García-Setién Terol, Diego

[Practice]

Co-founder of GaSSz (2007) and ecosistema urbano (2001). He designs eco-techno-logical architectures —the result of ecological awareness and technological integration— to promote biodiverse, beautiful, comfortable, and sustainable public spaces.

His work has been published in more than 100 specialised journals, 50 books —including one monograph— and featured in 65 exhibitions, including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Spanish Architecture Biennial, and the Ibero-American Architecture Biennial.

He has received more than 40 awards and recognitions, including prizes in Europan competitions, the Architectural Review Award (2007), and the Arquia-Próxima (2008), ENOR (2006), ASPRIMA (2008 and 2005), and Opera Prima COAM (2007) awards.

Ecobulevar de Vallecas, his most significant work, received international recognition for its commitment to sustainability, including the Holcim, United Nations, and Zumtobel awards.

[Teaching]

As an architectural design professor, he places particular importance on drawing as a design tool, both as a trigger for conceptual speculation, a vehicle for continuous iteration, and a transitional technique for technological development. Architectural Design is a practical form of knowledge that must embrace complexity and requires the acquisition of specific design techniques, which form the basis of the architect’s profession.

He has extensive experience teaching architectural design at six different schools, including CED-UC Berkeley (2022) and TDS-Arizona State (2014/16). He has taught Landscape Architecture Design, Architectural Design at all undergraduate levels, Industrialised Architecture Design (MCH and MiPPA), and Collective Housing Design at MCH (with A. Lacaton for 15 years). He has been a visiting professor at AA (London), ETH (Zurich), TU (Berlin), UoA (Tucson), Roma Tre (Rome), EUVG (Coimbra), and ISCTE (Lisbon).

[Research]

Recipient of the UPM Extraordinary Doctorate Award. He has three six-year research periods recognised by the Spanish research evaluation system.

Member of ProLab, within the ‘CoLaboratorio: industrialisation, prototyping, and architectural design’ research line.

Principal investigator in international projects and UPM agreements; researcher in competitive national strategic projects on industrialised architecture; and research fellow at CSIC-IETcc (2008).

Co-editor of 13 books; author/co-author of 30 book chapters and 18 articles in indexed journals, 10 conference papers, and more than 100 lectures. He holds one European Patent (No. EP4545734).

Research interests include Climate Emergency, Eco-technology, Bioclimatic Design, Industrialisation, and Technology Transfer.