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Maria Gonzalez Aranguren
Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Virginia’s School of Architecture
María González Aranguren is an architect who graduated with a Master’s degree from the Technical University of Architecture of Madrid with an Honorable Mention in 2014 where she also received a Postgraduate Master in Advanced Architectural Projects. Since 2020, she has been an Assistant Professor Tenure Track at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. Her work as an educator has been recently recognized with the “ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award 2021” and “ACSA Faculty Design Award” as well as the last two editions of “Architectural Record’s Studio Prize/SLOAN Prize” (ARCHITECT MAGAZINE).
As a licensed Architect she is part of the renowned office Aranguren&Gallegos and in 2022 she was recognized with the prestigious European 40 Under 40 Award. She participated in international projects, including the ICA New Contemporary Art Museum in Miami, the “Oak House” or the new Housing Towers of Valdebebas.
Her research addresses the regeneration of degraded urban fabrics caused by social, climate, or catastrophe factors. She has won 22 awards for her urban research on the rehabilitation of the Alfama district of Lisbon, including the 2018 AIA Unbuilt Washington Award of Excellence, the BSA Design Award, the SARA Award, the 2019 Global Future Design Award, the Architecture Masterprize 2019, the 31st World Architecture Prize or Eurasian Prize among others.
Her most recent research focuses on exploring the limits of domesticity, comparing housing types across different realms, from dormitories to mobile units to prison cells.
Laertis Antonios Ando Vassiliou
Founder LAAV Architects
Laertis Antonios Ando Vassiliou is a Greek-Japanese architect-engineer, living and working in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Before establishing OPA Open Platform for Architecture (2014) and LAAV Architects (2016), he worked with Mecanoo (2012), UNStudio (2014) and SeARCH Architects (2020). His brainchildren Casa Brutale (2015), Lux Aeterna (2015), and Villa Clessidra (2017) have become viral and have been published in more than 400 online and hardcopy architectural magazines, and featured in CNN, Forbes, and the New York Times.
Laertis has been the brand ambassador for INFINITI’s SUV QX80 in 2017-2018. In 2017 he moved with his family to Oxford, UK, and returned to Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2020. Since 2021, parallel to being director and principal architect at LAAV Architects, he has been working as a Design Manager with Dutchen Group, a high-end hospitality developer and operator based in Haarlem with projects worldwide.
Dr. Elena Douvlou
DipArch, MAArch, PhD, PgCertHE, FHEA, ARBAssociate Dean School of ArchitectureFaculty of Engineering & Architecture
Dr. Elena Douvlou is a registered architect and is currently the Associate Dean of the School of Architecture at Metropolitan College. She completed a PhD in the area of energy building design and thermal comfort and holds a MArch Advanced Architectural Design degree in the area of Bioclimatic Architecture, both from the University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, UK.
She has been teaching for 25 years on the topics of Bioclimatic Architecture, Environmental Design and Sustainability, Thermal Comfort, Urban Design and Regeneration, and Architectural Synthesis. She has been employed as a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader of the MSc Architecture & Sustainability program at the University of Portsmouth, and as an Adjunct Professor at Boston Architectural College, USA since 2009. She has published articles and papers, contributed to book chapters, and presented her research at various international conferences.
She has supervised over 100 MSc, MPhil, and PhD Theses and Dissertations, and is an assessor of scientific publications and book reviews for architecture, sustainable design and Virtual Exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning. She is the editor of an upcoming book with Springer Nature on educational tools and how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. She is a member of TEE (Technical Chamber of Greece), the Architects Registration Board (ARB, UK), and the Royal Higher Education Academy (HEA, UK).
Dr. Peter Kuczia
Founder KUCZIA architects
Peter Kuczia is an internationally operating architect and designer specializing in sustainable and solar architecture.
In 2008, he completed his doctoral thesis on solar architecture in Germany. He has lectured in Germany, Poland, Japan, and the United States. He is a jury member and curator in international competitions.
His designs have been published in more than 80 books and hundreds of magazines on five continents and exhibited in many countries in Europe as well as in China, India, and Japan. He is the author of “Educating Buildings – Learning Sustainability through Displayed Design,” published in Germany, co-editor of the “Design Educates” book series, and many other publications on architecture.
His work has been awarded more than 70 international prizes, including several main prizes at the: A’Design Award & Competition (Italy), Iconic Award (Germany), Architecture Masterprize (USA), New York Product Design Award (USA), European Product Design Awards (Hungary), Muse Design Awards (USA), Green Good Design (USA), German Design Awards (Germany) or International Architecture Awards (USA).
