Alberto Pérez-Gómez was born in Mexico City where he studied architecture and practiced. He was awarded an M.A. and a Ph.D. by the University of Essex (England).  He has taught at London’s Architectural Association and at universities in Mexico, the US and Canada. In 1983 he became Director of Carleton University’s School of Architecture and in 1987 was appointed Bronfman Professor of Architectural History at McGill University in Montreal, where he founded the History and Theory Post-Professional (Master’s and Doctoral) Programs. He became Emeritus Professor in January, 2020.

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Alberto Pérez-Gómez’s research interests revolve around phenomenology, enactive cognitive science and hermeneutics in architecture. He continues to publish extensively in periodicals and chapters of books. A collection of his essays in two volumes titled Timely Meditations (RightAngle Intl.) was published in 2016. Over 25 years he edited with Stephen Parcell the collection in seven volumes titled CHORA: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture, including a total of 87 essays by 78 authors. His main books are still in print: Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science (MIT Press, 1983) diagnosed the limitations of functionalist (instrumental) and formalist approaches in architecture; Polyphilo or The Dark Forest Revisited (1992) written in the form of an erotic tale, explored the emotional and cognitive dimensions of architectural space; Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (1997), traced the history and theory of modern European architectural representation, locating the origins of contemporary instrumental techniques long before the so-called digital turn. Built upon Love (2006) examined points of convergence between ethics and poetics in architectural history and philosophy, drawing conclusions for contemporary practice. His latest book, Attunement, Architectural Meaning after the Crisis of Modern Science (2016) examines the issue of atmosphere and its relationship to traditional concepts of place, harmony and stimmung, leading to an enquiry on the importance of narrative language in the generation of significant architecture.

Álvaro Siza is one of the most distinguished and highly awarded architects in the world. He works in Porto, Portugal. "Every design," says Siza, "is a rigorous attempt to capture a concrete moment of a transitory image in all its nuances. The extent to which this transitory quality is captured, is reflected in the designs: the more precise they are, the more vulnerable."

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Siza, whose full name is Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira, was born on June 25, 1933 in the small coastal town of Matosinhos, just north of Porto, Portugal. Siza studied at the University of Porto School of Architecture from 1949 through 1955, completing his first built works (four houses in Matosinhos) even before ending his studies in 1954.

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In 1966, Siza began teaching at the University, and in 1976, he was made a tenured Professor of Architecture. In addition to his teaching there, he has been a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; the University of Pennsylvania; Los Andes University of Bogota; and the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne. In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at many universities and conferences throughout the world, from the United States, Colombia and Argentina to Spain, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and England in Europe.

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He received the Pritzker Prize in 1992. He also received honors from foundations and institutions in Europe, including the Alvar Aalto Foundation Gold Medal in 1988, the renowned Mies van der Rohe Foundation Award the Borges & Irmao Bank in Vila do Conde, Portugal (1982-86) and many others.

Claudia holds Master Degrees in Architecture (TU in GRAZ, Austria) and Architectural Lighting Design (KTH in Stockholm, Sweden) and has more than 17 years of professional experience in both fields. She has lived and worked in Austria, the United Kingdom and Sweden prior to moving to Tucson, Arizona, USA which is her home and work base.  She is a Certified Lighting Designer (CLD), a Professional Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and is Member of the Illuminating Engineering Society (MIES), a Member and Mentor of Women in Lighting (WIL) and Women in Science and Engineering (WSTEM).

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Claudia is faculty at The University of Arizona College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (UArizona CAPLA), inspiring Students from both faculties - the Architecture and Engineering Schools to engage in Lighting.  She frequently joins desk critiques and chairs reviews and juries at UArizona, Arizona State University and Parsons The New School of Design in New York City. She has lectured at regional Conferences including the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and internationally at Stockholm Lighting Days in Sweden as well as the Schools at Centro in Mexico City and MARCH in Moscow.

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She has participated in Art Installations in Arizona and Alaska and continuously contributes to and assists peer artists and architects with their projects in the US and abroad. In 2013 Claudia co-founded the seven-person, award-winning Lighting and Interior Design Consultancy Studio, CLL – Concept Lighting Lab, LLC, with Rick Joy. Projects range from master-planning to boutique specialty designs, including indoor and outdoor, private and public sector, new construction and remodel or renovation scopes. Claudia is fascinated with the ephemeral quality of light and its essential role in creating moving atmospheric space. Atmosphere is at the core of her design approach and interest.

Dr. Kirsh is Professor and past chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD. He received a D. Phil. from Oxford University, did post-doctoral work at MIT (AI Lab), held research and visiting professor positions at MIT, Stanford, and the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL.

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He has written on situated and embodied cognition, how environments can be shaped to simplify/extend cognition, and how space, external representations, our bodies and even manipulable objects become interactive tools for thought.

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His ideas about cognition include these propositions: (1) interacting with tools changes the way we think and perceive — tools when manipulated, are soon absorbed into the body schema, and this absorption leads to fundamental changes in the way we perceive and conceive of our environments; (2) we think with our bodies not just with our brains; (3) we know more by doing than by seeing — there are times when physically performing an activity is better than watching someone else perform the activity, even though our motor resonance system fires strongly during other person observation; (4) there are times when we literally think with things.

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He is the current President of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, past co-Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and past Adjunct Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Davide Ruzzon is an Architect, Director, and Scientific Responsible for TUNED, a Lombardini22's branch in Milan. He is working on applying the knowledge from neuroscience to the design of private and public buildings in open urban spaces. He is also the NAAD Founder and Director. Arrived at its fourth edition, ‘Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design’ is an annual Postgraduate Course at the IUAV University of Venice. This Course involves professionals, scholars, young architects, scientists, and psychologists from all over the world, in an interdisciplinary path toward an evidence-based design, able to merge science and architecture, well beyond the divide between biology and culture.

Davide is the Director, and Co-Founder, with Sarah Robinson and Alessandro Gattara, of the new architecture magazine Intertwining, now on its third issue.  He wrote books and papers, edited collections of essays, and organized seminars and conferences. He also has built public and private buildings and has taken part in International Design. His last book 'Tuning Architecture With Humans' will be on the shelves for the incoming July 2022. 

Edite holds a PhD degree in Architecture from University of Polytechnic of Catalonia, School of Architecture (ETSAB-UPC, 2006) and a degree in Architecture, Oporto School of Architecture (FAUP, 1991). She was awarded a scholarship grant, FCT-MES for her doctoral studies in the Program of the Department of Architectural Projects of ETSAB, Barcelona School of Architecture, University of Polytechnic of Catalonia.

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She is Professor of 2º and 3º cycle of Architectural Studies of Theory and Design Studio of Architecture, both at the University of Lusófona of Oporto (ULP) and at University of Beira Interior (UBI).

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She is a researcher at the Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (2011), part of the Atlas da Casa Group and a researcher at the laboratory Arq.ID, Architecture Research and Development (ULP-Porto).

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She has published articles concerning the theory and practice of contemporary architecture in international journals and conferences (such as Docomomo International, CA2RE+) and she presented her work at national and international conferences and workshops.

She has practiced as an architect since 1991, in collaboration with Álvaro Siza Office, in the capacity of coordinator of design project teams in several projects, including Library of University of Aveiro, Marco de Canaveses Church and Parish Center, Town Square and Parking of Momadona in Guimarães, General Plan and Dwelling of Felgueiras municipality.

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She founded her architecture office in 1998 in Oporto (erja-arquitectos). She is the author and co-author of diverse projects in housing, public equipment buildings, planning and design of urban spaces. She is the recipient of prizes and mentions in several public competitions.

Eduardo R. Macagno is a neuroscientist and Distinguished Professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where he was recruited as the Founding Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences in 2001. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Physics at Columbia University, but subsequently trained in neuroscience as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, and as a student at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  He joined the faculty of the Columbia Department of Biological Sciences in 1973, served as chair of this department in 1990-1993, and in 1993 was appointed as Dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  

Beginning at Columbia and until recently at UCSD, his laboratory focused on the study of fundamental aspects of neural development, including the genesis of neuronal arbors, the innervation of target organs, and the formation of specific synaptic circuits.  Since 2003, he has been involved in the development of an interface between Neuroscience and Architecture through his engagement with the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), as a continuing member of its Board of Directors and President during 2010 and 2011.  

He has also contributed to developing a curriculum for training in this area through teaching courses at UCSD on “Brains and Buildings” and at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design on “Neuroscience for Architecture,” with Professors Gil Cooke and Kris Mun.

His recent and current collaborative research projects employ biometric devices and Virtual Reality environments to study the interaction of normal and neurologically impaired subjects with the built environment, particularly in the areas of navigation, wayfinding and spatial memory.

Fernando Agrasar is an architect at the E.T.S.A de A Coruña (1989) and a Doctor at the University of A Coruña (2001). He is a Full Professor in the area of architectural composition of the E.T.S.A de A Coruña.

His research work is dedicated to study of compositional mechanisms of contemporary architecture, as well as the latter’s relation to other creative disciplines. He directed the magazine Obradoiro, together with Jesús Irisarri, from 2000 to 2006, and Dardo Magazine, with David Barro, from 2012 to 2019.
 

He is currently Director of the Research Group on Architectural Composition and Heritage (GICAP) and Coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of A Coruña.
 

Agrasar maintains his professional activity as an architect, mainly in design of exhibitions and projects of rehabilitation. He is host and curator during the first week of Moving Boundaries. 

Galen Cranz is a designer, a consultant, and a Professor of the Graduate School in Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, where she taught social and cultural approaches to architecture and urban design, and established the field of Body Conscious Design, which she taught for 30 years. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago and certified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique mid-career in New York.

Cranz has lectured widely on her perspective on Body Conscious Design and taught her unique approach at craft schools in the US and abroad. Her research on the chair has attracted print and media attention nationally and internationally. The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design (Norton 1998) received a 2004 Achievement Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).

As a designer she has been part of significant park design competition teams for Spectacle Island, Boston Inner Harbor; Olympia Fields, Chicago; Tschumi's Parc de LaVillette in Paris, and lead designer for and winner of the St. Paul Cityscape competition. She holds two US patents for body conscious bathtub and chair designs. In 2005-2007 she designed and built a residence for the elderly following universal design principles. @GalenCranzConsulting.com

Giovanna Colombetti is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology of the University of Exeter (UK). She was educated in Italy and the UK, and after getting a DPhil from Sussex in 2004, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the universities of York (Canada),

Trento (Italy), and Harvard. Since 2007 she has worked and lived in Exeter, temporarily visiting various research centers in Europe, Australia, and Asia. 

At Exeter she is also member of EGENIS (The Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences), where she leads the Mind, Body, and Culture research cluster. She is further affiliated with the University of Southern Denmark, where since 2021 she has been Adjunct Professor in Philosophy at the Faculty of Health Sciences and collaborates with its research cluster on Movement, Culture, and Society.

Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy of cognitive science (especially embodied and situated cognition), philosophy of emotion, phenomenology, and material culture studies. She has worked in particular on the notions of emotion and affectivity, and on their relation to theories of embodiment, enaction, and extended mind. She is author of several articles and chapters in which she argues that, from a dynamical and embodied-mind perspective, cognition and emotion are not separate mental faculties, and rather emotion is a primordial and all-pervasive dimension of the mind.

In 2010-2014 she was Principal Investigator of a Starting Grant funded by the European Research Council, titled “Emoting the Embodied Mind”, during which she wrote The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive Mind (MIT Press, 2014). Since then, she has worked on the notion of “situated affectivity” and is currently writing a second monograph on our affective relation to material objects.

Harry Francis Mallgrave is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Illinois Institute of Technology and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He received his PhD in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and has enjoyed a career as a scholar, translator, editor, and architect. In 1996 he won the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians for his intellectual biography of Gottfried Semper, and for more than fifteen years he served as the architecture editor of the Texts & Documents Series at the Getty Research Institute. 

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He has published more than a dozen books on architectural history and theory, including three considering the relevance of the new humanistic and biological models for the practice of design. His most recent book, Building Paradise: Episodes in Paradisiacal Thinking, is currently in press with Routledge Publications. Drawing upon a theme first raised by Alvar Aalto, it offers both a selected history of the idea of paradise as well as a ‘garden ethic’ for the ecological practice of design.

Jeff Malpas is an Australian philosopher and is currently Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the University of Tasmania in Hobart and Distinguished Visiting Professor at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows. Originally trained in philosophy and history at the Australian National University and the University of Auckland, his work has expanded over the last forty years to engage with a wide range of topics and disciplines, not only architecture, but also visual art, geography, literature, medicine, music, politics, sociology, and urban planning. He has worked with architects and designers at several universities in Australia and around the world, and was previously adjunct professor in architecture and design at RMIT University in Melbourne and was also attached to the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Tasmania.

At the centre of much of his work is a concern with questions of place and space (an obvious point of contact with architecture), as well as set of related issues concerning self, language, and the ethical. His approach is one that he describes as ‘topological’ or ‘topographic’ in character and is also heavily influenced by twentieth-century hermeneutical thinking. He is the author or editor of some 30 books, and has published over 150 articles in scholarly books and journals. Among his best-known works is Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography (Routledge, 2018), described by Alberto Pérez-Gómez of McGill University as “a crucial contribution to our understanding of the deep connections between place and all things human. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, Place and Experience offers valuable lessons for architects, urban and environmental designers, and all those willing to challenge the seeming inevitability of homogeneous space and placelessness brought about by our technological civilization’. His most recent publication is Rethinking Dwelling: Heidegger, Place, Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Jorge Carvalho (b.1964) graduated in Architecture by the Faculty of Architecture of Porto University in 1990. In 1991 he starts, with Teresa Novais, the studio aNC arquitectos (www.anc-arquitectos.com). Their work has been recognized in several occasions: it received an Honorable Mention for the 2019 João de Almada Award, it was nominated for the Gubbio / National Association of Historic and Artistic Centres (Italy) with the House in the City 5, it was winner of the Iberian-American Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2014, it was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2011 with the Leça do Balio School, it was selected for Respect for Architecture Porto 2012 with Gosho restaurant, it won the P.A.U.M.A. Award  in 2006 with the Support and Maintenance Centre for Motorways in Aveiro, and was awarded the silver medal in the European Architecture Award Luigi Consenza 2002 with the House in the Countryside 1. aNC participated as local atelier in Casa da Música, a Rem Koolhaas - OMA project in Porto. The office has been invited to present its work in lectures in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland Croatia, Bulgaria, Algeria, Sri Lanka and Argentina and its projects have been published in countless specialized publications, Portuguese as well as European or Asian. 

Within the scope of the debate on the conditions of production of contemporary architecture, the selection for the FAD Awards of Thought and Criticism with the book Power/Architecture (Portugal and Zurich, Switzerland: Casa da Arquitectura and Lars Müller, 2017), in co -authorship with Pedro Bandeira and Ricardo Carvalho, stands out, in addition to publishing articles, curating exhibitions and organizing, moderating and participating in debates.

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Jorge Carvalho is Guest Professor at the Architecture Department of Coimbra University. He has been guest critic and external examiner in several architecture schools. He is host and curator during the second week of Moving Boundaries.

Juhani Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect, professor of architecture and former dean at the Helsinki University of Technology. Pallasmaa has written and lectured extensively across the world for over 45 years on architecture, the visual arts, environmental phenomenology, and cultural philosophy. 

Among the many academic and civic positions he has held are those of Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and head of the Institute of Industrial Arts, Helsinki. He established his own architect's office in 1983 in Helsinki. He has taught architecture at many universities around the world, including the Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin School. Pallasmaa has lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.

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Among Pallasmaa's many books on architectural theory is The Eyes of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses, a book that has become a classic of architectural theory and is required reading in many schools of architecture around the world. A selection of essays written by Pallasmaa, from the early years to more recent ones, has been translated into English and collated together in the book Encounters – Architectural Essays, edited by Peter MacKeith. Pallasmaa is the former Chair of the Pritzker Prize Committee. He is a member of the Finnish Association of Architects and an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Kate Jeffery is a medically qualified neuroscientist researching the activity of cells in the brain that form the core of a place-knowledge system used for both navigation and memory. She is particularly interested in how the brain represents complexly structured space, with a focus on two main issues: three dimensional space, and the internal “sense of direction.” Recently she has been linking her research to the human experience of space, via collaborations with architects.

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She heads the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL, and is co-director of the electrophysiology company Axona Ltd, which makes high-density recording systems for behavioural neuroscientists.

She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Kurt C. Hunker is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Architecture at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, California, USA.  He has served academia for over 30 years in a range of positions, including roles as Chair, Dean and Provost.  Hunker twice was named “Teacher of the Year” at NewSchool and has received other recognition for excellence in teaching.  Courses developed and taught range from Thesis Design Studios to Architectural Theory to Professional Practice.  He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, honored for his contributions to architectural education.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Ohio State University and a Master of Architecture with Faculty Commendation from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Professor Hunker is a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA).  A licensed US architect, he maintains an active consulting design practice with an emphasis on educational, performance and civic facilities.  Past professional experience includes work with notable firms in Columbus, Ohio, San Antonio, Texas, Washington, DC as well as San Diego.  His design work has been recognized with AIA and other awards at the local, state, regional and national levels.  He has written on a wide variety of architectural topics, from the literature of architectural criticism to the work of Alvar Aalto to the emergence of spectacle in tall buildings and has presented his findings at conferences and meetings from Los Angeles to Moscow.

Mark Alan Hewitt, FAIA, is an architect, historian, and preservationist practicing in the New York area. Educated at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, he has taught at leading schools of architecture throughout the U.S., including Rice, Columbia, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His design practice focuses on architectural conservation, history of the built environment, adaptive reuse, and traditional design for residential and institutional clients. He is active as an advocate for sustainable design, historic preservation, social justice, and housing equity for all humans. 

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Hewitt is the author of seven books and dozens of articles on architectural history, theory, and practice. He has published extensively on American architecture of the Progressive era, and has written numerous biographies of American architects. His latest book, Draw In Order to See, is the first to trace the history of architectural design using cognitive neuroscience and embodiment as a basis for analysis. 

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He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a recipient of the Arthur Ross Award for publishing on classical architecture, and a former NEH Winterthur Fellow. He has also won design awards for projects ranging from single family houses to churches. He continues to do research bridging the gap between the sciences, social sciences, and humanities as a cultural historian and critic.

Miguel Anxo Fernán Vellowas born in Cospeito, Lugo, in 1958. He is a poet, playwright and publisher. Miguel studied Psychology and Philology at the University of Santiago, and Music (Classical Guitar) at the Music College of A Coruña.

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He was Secretary-General of the Galician Writers Association (AELG) and Chairman of the Galician Publishers’ Association (AGE). As a poet, he has twice won the Spanish national critics award, in 1985 and in 2005, and has been finalist for the Spanish national literary award with the book of poems

Seivas amore Tránsito (1985) and for the national poetry award from Spain with the books

As certezas do clima (1997) and Territorio da desaparición (2005).

In addition, he has also won the following awards: Celso Emilio Ferreiro (from the Vigo City Council), Esquío, Xacobeo de Poesía (from the government of Galicia), and the Martin Codax award.

He studied architecture in Coruña, Spain and the Accademia della Architettura,  Mendrisio, Switzerland. He has a master's degree from Coruña University and He also completed post-graduate studies at AA School of Architecture, London, UK. He obtained his PhD from the University of Coruna in 2015, his doctoral thesis "La carpintería de ribera en Galicia. La recuperación de sus arquitecturas"  was recognized with the "Cum Laude" and the Spanish architecture biennial award 2018. 

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Mr. Fuertes has focused his studies towards the research of popular and industrial architecture as well as architecture in wood.  As a researcher he has participated in different investigation projects, and he was the coordinate for the European project "Dorna II" (2013-2014) for the University of Coruna; Author of the books Arquitecturas do Mar (F. UDC, 2014), Compostelas Contemporáneas (FCA, 2013), Astilleros (COAG, 2011). 

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Since 2014 he founded Fuertespenedo arquitectos, together with his work partner being recognized with different awards such as the Young European Architects Award 2020. Mr. Fuertes is now Associate Professor in the department of Architectural Projects, Urban Planning and Composition at the Coruña University and the Director of the Galician maritime culture Plan-2030 for the Galician government (Xunta de Galicia-UDC).

Founded in 1993 by Rick Joy, Studio Rick Joy is an award-winning architecture, interiors, and planning firm based in Tucson, Arizona. The diverse team, originating from across the US and abroad, create a unique collaborative environment where different perspectives and experiences are brough together to create a culture of original thinking. 

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Studio Rick Joy has realized architectural works throughout North America with extensive experience in lifestyle-based projects from numerous single-family residences to an ultra-lux resort and large-scale masterplans. Completed in 2018, the studio breathed new life into the campus of Princeton University through the Transit Hall and Market buildings, where it approached the brief with the desire to produce a thoughtful and orienting entry to the storied educational institution. 

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The studio’s work is an important contributor to the ongoing global discourse on conceptual and sustainable architecture. The foundational principles of Rick and his studio have always been deeply informed by the spirit and sensation of creating site-specific works – the sounds and rhythms, the play of light and space, the relationship between shadow and light. In doing so, spaces are created that are shelters for both the body, and the mind. The team’s shared values focus on lifestyle and experience of a space, while each project also celebrates materials and methods that express the local identity and spirit of the site, whether in the Bahamas or Mexico City, and aspire to elevate the emotional identity of that place. 

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The studio’s first book, Desert Works, explores this unique vision and practice in desert surroundings. Studio Joy Works, published in 2018, reinforces the team’s commitment and ability to produce immersive architectural experiences in a variety of project sites around the globe.

Ruth Varela holds a doctorate in architecture from the University of A Coruña with the thesis "The exploration and construction of cultural heritage knowledge by way of graphical formalism,” for which she qualified with International Mention, summa cum laude, and Premio Extraordinario de doctorado from the University of A Coruña, UDC. She also holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies from the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Santiago de Compostela, the degree of Master in Urban Renewal and Rehabilitation from the same university, and certification of Architect by the ETSAC of the UDC.

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Her professional career is focused on carrying out projects of interdisciplinary nature involving architecture, culture, nature, science, and art. She has extensive experience in exhibition projects and ephemeral architecture, curating and designing museum exhibitions as well as cultural and scientific outreach projects. As a researcher, she received the Pontevedra Provincial Council's Research Award, for a project concerned with poetics of space in Galicia, conveying spatial and graphic translation of parts of Gaston Bachelard's work. She participated in research projects financed by the Xunta de Galicia in the areas of tourism and cultural heritage. Since 2007 she has developed a line of research on the plant Jacobean Lily (Flor de Santiago, Sprekelia Formosissima) from the perspectives of cultural history, history of science, and history of art. In 2018, the University of Santiago de Compostela nominated this project to XI BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in the category of Humanities.

She has been an FPI predoctoral researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, integrated into the following Programs: Interdisciplinary Scientific Strategies in Heritage and Landscape, ECIPP, of the University of the Basque Country, UPV, and Architecture and Urban Planning of the UDC, currently implemented by the research group of the Higher Technical School of Architecture, ETSAC, UDC, and by Cluster della Ricerca of the IUAV University of Venice.

Max Underwood is an Architect (AIA) and President's Professor at Arizona State University. Building on his experience working with the visionary designers Charles and Ray Eames, and subsequent graduate work at Princeton University, his scholarship, creative activities, and teaching interweaves the realities of exemplary design and architectural practice. Internationally, Max is held in the highest esteem as a lecturer, Smithsonian study tour leader, scholar, and award-winning teacher's teacher.  His numerous awards include three National AIA Awards for Teaching Innovation and the ACSA National Distinguished Professor Award.

Sarah Williams Goldhagen, PhD. (Columbia University) and former Harvard professor, writes, lectures, and consults for a wide range of public and private clients on human centered design for the built environment. Her Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives (HarperCollins; also published in Chinese, Russian, and Korean) won a Nautilus Book Award in 2017 for its contribution to social and environmental justice, and Goldhagen was an opening-night Spotlight speaker at the AIA National Convention that same year.

A frequent keynote speaker, Goldhagen has won numerous awards and grants (including three from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts) for her writing on modern and contemporary architecture and landscapes and their psychological and cognitive effects on people. She has published several opinion pieces in the New York Times, served as Contributing Editor for Art in America and Architectural Record, and was the New Republic’s architecture critic for nearly a decade. Goldhagen also has had a distinguished academic career with scholarly publications that include Louis Kahn’s Situated Modernism (Yale University) and Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture (co-edited with Réjean Legault, MIT Press) as well as numerous essays and reviews in premier architecture- and art-historical journals.

Currently she sits on the Board of the Van Alen Institute, works closely with the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), and advises various clients on strategies for promoting and implementing human centered design.

Dr. Sergei Gepshtein is Scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego and Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He works in the areas of perceptual psychology, systems neuroscience and computational neuroscience. His research interests include perception of depth and movement, perceptual organization, planning of multistep actions, and dynamics of cortical neural networks. 

At the Salk Institute, he is a member of the Center for the Neurobiology of Vision and Director of Collaboratory for Adaptive Sensory Technologies, which he founded with the goal to translate results of basic science toward applications ranging from architectural and urban design to forensic science. At the University of Southern California, he directs the Center for Spatial Perception & Concrete Experience – a platform for investigating spatial experience as a natural narrative process. His work has been supported by grants and awards from the National Eye Institute, the National Institute on Aging, the National Science Foundation, Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, Swartz Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience, and National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan.

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He is a founding member of the 5D | World Building Institute, an inaugural member of the Freeman Design Leadership Council, and an inaugural recipient of the Harold Hay Award from the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA). In 2016 he joined the Board of Directors of ANFA to facilitate mutual understanding of science and design professionals and to help build the foundation for a new discipline of design enlightened by results of systematic empirical inquiry.

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He has developed a curriculum bridging concepts of space developed by different disciplines in science and design. He used this curriculum to teach undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Southern California and at NewSchool for Architecture of Design.

Tatiana Berger is an architect, urban designer and educator. She has worked for close to 30 years in the U.S., Portugal, Spain, and Austria. Her built works, collaborations and community plans were published in international periodicals and presented in exhibitions in Europe and U.S. Berger worked with Richard Meier in New York, was Director of the Sochi Olympics 2014 project for ILF Engineers and project architect for Baumschlager-Eberle in Bregenz. From 1997-2004 she worked in the office of Alvaro Siza in Porto. In addition to architecture, her experience in professional practice includes landscape design and urban planning, furniture/product design, and construction administration.    

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Berger is Founder of Moving Boundaries Collaborative, which provides educational services and design/consulting services. She is guest lecturer at NAAD in Venice, ETH Zurich, NeuroArq Brazil, NAD Chile and Artclever. She was Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design in San Diego and Professor of Architecture at the Boston Architectural College. A member of the Advisory Council of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), she developed a new curriculum in architectural theory and studio with a focus on ANFA themes as faculty in the pioneering Neuroscience for Architecture Program at NewSchool. In her role as Liaison for Education and curator of lecture series and symposia, she leads the ANFA Center for Education (ACE), an international forum for educators dedicated to reimagining design education. 

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She is co-founder of the Compostela Institute, a laboratory for research and education in environmental design, providing courses and workshops since 2010 in anthropology, cultural studies and building crafts in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She has lectured internationally on topics in architectural theory, urbanism and health, regionalism, and transdisciplinary design education. She is increasingly involved in research in dynamic sensory experience of the built environment informed by knowledge from the human sciences. Tatiana speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.

Dr. Thomas D. Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he is Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Vision and Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He specializes in the neural basis of visual perception, memory and visually guided behavior.

He seeks to understand how visual perception is affected by attention, behavioral goals, and memories of previous experiences. An important goal of this work is the development of therapies for blindness and perceptual impairments resulting from disease, trauma or developmental disorders of the brain. A second aim of his work is to use our growing knowledge of brain, perception and memory to inform design in architecture and the arts, and to leverage societal decisions and public policy.

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He received a Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program. He is past-president of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (2012-2014), a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and a member of the U.S. National Commission on Forensic Science.

Vittorio Gallese, MD, studied medicine at the University of Parma, Parma, Italy, and was awarded a degree in Neurology in 1990. He is a Full Professor of Psychobiology Dept. of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Parma, Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study of the University of London, UK and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at the Dept. of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University, New York, USA. He is coordinator of the PhD Program in Neuroscience and Director of the Doctoral School of Medicine of the University of Parma. As a cognitive neuroscientist, his research focuses on the relationship between the sensory-motor system and cognition, both in non-human primates and humans using a variety of neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging techniques applied to the study of intersubjectivity, empathy, language, mindreading and aesthetics. Among his major contributions is the discovery, together with the colleagues of Parma, of mirror neurons, and the elaboration of a theoretical model of basic aspects of social cognition, Embodied Simulation Theory. 

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Gallese has done research at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, at the Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan, at the University of California at Berkeley and at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain of the Humboldt University of Berlin. He has been George Miller visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In 2007 he received together with Giacomo Rizzolatti and Leonardo Fogassi the Grawemeyer Award for Psychology, for the discovery of mirror neurons. He received the Doctor Honoris Causa from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in 2009. He received the Arnold Pfeffer Prize for Neuropsychoanalysis from the International Society of Neuropsychoanalysis, New York, U.S.A in 2010, the Musatti Prize from the Italian Psychoanalytic Society in 2013, the Kosmos Fellowship from the Berlin School of Mind and Brain in 2014, the Einstein Fellowship for 2016-2020, and the Alexander von Humboldt Forschung Preis in 2019. Gallese has published over 300 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and edited books and three books.

William J.R. Curtis is a historian, critic, artist and photographer. He was educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and Harvard University. He has taught the history of architecture, theories of design and architectural studios at many universities around the world including Harvard University (Dept of Visual and Environmental Studies and Graduate School of Design), the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge where he was Slade Professor of Fine Art. He is committed to visual education in a broad sense. His best known books include Modern Architecture Since 1900 and Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms, both widely translated and referred to as ‘classics’. Among other books: Balkrishna Doshi: an Architecture for India; Denys Lasdun: Architecture, City, Landscape; Le Corbusier at Work, The Genesis of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. Curtis has published on a vast range of other subjects and is an engaged critic who contributes to international journals such as the Architectural Review and El Croquis. He has written several texts on Spanish and Portuguese modern architecture including the work of Alejandro de la Sota, Rafael Moneo, Fernando Tavora and Alvaro Siza. In 2015 a retrospective of his artistic work was held in the Palace of Carlos V of the Alhambra with the title 'Abstraccion y Luz/ Abstraction and Light: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs by William J.R. Curtis' accompanied by a book with a Preface written by Alvaro Siza. In recognition of his diverse activities Curtis has received several international awards, including the 1999 Gold Medal of the Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society in Architecture and Allied Arts (USA); a 50 year Commemoration Medal from the Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2006; and the Golden Award for Global Contribution to Architecture (India) in 2014. Curtis has been awarded the 2022 Médaille of the Académie d'Architecture, France.