Alberto Campo Baeza
Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in Cádiz where he saw the Light.
He is an Emeritus Head Professor of Design in the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured Professor for more than 35 years. He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Kansas State University, the CUA University in Washington, and L’Ecole d’Architecture in Tournai, Belgique. More recently, he has been named Clarkson Chair in Architecture by the Buffalo University, and Walton Critic Speaker at the School of Architecture and Planning of CUA, the Catholic University of America in Washington. In 2018-2019 he has been visiting professor in the School of Architecture of Barcelona, ETSAB. From 2017 to 2020 he was Emeritus Head Professor of Design. In 2021 he teaches as Visiting Professor at the New York Institute of Technology. In 2023 he conducts a postgraduate course at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando with students from several Spanish universities.
He has lectured all over the world, and has received awards such as the Torroja Prize from Caja Granada and the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. In 2013 he received the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal from the Tessenow Society, Hamburg, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the International Award Architecture in Stone from Verona. In 2015 he was awarded the BigMat Awards Berlin and the International Spanish Architecture Prize. In 2018 he received the Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad San Pablo CEU, in 2020 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Lusíada in Lisbon and the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina. In 2023 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa by the Università della Svizzera Italiana, the ACSF Award for Outstanding Achievement in New York and the Arco Award by the Official Association of Architects of Almería.
In 2014 he was elected a full member of the Architecture Section of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Spain, and an International Fellow of the RIBA, Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2018 he received the Piranesi Prize in Rome for his career. In 2019 he was elected Honorary Fellow by the American Institute of Architects and was awarded the Gold Medal of Architecture by the Consejo Superior de Colegios de Arquitectos de España. In 2021 he received the National Spanish Architecture Award from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. In 2022 he was awarded the Gold Badge of the Madrid College of Architects. And in 2023 he was named Honorary Member of the Official Association of Architects of Madrid.
His works have been widely recognized. From the Houses Turégano and de Blas, both in Madrid, to Gaspar House, Asencio House or Guerrero House in Cádiz, Rufo House in Toledo and Moliner House in Zaragoza. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, the House of the Infinite in Cádiz, and the Cala House in Madrid. Or the BIT Center in Inca-Mallorca, the public space Between Cathedrals, in Cádiz, the Caja de Granada Savings Bank and the MA, the Museum of Memory of Andalucía, both in Granada. And a nursery for Benetton in Venice, or the Offices in Zamora for the Regional Government of Castilla y León. In 2017 the Sports Pavilion for the University Francisco de Vitoria, in Madrid was finished, and, at present he is working in the Extension of the Lycée Français in Madrid. In 2020 he won the competition for the new bridge over the Piave River in Belluno, Venice and in 2022 the international competition for the new school for COAF Children of Armenia Found in Armavir, Armenia. In 2023, Arquia Bank’s new office in Burgos was completed. An office building in Miami Beach is scheduled for completion in 2024.
And more than 30 editions of the books with his texts “La Idea Construida” [The Built Idea], “Pensar con las manos” [Thinking with your hands], and Principia Architectonica have been published in several languages. In 2014 he published “Poetica Architectonica”, in 2015 The Built Idea was translated into English and Chinese and in 2016 his latest texts were published under the title “Varia Architectonica”. Recently, all his work has been gathered in a book, “Complete Works” by Thames & Hudson. In 2017, he published “Teaching to teach”, in 2019, “Palimpsesto Architectonico”, in 2020, “Rewriting” and “Trece trucos de Arquitectura” and, in 2021, he has published “Sapere Aude. Rewriting 2” and “Festina Lente! Rewriting 3”. In 2023 he published “Seven Lessons in Architecture” and Rizzoli New York has published a monograph entitled “Selected Works”.
He has exhibited his work in the Crown Hall by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the Palladio Basilica in Vicenza. And in the Urban Center In New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul, and the Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. In 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo made an anthological exhibition of his work that, in 2011 was in the MAXXI Museum in Rome. In 2013 his work has been exhibited in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, and in the Pibamarmi Foundation in Vicenza. In 2014 at the School of Architecture of Valencia. In 2015, in Cádiz, at the College of Architects, and at the Spanish Embassy of Iran in Teheran. More recently, in 2016 at the Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb, in 2017 at the Buffalo University of Architecture, in 2018 at the Museum of the University of Alicante and, in 2019, at the Fundaçao EPD in Lisbon. And in 2020, at the Oris House in Zagreb. In 2024, his work has been exhibited in IFEMA Madrid.