Welcome new architecture faculty members

Following an international search, the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) is pleased to announce two new faculty members will join the School effective July.

Alicia Nahmad Vazquez and Alberto de Salvatierra join SAPL at a critical time, as the architecture program builds upon a curriculum that applies advanced methods of design, fabrication and analysis to address the many challenges facing designers. We are excited to welcome these dedicated and internationally recognized teachers, practitioners and researchers.

Alicia Nahmad Vazquez comes to Calgary via the Architectural Association’s Design Research Laboratory (AADRL) in London. The founder of Architecture Extrapolated (R-Ex), Alicia is a research-based architect exploring materials and digital design and fabrication technologies along with the digitization of building trades and the wisdom of traditional building cultures.

She holds a PhD in human-robot collaborative (HRC) design from Cardiff University and a MArch from the AADRL. Alicia has worked on developing design tools for Zaha Hadid Architects and Populous and has taught and lectured extensively in Latin America and Europe. She has also been an Artist-in-residence at Autodesk Pier 9 and has published and presented her work at various events including UK Construction Week, ACADIA, London Festival of Architecture and Worlds Architects Congress.

About her new SAPL appointment as assistant professor in Robotics and AI, Alicia says: “Joining the University of Calgary is a very exciting opportunity for me. It means becoming part of a vibrant community of researchers and educators passionate about bridging the gap between academics and the building practice. It also allows me to establish new relationships whilst expanding my explorations on robotic fabrication techniques to enable mass-customisation strategies that can help develop novel solutions for the built environment. I look forward to contributing and working with you all.” 

Alberto de Salvatierra joins the faculty from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Architecture where he founded and coordinated both the Global Studios Program and the Anexact Technologies: Laboratory for Applied Systems (at-LAS). Alberto holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and both a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape and Ecology from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design

An interdisciplinary polymath, architectural designer, and landscape urbanist, Alberto’s research and work focuses on material flows as infrastructure at the urban and civilizational scales, while his collaborative research agenda centers on fostering, developing and writing on interdisciplinary pedagogy and practices. He is the past recipient of Harvard Library’s inaugural May Crane Fellowship, and Harvard GSD’s Penny White Prize. In 2019, he was part of the Harvard Kennedy School’s inaugural STS (Science, Technology and Society) program on Expertise, Trust and Democracy, and an invited panelist and delegate to the United Nations.

About his new appointment, Alberto says: "the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly precipitated a myriad of multivalent crises all at once. Yet, this simultaneous social upheaval around the world presents a narrow window of opportunity to channel the ardent energies for positive change into impactful actions and thoughtful collaborations. Within this context, I'm both honored and humbled to be joining such a distinguished cohort of academics and practitioners, and I look forward to working together with all of you."

“Alberto and Alicia bring a strong background in design research and an energetic, hands-on approach to teaching,” associate dean architecture academic Jason Johnson enthuses. “Bringing in new faculty members is an opportunity to rethink and invest in the kinds of skills architects will need as we look to impact the built environment in positive ways. We look forward to the impact Alicia and Alberto will have on our program and SAPL.”