José Ibarra
José Ibarra is a Venezuelan designer, researcher, and educator whose interdisciplinary work focuses on the intersection of architecture and environmental uncertainty. He is founder of Studio José Ibarra and cofounder of House Operations and the Agency for Work and Play. Ibarra is chair of the ACSA 2023–2024 Research & Scholarship Committee.
Ibarra's research is centered around architecture's capacity to productively assess and work with situations, usually crises. Through his teaching, design work, and writing, he generates multifocal ways to redefine design amidst social unrest, environmental degradation, and climate crisis. Recently, Ibarra published the book, Werewolf: The Architecture of Lunacy, Shapeshifting, and Material Metamorphosis (AR+D, 2022), coedited alongside Caroline O'Donnell, and curated the exhibition, Beyond Repair: Architecture After Urban Crisis (Charlottesville, 2021). Ibarra is the curator of Table Manners, a series of academically engaging events that prioritizes bringing people together in unexpected ways. Ibarra is also editor and founder of the Architecture Reading Group and has been an editor of ASSOCIATION, The Cornell Journal of Architecture, and Pidgin Magazine. Ibarra's teaching has been awarded the 2022 ACSA/AIA New Faculty Teaching Award. His scholarship and design work have been recognized and published globally. Most recently, he received a Graham Foundation grant for his collaborative project with Liz Gálvez, Latinx Coalition Chats.
Ibarra was the 2019–2020 Urban Edge Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to joining the University of Colorado Denver, he was an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia from 2020 to 2022. At the University of Colorado Denver, he is advancing design work and research dealing with architectural processes, time, and geoempathy.
