Lys Villalba Rubio (Madrid, 1981) is an architect, educator and independent researcher, graduate of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM (M.Arch 2008) and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s GSAPP (2016-2017). She is currently an Associate Proffesor at ETSAM and PhD Candidate at Escuela Politécnica Superior de Arquitectura de Alicante.
Her work explores the intersection of architecture and the social, ecological, and political realms, and was nominated for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative 2016. Her PhD research The City Writes Itself explores the hypothesis of revisiting and expanding 20th-Century Urban Manifestoes. The first chapter, Made in Tokyo: 15th Year Update (2001-2016), received the Matadero Madrid/Tokyo Wonder Site grant 2015, the Tokyo Arts and Space Institutional grant 2017, and was exhibited at the Japan Pavilion 16th Venice Biennale 2018. The second chapter, Delirious New York: 40h Year Update (1978-2018), received the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts/Arquia fellowship 2016. The third chapter, Los Angeles: 50h Year Update (2071-2021) has been awarded a Madrid Visual Arts grant in 2020.
Villalba is cofounder of Zoohaus collective, whose project Collective Intelligences has developed fieldwork research and prototyping projects in 15 countries since 2020, in collaboration with local collectives and cultural institutions; and has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna, in the Architecture biennials BEAU, Bienal Iberoamericana, São Paulo Biennale 2018, Venice Biennale 2018, and has received the Arquia/Próxima First Prize in 2012.
Her works and articles have been published in MoMA Ed.,Viva, Arquitectura Viva, Pasajes de Arquitectura y Crítica, Architectural Design, World Architecture Magazine, El País, Urbanism and Architecture, DD Damdi Korea, revista Arquitectura COAM, etc. Her practice has been awarded multiple prizes, including EU Mies Award 2022 (Nominee), MATCOAM Innovation Prize (First Prize), FAD Award 2021 (Selected work), Architecture COAM Award (Honorable Mention), MAPEI Award 2021 Sustainable Architecture (Third Prize), Europan 15 (Spetial Mention), Ascer Prizes (Spetial Mention), COAM Competition Public Library in Villaverde (Second Prize), COAM Competition Media Village Madrid (Second Prize), among others.
Villalba has been a Professor at IED Madrid (2013-2019), and has developed workshops as a vissiting professor at different architecture schools worldwide, such as UDLA Santiago de Chile (Chile), Hanzen University (Holanda), KEIO UniversityTokyo (Japan), CUINDA Bangkok (Thailand), LAU New York (USA), Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá (Colombia), FAU Santiago de Chile (Chile); and a guest juror and lecturer at Harvard GSD Boston, Harvard GSD Tokyo, The University of Virginia, Columbia GSAPP, Bartlett School of Architecture London, TU Berlin, ETSAVallés, ETSAGranada, UDLA Chile, KTH Stockholm, IE Segovia, New Jersey School of Architecture, IAAC Barcelona and UCLA Los Angeles, among other institutions.
Previously she worked in the magazine Arquitectura Viva (2011-2013, Madrid, Spain), and as an architect at Foreign Office Architects (2003-2004 London, UK), Herzog & de Meuron (2004-2005, Basel, Switzerland), Izaskun Chinchilla (2006-2009, Madrid, Spain), and was part of the Leon11 collective (2007-2015).
