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Jose Sanchez

  • Associate Professor
  • Joint appointment with Cornell Tech
Curriculum Vitae (CV)

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Academic Research Areas

  • Architectural design
  • Architectural technology
  • Collaborative practice
  • Community-based planning and development
  • Digital media
  • Installation art
  • Interdisciplinary art
  • Participatory and collaborative planning
  • Technology and art
  • Visual representation

Jose Sanchez is an architect, game designer, and media artist practicing in New York City. He is the director of the Plethora Project, a research studio investing in the future propagation of architectural design knowledge. He is the creator of the video games Block’hood and Common’hood, digital social platforms that aid in authoring architectural and ecological thinking to non-expert audiences. He is the author of the book Architecture for the Commons: Participatory Systems in the Age of Platforms (Routledge, 2020) and the co-creator of Bloom, a crowdsourced interactive installation, winner of the Wonder Series hosted by the City of London for the 2012 Olympics. His current research, “Mediated Assemblies,” designs and interrogates simulation and interactive media as a collaborative, embodied, and situated practice.

Sanchez’s position at Cornell is a joint appointment in the multicollege department of Design Tech and at Cornell Tech.

Headshot of Jose Sanchez

Academic Research Areas

  • Architectural design
  • Architectural technology
  • Collaborative practice
  • Community-based planning and development
  • Digital media
  • Installation art
  • Interdisciplinary art
  • Participatory and collaborative planning
  • Technology and art
  • Visual representation
  • A 3D render of two people and a group of cattle pulling a house.
  • A 3D render of an isometric diorama showcasing multiple inside and outside ambients of a building and it's surroundings.
  • A 3D render of an environment with multiple plants, wooden platforms, and a greenhouse.
  • Side-view of two young people talking, holding consoles, and pointing at a large screen showcasing a videogame.

Screenshot of Minga, video game Installation reenacting the traditional “House Pulling Minga” from Chiloe in the south of Chile.

Screenshot of Block’hood, a city-building video game engaging ecological interdependence.

Screenshot of Common’hood, a community-building and resource management architectural platform within a video game simulation.

Detroit at Play installation, a community engagement initiative in collaboration with The Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, and Ishan Pal Singh, Salam Rida, and Torri Smith at the University of Michigan.

Publications

  • Architecture for the Commons: Participatory Systems in the Age of Platforms

    Routledge, 2020.

  • On the Possibility of Enaction within Synthetic Worlds

    In Architecture and Videogames: Intersecting Worlds. Routledge, 2024.

  • Entangled Simulations: The Affordances of Narrative within Computational Systems

    In Proceedings of the 2022 ACADIA Conference, 2022.

Classes

  • Specialization Project I

    DESIGN 8131

  • Specialization Project II

    DESIGN 8395

Selected Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

  • Official selection for Nuevos Medios

    XIII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
    2004

  • Nominated for Best Civic Game

    Games for Change Festival, New York, New York
    2023

  • Microsoft Xbox Game Pass

    Platform Publishing and Porting fund for Common’hood
    2023

  • 2018 Best Paper Award

    The Plan Journal (2019)

  • Innovative Research Award of Excellence

    Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA)
    2019

Selected Exhibitions and Presentations

  • Detroit at Play

    NewLab, and Michigan Central, Detroit, Michigan, 2025.

  • Video Games: The Great Connector

    Harlem Gallery of Science, New York, New York, 2024.

  • Imagine: A Journey into the New Virtual

    MAK — Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, 2023.

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