Santa Fe Art Institute

César A. Lopez

César A. Lopez is a first-generation Mexican-American designer, researcher, and educator who draws from his experiences growing up in the Mexico-United States Border Region as critical knowledge to explore the entanglements between architecture, territory, and the politics that dictate them. César is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico, School of Architecture + Planning, where he teaches design studios, courses, and seminars centered on the politics of representation. His work, research, and collaborations have been exhibited at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2019), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), and the Chicago Architecture Biennale (2021), as well as published in recognized journals such as Bracket [Takes Action], ARQ 111 Degrowth, Pidgin Magazine, and inForma Journal.

In 2023, César was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy/Katherine Edwards Gordon 2023/24 Rome Prize in Architecture by the American Academy in Rome, where he will explore the parallels between the expansion of the Roman Empire and the evolution of the Mexico-United States Border in a project titled Citizenry Actions. Currently, César is co-authoring a book titled Exclusions, Edges, and Ecologies: An Architecture which draws a parallel between building and infrastructural typologies. César obtained his Master of Architecture at the California College of the Arts and completed his B.S. in Architecture at Texas Tech University, College of Architecture in El Paso.