“Soma-City is interested in the design of urban spaces that encourages the dynamic quality and richness of human movement, an integral component to the built environment that is essential to the vibrancy of cities.”

Rennie Tang & Lisa Sandlos, Founders of Soma City
Rennie Tang & Lisa Sandlos, Founders of Soma City

DIRECTORS

Rennie Tang


Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Rennie Tang is a designer and educator based in Los Angeles. At Cal Poly Pomona she has been coordinating and teaching the first-year undergraduate design studio since 2012. Her practice-based research interests include the investigation of choreographic tools as methods for architectural, landscape and urban design, health and well-being in urban landscapes and intergenerational play; this research is fueled by collaborations with choreographers, artists, movement analysts and occupational therapists. She has taught at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Woodbury University and University of Southern California and has practiced in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Oakland and Vienna. Professionally some of the projects she has designed include KidAbilities Pediatric Occupational Therapy Clinic, UCLA offices and lab spaces and Richland Elementary School Kinder Yard. As a designer within firms her work includes community college master planning with HMC Architects, streetscapes and plazas with ELS Architecture and Urban Design, Oakland Waterfront Masterplan, Autry Museum landscape, and the DeYoung Museum children’s garden in San Francisco with Hood Design, the Public Art Master Plans for Arlington Wastewater Pollution Plant and the Orange County Great Park with artist Mary Miss.

︎ CV RENNIE TANG

Dr. Lisa Sandlos


PhD, CMA, EMA

Dr. Lisa Sandlos has been a faculty member at York University in Toronto, Canada since 1998, teaching in the School of Kinesiology Health Sciences, Department of Dance, the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, and the Faculty of Education. Following her career as a professional dancer, Sandlos now works as an interdisciplinary and critical feminist researcher, choreographer, dance educator and somatics practitioner. She has taught modern dance and creative movement to all ages/levels, working through programs including the National Ballet of Canada’s Creating Dances, the Ontario Arts Council's Artists in Education, the Toronto District School Board's Drama/Dance Program, and the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning through the Arts. She is qualified as a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) through the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) which equips her to work with a diverse range of students in group or in individual coaching contexts. An enthusiastic presenter of her academic research and the various embodied movement/dance modalities that she practices, Sandlos has been invited to share her expertise at various international conferences, educational programs and festivals, including at The University of El Paso, Texas (UTEP), The University of California Polytechnic Pomona, The University of the West Indies Barbados and Theatrum Mundi, Paris.


︎ CV LISA SANDLOS

ASSISTANTS



Ray Napoles


Bio
Lani Maclean Photo

Lani Maclean


"As a student of yoga and contributor within SOMA-CITY, it is my intention to explore the topic of
yoga with utmost respect and reverence for all those who have contributed to these practices,
and to take it as a matter of personal responsibility to approach this subject in the most ethical
and culturally respectful way possible.
The purpose of my project is to explore the ways in which our bodies are collaboratively attuned
to our surroundings, and how an expanded understanding of these relationships can contribute
to the living practices of design and relationship. Through the practice and study of yoga, we
can appreciate a depth of tradition that is grounded in both place and nature at large-- by
honoring the roots and lineages of what we call ‘yoga’, the potential for connection, expansion,
health, and even justice in the design fields cannot be understated."
Tiffany Torres
Bio

CONTRIBUTORS

Elisa Seidner - Owner of KidAbilities Occupational Therapy Clinic
Theatrum Mundi
- theatrum-mundi.org
Svetlana Lavrentieva
- Urban Designer/Landscape Architect
Eleni-Ira Panourgia - Sound Artist
Aurèlie Delarue - dance educator and director of l’Ivre Aire