2023 Autumn SNU DAAE Lecture Series
ARCHITECTURE OF THE EARTH : Researches and Projects by Ensamble Studio

Mon, 4th September, 2023
16:00 (KST)

Sowoojae Hall, 4th Floor, Bldg 39
Seoul National University

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BIO
Ensamble Studio, Antón García-Abril

Ensamble Studio is a cross-functional team founded in 2000 and led by architects
Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa. Balancing imagination and reality, art and
science, their work innovates typologies, technologies and methodologies to address
issues as diverse as the construction of the landscape or the prefabrication of the
house. From their early works –SGAE Headquarters, Hemeroscopium House or The
Truffle in Spain– to their most recent –Ensamble Fabrica in Madrid and Ca'n Terra in
Menorca, Spain–, every project makes space for experimentation aiming to advance
their field. Their contributions to the theory and practice of architecture have received
numerous international recognitions, the latest ones being: the 2022 American
Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the 2021 Marcus Prize, and the 2019 RIBA
Charles Jencks Award. Currently, through their startup WoHo , they are developing
ways to increase quality and affordability in architecture through the integration of
offsite technologies. Their new research and fabrication facility in Madrid, Ensamble
Fabrica, has been built to support this endeavor. Antón and Débora are committed to
sharing ideas and cultivating synergies between professional and academic worlds
through teaching, lecturing and researching: she is Design Critic in Architecture at
Harvard GSD and he is a Professor at MIT, where they co-founded the POPlab
– Prototypes of Prefabrication Laboratory – in 2012.

Antón García-Abril is a European Licensed Architect and a registered architect in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He established Ensamble Studio in 2000 and
co-founded WoHo in 2020. He has dedicated his career to innovating typologies,
technologies, and methodologies, advancing the fields of architecture and construction
through works that are internationally recognized. Together with his partner Debora
Mesa, he has progressively redefined the role of the architect, adding to his design
competencies those from the developer, the contractor, the fabricator and the inventor.
García-Abril is full-professor at the School of Architecture and Planning of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2012, where he co-founded the
POPlab that same year. He received the Spanish Academy Research Prize in Rome in
1996 and holds a doctorate degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

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About Lecture

Lecture Title: Ensamble Studio – Architecture of the Earth
Architecture of the Earth presents a series of research and professional projects
conducted by Ensamble Studio for two decades. Though developed at different times,
in different geographies, and under disparate conditions, together they contribute to
reflect upon the relation between Architecture and The Earth, or the print that as
humans we leave in our environment. Reading landscapes, recycling them, reinforcing
their crust or using it as mold, projects like The Truffle in Costa da Morte, Structures of
Landscape in Montana or Ca’n Terra in Menorca are built leveraging the natural
potential of places and creating synergies that transcend the usage of land and
landscapes as mere sources for endless exploitation.