Ballesteros, José
Bio
José Ballesteros is an architect, having graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) in October 1989. He has served as an Associate Professor of Architectural Design in the Department of Architectural Design at ETSAM since 1997. He received his PhD in Architecture from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in 2004, with his doctoral thesis titled “SER ARTIFICIAL” (“ARTIFICIAL BEING”).
He has been a professor for the Master’s program in the Department of Architectural Design at ETSAM, teaching courses such as “PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS” and “AUTOMATIC, ROBOTIC, CODED. PhD Thesis Incubator.”
He has also served as a Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia (2000–2004) and as a visiting professor in doctoral programs at the European University of Madrid.
His professional activity is divided between private practice, teaching, and publishing, where he has contributed to, directed, and often founded numerous initiatives. He is the founder and director of the magazine FISURAS DE LA CULTURA CONTEMPORANEA; he has served as director of ARQUITECTURA COAM (the official magazine of the Madrid Architects' Association); he is the founder and director of PASAJES DE ARQUITECTURA Y CRITICA; founder and director of PASAJES CONSTRUCCION; editorial director of Q magazine (of the Architects' Association of Castilla-La Mancha); and he served as an architectural critic for the now-defunct cultural supplement of DIARIO 16.
He has delivered lectures at various forums, including the Schools of Architecture of Seville and A Coruña; the Architects' Associations of Las Palmas, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, and Cádiz; the FIDAS Foundation in Seville; the COAM Foundation in Madrid; and the CIVITAS NOVA Forum, as well as the ETH Zurich, among others. He has published numerous articles in his own magazines as well as in others, such as ARQUITECTURA COAM, NEUTRA, BAU, QUADERNS, and ARQUITECTOS, in addition to short essays for art magazines and contributions to catalogs and other architectural publications. He was a contributor to the Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture and the International Dictionary of Advanced Architecture.
His research on contemporary housing focuses on the dissolution of conventional types and the formation of versatile, dynamic, and adaptable spaces. One such model was developed during a privately funded research project that culminated, in its first stage, in the “CASA ACTIVA” (ACTIVE HOUSE), a housing prototype exhibited as a pavilion at the Madrid Real Estate Exhibition (SIMA).
Within the framework of his research on the contemporary city, he developed CITTIK. A project for developing neural networks to generate behavioral models analogous to those of today's cities. This project was exhibited at the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (CAAC).
In the field of teaching, he has developed an educational innovation group that complements the departments of Mathematics, Architectural Design, and Construction (Conditioning Techniques) at ETSAM, under which the aforementioned subject of Parametric Architectural Projects is taught.
In the area of projects, he develops models based on parameters derived from various datasets and software.
In the area of 3D printing, he works on the manipulation of G-code printing instructions to alter trajectories, in the field of concrete printing.
In the field of sensitive spaces, he works on the construction of models sensitive to different factors, conducting the PROTOTIPOLAB workshop at ETSAM in Madrid.
Within the framework of the master’s program for communication in architecture, he teaches an experimental writing workshop based on updating Dadaist poetry, using direct JavaScript programming on the use of words and the critique of meaning.
| jose.ballesteros@upm.es |