Débora Mesa Molina makes space for experimentation in a highly regulated profession.
Why you should listen
Débora Mesa Molina designs and builds architectures that use overlooked materials and discover the beauty of the mundane. She is the principal architect of Ensamble Studio, a cross-functional team based in Madrid and Boston that she leads with her partner Antón García-Abril. Balancing imagination with reality, art and science, their work innovates typologies, technologies and methodologies to address issues as diverse as the construction of the landscape to the prefabrication of the house. From their early works -- such as SGAE Headquarters, Hemeroscopium House or The Truffle in Spain -- to their most recent works -- including the Cyclopean House and Structures of Landscape in the US -- every project navigates the uncertain aim of advancing their field. Through their startup WoHo, they are invested in increasing the quality of architecture while making it more affordable by integrating offsite technologies.
Mesa Molina is committed to sharing ideas and cultivating synergies between professional and academic worlds through teaching, lecturing and researching. Since 2018, she has served as Ventulett Chair in Architectural Design at Georgia Tech, and previously served as research scientist at MIT where she cofounded the POPlab in 2012. Above all, she is a doer, committed to making poetic ideas happen.
