Jesús Vassallo is a Spanish architect and a professor of
architecture at Rice University, where he leads the Affordable Housing Lab.
Based in Houston and Madrid, his work for private clients and institutions
ranges from architecture to urban design, with a consistent emphasis on construction
and design excellence. Areas of focus include affordable housing, low-carbon
construction technology, adaptive reuse, and public-interest design. His
projects have been published and exhibited internationally, including in the
Venice and Chicago Biennials.
Vassallo studied architecture at Harvard University Graduate
School of Design (MArch II) and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de
Madrid (Diploma and PhD). In 2004 Vassallo became a licensed architect in Spain, where
he worked in the office of Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos as a project architect
from 2006 to 2012. There he contributed to award-winning projects such
as the Twin Houses or the International Convention Center for the City of
Madrid, and international competitions such as the expansion of the Kusnthaus
Zürich, the New National Museum of Afghanistan or the renovation of the Carreau de Halles in Paris. In addition to Rice University,
Vassallo has also taught at IE University,
Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM, Tokyo Tech, Harvard
University and the Boston Architectural College. He is the author of Epics in the Everyday (Park
Books, 2020) and Seamless (Park Books, 2016). His articles are published
internationally in magazines such as EL Croquis, AA Files, 2G, Log, Harvard
Design Magazine, Future Anterior, Domus, or Arquitectura Viva. Between 2011 and
2017 he was an editor of Circo magazine.Past and present collaborators include Christian Ayala, Brendan Carr, Gail Chen, Andrea Gimeno, Alfonso Garduño, Yingying Guan, Amelia Hazinski, Kohen Hudson, Evio Isaac, Alfonso Jimenez Enciso, Elizabeth Jones, Leyuan Li, Lluís J. Liñán, Josep Vicent Lluch, Pouya Khadem, Daniel Kuehn, Yulong Li, Chenyang Lyu, Kalen McNamara, Onézieme Mouton, Kelsey Olafson, Daria Piekos, Albert Pope, Danny Samuels, Ian Searcy, Srijaya Simhadri, Edward Simpson, Lene Sollie, Peter Stone, Xuanyu Wei, and Rose Wilkowski.