Dr MIGUEL PAREDES MALDONADO is the current Head of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), a large academic department within the University of Edinburgh. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design, a chartered architect and a partner in award-winning research and design studio Cuartoymitad Architecture & Landscape. Miguel holds a PhD in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he taught before relocating to Edinburgh in 2013. In the recent past he has held visiting appointments at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE), the Università degli studi di Cagliari (IT), the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture (USA) and the Technische Universität Graz (AT).
Miguel’s research is articulated through writing, but also speculative design and architectural practice -dealing primarily with ephemerality and the development of the public commons-. He has written extensively about the influence of New Materialism in spatial practices, with a critical focus on the modalities of operation brought about by the contemporary ubiquity of digital data. His current research looks into the intersection of digital computation, urban public space and contemporary design theory.
Besides his track record of published papers in academic journals, Miguel’s design research work has been widely disseminated in both print and exhibition formats, most notably at the 2008 and 2018 editions of the Venice Biennale. Other exhibition venues include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Badajoz, the FreshMadrid exhibition (Madrid, Brussels, Bogotá, Montevideo and Barcelona), the IV Iberoamerican Architecture Biennial, and the Universities of Edinburgh and Newcastle. Recently finished projects include the conversion of an eighteenth-century fortress in Santoña (Spain) into the Monte Buciero Museum (Próxima-Arquia award 2014), the spatial design and ephemeral architecture for the Zinc Shower event in Madrid (COAM award 2014 and Próxima-Arquia award 2014), and the development of a scalable residential neighbourhood in the Faroe Islands (Finalist, Nordic Built Cities competition 2016).
Miguel's research profile at the University of Edinburgh
Contact: miguel.paredes (at) ed.ac.uk
