De Abajo Castrillo, Begoña

Begoña de Abajo is MArch and PhD architect from UPM and Master of Science in Advance Architectural Design from Columbia University, where she studied as a Fulbright Fellow. She has received the Extraordinary Doctoral Award and the National Award for Academic Excellence. She is Associate Professor at DPA, where she co-coordinates the post-professional Master’s program in Prototyping, Industrialized Systems, and Architectural Design. She has participated in five educational innovation projects and has co-curated the lecture series “Sampling Context” and “TAG”. Her PhD was finalist for Arquia Tesis 2023 and received the COAM Recent Theses Award 2025. She has participated as invited professor and researcher at international institutions such us Barnard College NYC, Politecnico di Milano, TU Munich or TU Berlin among others.

She is co-founder and principal of DABG together with Carlos García since 2014. Their work is developed primarily through projects awarded in architectural competitions, including the IMPLUVIUM in Reinosa, the prizes in Europan 18, 15, 14 and 13, or the renovation of the National Livestock Market in Torrelavega. Their built work has received a Detail Prize, the Bigmat, the Ortega Alloza COACAN, and the Luis Moreno Mansilla Mention. It has been published on numerous recognized platforms and exhibited at international exhibitions and conferences, including the New European Bauhaus, the German Architecture Museum and the AIA in New York.

Her professional, research and pedagogical practice focuses on spatial systems and organizations with the potential to adapt and transform, the tectonic logics of industrialization and circularity and more broadly, strategic design.