Jose Castillo

Jose Castillo is the Chair of the Department of Architecture at Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and founding principal alongside Saidee Springall of a|911, a practice based in Mexico City. He holds a degree in architecture from the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City and a Master's and a Doctor of Design degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

a|911's work includes research, cultural, institutional, housing, mobility projects, urban design, and planning work in various cities in Mexico and Central America. Their award-winning projects include the Spanish Cultural Center, the Elena Garro Cultural Center, the García Terres Library, the Ara Iztacalco housing project, and PILARES Quetzalcoatl. They are currently involved in large-scale master plans, including the Tacubaya and San Lázaro transportation hubs and multi-family housing projects designed in partnership with Productora.

The firm earned the Bronze Medal of the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction Latin America (2011), the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York (2012), and the Audi Urban Future Award (2014). In 2015, a|911 was recognized as the most visionary architectural firm in Mexico by Obras Magazine, and in 2017, Castillo & Springall were selected as a recipient of the Richard Rogers Fellowship, a residency program at the Wimbledon House in London.

His architectural work and writings have been published in Mexico and abroad, including in Praxis Journal, Bomb, 2G, Domus, Arquine, Geographical UK, Monocle, Wallpaper, The New York Times, Architecture, Monument, and Architectural Record. He has also contributed writings to books such as The Endless City, Shaping Cities, Reinventing Construction, La Casa Latinoamericana Moderna, La Arquitectura Importa, and Potato Plan Collection.

Castillo has served as a juror on several competitions, including Bloomberg's Philanthropies Mayor's Challenge Latin America, the Global Schindler Award, and most recently, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. Castillo is a member of the advisory board of LSE Cities and Urban Age and has been a visiting professor at Harvard's GSD, the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane, and the IE in Madrid.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Architectural design
  • Architectural practice 
  • Cities
  • Housing
  • Infrastructure
  • Urbanism
  • Food & Cities
  • Housing
  • Urban Design & Planning

Related News

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Noldi Schreck Award, First Prize for Public Institutional building for PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías (2023)
  • London, Food & the City" Richard Rogers Fellowship, Wimbledon, London (2017)
  • On Food, Cooking and the City, Mexican National Endowment for the Arts (FONCA) (2012–2015)
  • Audi Urban Future Award, (2014)
  • Emerging Voices, Architectural League of New York, (2012)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • Arch Days Mexico: Design Week, World Design Capital, partnership with Espacio CDMX para la Arquitectura / Mexico City (2018)
  • Diálogos Impostergables, participation in Chile Architecture Biennale / Santiago, Chile (2017)
  • Culture under Construction: The Collectivity of Cultural Space. XIII Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2012)

Publications (Selected)

  • "Transformación Urbana" on the corporate offices of Sordo Madaleno, in Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos (Turner), 2023.
  • "Shaping Cities in the Urban Age" on Planning and its Discontents. Ricky Burdett and Philipp Rode, editors. (Phaidon), 2018.
  • 'The Promise of Neza: Building a City for 1.2 Million Inhabitants One House at a Time', in Ilka & Andreas Ruby (ed.), Re-inventing Construction (Berlin: Ruby Press), 388-403.

Selected Work

  • Aerial view of the Pilares Quetzalcóatl community center in Mexico City. The building has a series of interconnected white roofs with a central courtyard and is surrounded by urban development.

    Pilares Quetzálcoatl. a|911, Mexico City (2022). image / provided

  • A modern community center with exposed brick walls and concrete frames. The building has a central courtyard with greenery and seating areas. Large windows offer natural light and views of the outdoors.

    Pilares Valentín Gómez Farías. a|911, Mexico City (2022). image / provided

  • A tall, beige high-rise building with many windows and balconies. The building has a modern design with a flat roof. It is surrounded by trees and a street with parked cars.

    Providencia Building. a|911 + Productora, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (2023) image / provided

  • A modern, black building with a flat roof and large windows sits on a concrete plaza. The building has a covered walkway leading to its entrance. There are several small trees and shrubs planted along the plaza, and a clear blue sky with white clouds can be seen in the background.

    Platah Pavilion. a|911 + AECOM, Hidalgo, Mexico (2015) image / provided

  • An aerial view of a large, modern bus terminal complex in a bustling city. The terminal has multiple levels, with numerous bus bays and walkways connecting the different sections. There are also green spaces and a central dome-shaped structure. The city skyline and surrounding highways are visible in the background.

    Cetram San Lázaro. a|911, Mexico City (2023) image / provided

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