Alonso L. Ortega

Alonso L Ortega he/him is an emerging transdisciplinary architectural designer + artist + educator + researcher based in New York. The focus of his work is on the investigation of materiality as political, the influence of digital processes on design language, and the disciplines adaptability to respond to diverse circumstances, scales, and frameworks. Ortega currently holds teaching roles as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP, where he fosters an experimental and exploratory environment that addresses contemporary challenges of spatial justice, equity, and coloniality. He also is a teaching faculty at Parsons School of Design where he specializes in areas of spatial relationships, volumetric interactions, and new physical and digital visualizations. Ortega also works with Mario Gooden Studio as a Junior Architectural Designer in which he leads and manages projects while addressing and engaging in the cultural landscape and intersectionality of architecture, race, gender, sexuality, and technology.

Along with Ortega’s numerous awards, citations, and recognition, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the International Exhibition of Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy; the Università Roma Tre in Rome, Italy; Charlotte Street Foundations, Art in the Loop Foundation, and 21c Museum Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri; and Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Ortega completed an advanced graduate degree in architecture from Columbia University and a B.Arch. from Iowa State University. It is Ortega’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of architecture and its practice by pursuing curiosity, questioning convention, and navigating problem-solving in a creative manner that continues to add value to the profession.