, Caracas, São Paulo, Bogota, Oslo, Geneva, Cape Town), with a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary, U-TTE (Urban-Think Tank Empower), established in 2012 to deliver housing in South Africa. Its core products are built environment commissions for municipal governments and NGOs — including the trademarked GIMNASIO VERTICAL™ prefabricated modular sports facility system (deployed in four Caracas municipalities with 100 candidate sites identified), the Urban Cable Car integrated with Caracas Metro (5 stations, 2.1 km, 1,200 people/hour/direction), Empower Social Housing (73 incremental homes built in Khayelitsha, Cape Town), the District Art School (EDA) in Barranquilla, and the School for Children with Autism — supported by documentary films (notably the Golden Lion-winning Torre David), publications (Parangolé Magazine, architecture books via Hatje Cantz and Lars Müller), and a small e-commerce storefront selling books, films, art prints, furniture, and apparel.

The firm earns revenue through two streams: project-based professional services fees from architecture and urbanism commissions for public-sector and NGO clients, and one-time sales of physical and digital products through its online shop, with item prices ranging from $3 (films) to $1,200 (Torre David prints). The practice operates with 8 reported employees and a multidisciplinary model that integrates architects, civil engineers, environmental planners, landscape architects, urban sociologists, and communication specialists, drawing on partnerships with ETH Zurich, Universidad del Norte, Ikhayalami, Doppelmayr, the Inter-American Development Bank, and SECO. Notable awards include the 2012 Venice Biennale Golden Lion, the 2019 Curry Stone Design Prize, RIBA International Prize shortlisting, Aga Khan Award shortlisting, and multiple Holcim and World Bank recognitions. Revenue is not publicly disclosed and no external funding rounds have been identified in the input data.

Name

Urban-Think Tank

Legal name

Urban Think Tank Design Partners LLC

Website

https://uttdesign.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Urban-Think Tank is a privately held, founder-led architecture and urbanism practice founded in 1998 that designs social infrastructure — housing, schools, sports facilities, and transit — for municipal governments and NGOs in informal settlements across Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Architecture Services

NAICS

Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (5413), Landscape Architectural Services (54132)

akta.pro primary industry

Urban Planning & Master Planning (BPAHAKAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Engagement & Participatory Planning (BPAHAKAO), Transportation & Infrastructure Planning (BPAHAKAF), Sustainable Cities, Urban Development & Green Infrastructure (BPADALAL), Transportation & Traffic Engineering Consulting (BPAHAIAC)

Keywords

• Social architecture services
• Urban design practice
• Informal settlement upgrading
• Social housing design
• Community urbanism

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Architecture and Design Services: Commissioned projects for social infrastructure including housing, schools, sports facilities, and transportation systems. Revenue generated through project-based fees for design, planning, and implementation services with municipal governments, NGOs, and international development organizations.
2. Product Sales (Shop): Sale of books, films, art prints, posters, furniture, and apparel through the company's e-commerce shop. Products include design publications about their projects, documentary films, photography prints, and branded merchandise. A portion of each sale supports social impact projects.
3. Custom Furniture and Design Pieces: Sale of physical products including custom furniture and design pieces through the website. The company ships worldwide and accepts credit card payments through Stripe. Prices listed in USD.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Urban-Think Tank is an architecture and urbanism practice that designs social infrastructure — including housing, schools, sports facilities, and urban transport systems — for municipal governments, NGOs, and international development organizations. The firm operates multidisciplinary teams of architects, civil engineers, environmental planners, landscape architects, and urban sociologists to deliver human-centric, low-cost, replicable design solutions for underserved communities. The firm also sells publications, documentary films, custom furniture, and branded merchandise through an e-commerce shop.

Product overview

Urban-Think Tank is an architecture and urbanism practice engaged in social change, operating as a single unified practice rather than a platform architecture. Their portfolio centers on human-centric design solutions for informal settlements and underserved communities, combining academic rigor with practical innovation. Core offerings include the Vertical Gym (GIMNASIO VERTICAL™) prefabricated modular sports facilities, Urban Cable Car transit systems, and Empower Social Housing. Supporting services include specialized educational facilities (School for Children with Autism, District Art School), documentary film production (Torre David), publications (Parangolé Magazine, architecture books), and custom furniture design. The practice operates offices in New York, Caracas, São Paulo, Bogota, Oslo, Geneva, and Cape Town.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Vertical Gym (GIMNASIO VERTICAL™) A prefabricated modular sports facility system that transforms urban spaces vertically, accommodating basketball courts, soccer fields, running tracks, rock-climbing walls, dance studios, and weight areas. Designed for densely populated informal settlements with 4,000m2 of sports space across multiple levels. Commissioned by municipal governments.
• Urban Cable Car System Aerial cable car infrastructure integrated with urban metro systems, providing mobility solutions for hillside communities. The Caracas system spans 2.1 km with 5 stations and capacity of 1,200 people per hour per direction. Commissioned by the Metro Corporation of Caracas.
• Empower Social Housing Open-source social housing prototype developed with local NGOs, creating incremental housing solutions using existing shack footprints through transparent community collaboration. Successfully built 73 homes in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Commissioned by the City of Cape Town and Community BT South.
• District Art School (EDA) / Fábrica de Cultura Low-cost flexible art and craft school building utilizing local materials and prefabrication, offering education in music, dance, sculpture, dress making, painting, poetry, theatre, food production, and digital film for Barranquilla's Carnival traditions. Developed in collaboration with ETH Zurich and Universidad del Norte.
• School for Children with Autism Special needs educational facility with 10 classrooms for approximately 80 students, featuring a continuous ramp circulation system wrapping around the building's perimeter for specialized teaching of preschool and elementary children with autism. Commissioned by nonprofit FAVA.
• Custom Furniture Physical design products including the Form Follows Plywood Thick Stool, custom-designed furniture pieces created through the practice's design methodology. Sold through the firm's online shop at $250 per stool.
• Architecture Publications and Documentary Films Books documenting urban design practice and documentary films such as Torre David, Holy Contract, Gran Horizonte, and Mumbai Maximum City. Sold through the e-commerce shop with digital films priced at $3-5, books at $15-30, and institutional licenses at $250.
• Parangolé Magazine Annual magazine exploring critical ideas on urbanization, design, and architecture with global contributions covering themes of mobility, migration, fluidity, and hybridization.

Quantifiable outcome

• 73 homes built successfully through Empower Social Housing project
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with ETH Zurich on the District Art School (EDA) project in Barranquilla, Colombia. Engineers from ETH Zurich's Chair of Architecture and Building Systems provided expertise in sustainable building technology.
• Universidad del Norte (Uni-Norte)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational collaboration for the District Art School (EDA) project in Barranquilla. The university served as a key partner in developing the flexible building prototype for Art and construction system replicable throughout Latin America.
• IkhayalamicoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal NGO partnership in South Africa for the Empower Social Housing project in Khayelitsha. Ikhayalami served as Deputy Managing Director for the project, addressing South Africa's housing crisis through innovative informal settlement upgrading.
• UTT Empower (U-TTE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit organization that emerged from the Empower Model partnership between local and international stakeholders in South Africa starting 2012. U-TTE implements the Empower Model for redefining public housing in post-RDP South Africa.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• UN-Habitat: United Nations agency for sustainable urban development, frequent commissioning partner/ecosystem player for practices like U-TT. Adjacent, not a competitor, but functions as a funder and policy counterpart in the same informal-settlement design space.

Direct peers

• ELEMENTAL (Alejandro Aravena): Chilean practice led by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena, known for incremental social housing and participatory design. Closely aligned on housing for informal settlements and user-driven, low-cost construction methodologies.
• MASS Design Group: Architecture and design practice focused on social impact, including health, education, and housing infrastructure in underserved communities. Directly comparable mission, multidisciplinary model, and award-winning social-architecture portfolio.
• Shigeru Ban Architects: Pritzker Prize-winning practice recognized for humanitarian architecture, disaster-relief housing, and innovative use of unconventional materials. Comparable mission and willingness to tackle informal/community-scale projects.
• Lacaton & Vassal: Pritzker Prize-winning French practice (2021) known for low-cost social housing renovation and minimal-intervention urbanism. Direct peer on housing-for-the-marginalized mission and replicable design systems.
• Kéré Architecture: Diébédo Francis Kéré's practice designs award-winning (Pritzker 2022) schools, housing, and civic buildings in underserved African communities using local labor and materials. Highly comparable on social infrastructure for informal communities.

Broad incumbents

• IDEO: Global design and innovation consultancy working on social impact, public sector, and urban challenges. Comparable on human-centered, multidisciplinary design approach but operates at much larger scale and across industries.
• Snøhetta: Global interdisciplinary architecture and design practice with cultural, civic, and social projects. Comparable on multidisciplinary model and global footprint, but much larger scale and broader commercial remit.
• Studio Gang: Architecture and urbanism practice with civic, cultural, and sustainability-led projects. Comparable on design rigor and social/environmental agenda, though larger and more US-focused than U-TT.

Emerging players

• Rural Studio (Auburn University): Educational design-build practice developing affordable housing and community buildings in rural Alabama. Comparable on social-infrastructure mission and participatory design methods, though operates as an academic program.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/UrbanThinkTank1
• YouTubevimeo.com/utt
• Facebookfacebook.com/UrbanThinkTank
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urbanthinktank
• Instagraminstagram.com/urbanthinktank

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

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 Urban-Think Tank