Hernán Díaz Alonso (

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, 1969) is an Argentine-American architect. He is Director/Chief Executive Officer of

SCI-Arc Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1972, SCI-Arc was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde and more adventurous than t ...

in Los Angeles, and Founder and Principal of Los Angeles-based design practice HDA-X(formerly Xefirotarch). He is an Argentine

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, designer, and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

widely credited for spearheading the transition of

to digital technologies, playing a key role in shaping the school's graduate curriculum in the past decade. As SCI-Arc director, he oversees the direction of an institution with more than 500 students and 80 faculty members, many of whom are well known in the fields of architecture and design. Along with his leadership at SCI-Arc, Díaz Alonso is principal of the Los Angeles-based firm HDA-X, known for producing grotesque and sometimes unsettling work that challenges responses to environment. Additionally, Díaz Alonso has been named winner of the 2005 MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program (YAP), the AR+D Award for Emerging Architecture, and an honorable mention in the 2013 P/A Awards.

Biography

Díaz Alonso was born in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1969, and holds a Master's in Advanced Architecture Design from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the National University of Rosario,

. Before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, Díaz Alonso worked for architect

Peter Eisenman Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...

as a senior designer with

Eisenman Architects Eisenmann (also transliterated Eisenman or Eiseman) is a German- or Yiddish-language surname from the German ''Eisen.'' The name refers to one who works with iron. Notable people with the surname include: *Alvin Eisenman (1921–2013), American g ...

. He founded his design practice, HDA-x (formerly Xefirotarch) in

in 2001, and he currently serves as Principal of the firm. Díaz Alonso began teaching at

in 2001 as design studio faculty, and served as Coordinator of the Graduate Thesis program from 2007 to 2010, and Graduate Programs Chair from 2010 to 2015. He was appointed

Director and CEO in September 2015. Díaz Alonso has also taught at

's GSAPP from 2004 to 2011, and is the studio head professor for the "Excessive" post-graduate program at the University of Applied Arts Vienna,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He held visiting professorship appointments at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he served as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professorship of Architectural Design in 2010, and as Eero Saarinen Professor of Architectural Design in 2015.

Competitions and awards

Over the course of his career as an architect and educator, Díaz Alonso has earned accolades for his leadership and innovation, and his ability to build partnerships among varied constituencies. In 2005, he was the winner of MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program (YAP) competition, and in 2012 he received the "Educator of the Year" Award from the

chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA, LA). Most recently, he won the 2013 AR+D Award for Emerging Architecture and an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Progressive Architecture Awards for his design of the Thyssen Bornamiza Pavilion/Museum in Patagonia, Argentina. Díaz Alonso was named by DesignIntelligence as one of their 25 Most Admired Educators for 2018-2019 and won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award in 2019.

References

External links

Interview with Hernán Díaz Alonso
about - What is architecture?
HDA-x creative agency website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz Alonso, Hernan Southern California Institute of Architecture faculty 1968 births Living people Argentine designers Argentine educators Argentine emigrants to the United States Architects from Buenos Aires Educators from Greater Los Angeles