Guillaume Othenin-Girard

Guillaume Othenin-Girard is an architect and an Assistant Professor of design at the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. His research and teaching explore:

the transformative role of drawing in investigations of the relationship between territory and architecture; relations between making and the material flows that link human and non-human actors; design-build as an action comprising both material intervention and shared experience. He is interested in collaborative approaches to inquiry and making that bring architecture into a constant relation with culture.

In this spirit, he co-founded TEN, a design research studio based in Zurich. During his time with the collective from 2015-2019, he took a leading role in various projects, including the winning entry for the Swiss Art Award for Architecture in 2018. Guillaume is also a founding member of Architecture Land Initiative, a cooperative based in Switzerland that carries out political action through projects in the areas of landscape, public space and architecture.

From 2018-2019 he directed a collaboration between Studio Tom Emerson (ETH) and the PUCP (Lima, Peru) that resulted in the design and fabrication of A Room for Archaeologists and Kids for the Museum of Pachacamac. The structure is used by researchers and lab technicians at the pre-Columbian sanctuary as a way-station for archaeological finds and as a classroom for public programs. In 2019, the project received the Dezeen Award for Architecture Project of the Year, and was exhibited at the Design Museum in London as part of the Beazley Designs of the Year show.

He is a co-curator with Emma Letizia Jones and Nemanja Zimonjić of the upcoming exhibition Vilanova Artigas: Drawing Models (supported by the Graham Foundation). With Nigel Peake, he is the co-author of Go Field and Towers (Amarillo Press, 2017), an approach to teaching and architecture centered on a direct manual relationship with drawing and building. His work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012), Artgeneva (2016, 2017) and Art Basel (2018).