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.