Alejandro Zaera-Polo graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid with Honors in 1988 and obtained an MARCH2 degree from Harvard GSD with Distinction in 1991. He worked at OMA in Rotterdam prior to establishing first FOA in 1993, an international award winning practice that built projects such as the Yokohama International Cruise Terminal in Japan and participated in projects such as the Ground Zero competition in New York, and the London Olympics masterplan. In parallel to his professional activities, Alejandro Zaera-Polo has developed a substantial role within academia. He was the Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University and was the Dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. He was a Visiting Professor at Princeton University and the inaugural Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor at Yale School of Architecture. Alejandro is currently Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture in Princeton University as well as the co-director of the Seoul Architectural Biennale 2017. He has published extensively in El Croquis, Quaderns, A+U, Arch+, Volume, Log and many other international magazines and is a member of the London School of Economics Urban Age project. He published Sniper’s Log, a compilation of his most relevant writings and is currently working on the book the Ecologies of the Envelope. The work of Alejandro Zaera-Polo has been widely published and exhibited. It represented Britain at the 8th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002; he has received the Enric Miralles Prize for Architecture, seven RIBA Awards, the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale Award, and the Charles Jencks Award for Architecture.
Maider Llaguno-Munitxa becomes Alejandro Zaera-Polo’s partner in 2011 after having worked for Foreign Office Architects in London since 2006 where she was involved in several projects such as the Trinity office complex in the City of London and the Ravensbourne College of Design and Art and Communication as well as in various design competitions. In 2016 Maider Llaguno-Munitxa completed her PhD from the Institute of Technology in Architecture at the ETH in Zurich. Her PhD topic focused on the study of the interaction of architecture, urban microclimate and its dynamics of flow and transport. Before initiating her PhD studies, Maider graduated from ETSASS/ETSAB with Honors in 2006 and from GSAPP Columbia University with Excellence in Design in 2010. Maider is currently a scientific researcher at the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University as well as adjunct faculty at Columbia University. Her fields of knowledge include urban physics; building physics, environmental modelling, analysis and visualization and computational design. Maider has taught at different universities such as the Barnard College and GSAPP Columbia University in New York, the ETH in Zurich and the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven. The work of Maider Llaguno-Munitxa has been published in various international architectural periodicals and newsletters as well as in scientific journals focused on the topics of environmental sciences and design computation.
Ivaylo Vladimirov Nachev, becomes a partner in 2019 after having worked for AZPML (Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Maider Llaguno Architecture) London office since 2015 where he was involved with the Palazzo del Cinema di Locarno, Birmingham New Street Station and numerous international design competition projects including the winning entries for Kirchberg Social Housing in Luxembourg, Ex-Torretta bridge in Switzerland, the Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Green Axis Landscape design in China and the Korean Museum of Urbanism and Architecture in Sejong, South Korea. He graduated from the Polytechnic of Milan receiving a master (M.Arch II) degree with Honours and a double degree based on merit, following the 9th Cycle of the multidisciplinary program ASP School (Alta Scuola Politecnica), Polytechnic of Milan and Turin, Italy. Since 2011, prior to joining AZPML, he has collaborated with FG SA Studio (Milan) working on a wide range of Civic and Cultural projects. In 2014, Ivaylo joined RIMOND (Milan) to collaborate on the construction management and BIM modelling of the UAE Pavilion for EXPO 2015 designed by Foster + Partners. At the same time his interest in sustainability and smart technologies led him to collaborate with Inspiring Software (Bussero-Milan) on multidisciplinary projects involved with sustainability, data collection, innovation and smart technologies for Architecture and Urban Analysis.