Since 2015, the Urban Future Lab (UFL) has operated in partnership with UTSA’s College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, functioning as an applied research, experiential learning, and engaged scholarship lab and interdisciplinary think/do-tank lab to engage the brightest design-oriented students from UTSA and beyond. Founded by Dr. Antonio Petrov, the lab’s primary interests continue to unfold along the new frontiers of ancestry, labor, and geographic inequality with the goal to make the future permeable, accessible, and inclusive. Our main target areas continue to be San Antonio and the larger South Texas region, focusing on environments that are in most need of socio-economic revitalization. To understand San Antonio means looking “South”. To address these larger questions, we continue to initiate and take leadership in community development initiatives and projects that positively enhance connections between the community, city, stakeholders, cultural entities, and UTSA.
Moving forward, we not only hope to continue the lab’s work in partnership with the UTSA College of Engineering and Integrated Design, but we are excited to announce, Dr. Alberto Gomez Isassi and David Robinson Jr. have joined our leadership as Visiting Scholars. Our collective goal for the future is to further concentrate our efforts on community, urban, regional, and transnational and geographic issues across the San Antonio, South Texas, and Northern Mexico region. The future is now. And we are claiming a leadership role in determining the parameters of the future of the built environment through consulting, research, and public-private partnerships, focusing on socio-economic development in underserved communities of color, and creating opportunities for student-led interdisciplinary engagements with public, private, and philanthropic partners.
Amongst new research initiatives, the UFL will continue previous research on San Antonio, expanding its scope by developing a forthcoming book titled “The Future of South”. The publication focuses on recognizing the stakes of the region’s future, carefully exploring it from both sides of the border, connecting, rather than separating, previously hidden, yet geographically, economically, architecturally, and culturally logical relationships. In collaboration with scholars from both sides of the border, the goal is to create awareness for “seeing” South, not in the form of vision or imaginaries, but how it manifests in how we connect. While the idea is to activate the palpable absence of the geographic, which is currently abbreviating the flow of social, economic, and environmental systems between San Antonio and Northern Mexico. In the big picture, we imagine forming a new megaregion “South” of the existing Texas Triangle, which currently connects Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. The South Triangle could connect Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, and Monterrey, combining two triangles and forming a megaregion of more than 35 million people with the San Antonio-Austin area at its center.
Dr. Alberto Gomez Isassi
Visiting Scholar, Urban Future Lab
Dr. Alberto Gomez Isassi is the Co-founder and COO of Irys, a top 100 Smart City Data and Analytics technology company that improves the lives of communities through the use of technology. He is a professor at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Director of the Media, Society, Culture, and Technology Research Group at the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, and founder of the Tamaulipas Media Lab. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Urban Future Lab at UTSA. His work with the 311SA app for the City of San Antonio, Texas, has been recognized with a Smart 50 Award for “Community Engagement Innovation” in the public sector category. He publishes in multiple scholarly journals and is a contributor to the World Economic Forum. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Creative Industries from the University of Santiago de Compostela.
David Robinson Jr.
Visiting Scholar, Urban Future Lab
David Robinson Jr. serves as Director of Placemaking at Weston Urban. He joined Weston Urban from Blueprint Local, a firm investing in real estate development to promote long-term, inclusive economic growth. Prior to Blueprint Local, David led Admiral Capital Group’s efforts to make a social impact in the cities where the firm invested. David’s focus was to expand Admiral’s platform to make direct impact investments and scale philanthropic work. Before Admiral Capital Group, David worked for sports and education technology startups in Austin and New York City. David was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Texas at Austin. He recently earned a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio.