Gálvez Pérez, María Auxiliadora

María Auxiliadora Gálvez is an architect graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) and has held a PhD in Architecture since 2012. She is a Landscape Architect recognized by the Spanish Association of Landscape Architects (AEP) and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). Since 2018, she has also been a certified Feldenkrais Method® teacher in Somatic Education.

Between 1997 and 2024, she taught at the School of Polytechnic Studies of CEU San Pablo University. Since 2024, she has been Associate Professor at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM), Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), and has been awarded four national six-year research distinctions (sexenios de investigación).

Between 2008 and 2013, she taught in the Master of Collective Housing (MCH) programme and has been invited to develop academic programmes and deliver lectures at institutions including TU Graz, the University of Panama, the Ljubljana Architecture School, the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Greenwich, Harvard University, HafenCity University Hamburg, the University of Cyprus, FADU Buenos Aires, Columbia GSAPP, and EPFL Lausanne.

Between 1998 and 2000, she worked as a collaborator at Ábalos & Herreros Arquitectos. Since 2000, she has practiced independently, and in 2003 she co-founded Gálvez + Wieczorek Arquitectura in Madrid together with Izabela Wieczorek. The office remained active until 2016, when she founded the Platform for Somatics Applied to Architecture and Landscape (PSAAP – www.psaap.com), where she works at the intersection of architecture, art, and landscape through the perspective of diverse bodily experiences.

She has received awards in numerous national and international competitions, including First Prize in Europan VI, the Landscape Award in Ciudad Levante, First Prize in Europan VII, two First Prizes in the Celebration of Cities competition (UIA), a Distinction at Lausanne Jardins 2009, Runner-Up in Europan IX, and finalist recognitions in The Next Helsinki, the Laguna Art Prize, and the international competition for Piazza Castello in Milan, among others. More recently, she has been among the finalist or awarded teams in major international competitions such as the Bosque Metropolitano project in Madrid (second prize) and the PCCB competition in Barcelona (third prize).

In 2001, she was awarded a fellowship at the Casa de Velázquez, and in 2012 she received an EEA Grant from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Madrid.

Her work has been widely published in specialized journals including UHF, Bauwelt, Summa+, 2G, Deutsche Bauzeitung, Arquitectura Viva, Arquine, Zarch, and the Journal of Somaesthetics, as well as in the monographic publication Excepto 21. Gálvez + Wieczorek Active Cartographies. Her work has also been exhibited extensively, notably in the exhibitions FreshMadrid, Génération Europan, and Gran Vía Laboratorio, organized respectively by the COAM Foundation, the French Institute of Architecture, and the Telefónica Foundation. In 2002 and 2018, she was selected to participate in the 8th and 16th Venice Architecture Biennales.

She has also created installations and performances at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, Dance House Lefkosia (Nicosia), Nieves Fernández Gallery, and the Zentrum Fokus Forschung at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte).

Between 2006 and 2010, she served as Coordinator for Panama within the International Social Housing Cooperation Programme developed by the Regional Government of Andalusia.

As a researcher, she was a member of the Scientific Committee of the conference Middle-Class Housing in Perspective: From Post-war Construction to Post-millennial Urban Landscape held in Milan in 2012. She co-directed We Are All Able Bodies: From Sensory Deprivation to Sensory Augmentation, held in Madrid in 2018 with the support of the International Ambiances Network, of which she is a member. She is also listed in the researcher directory of the Centre for Sensory Studies (Canada) and participates in the international Blue Sky Research for the Arts project Navigating Dizziness Together, based in Vienna.

She is the author of the books Somatic Space: Multiple Bodies (2019) and Wastelands: Walking Revolutionary Landscapes in the Somatic City (2022).