Laura Martinez de Guereñu Elorza

Laura Martínez de Guereñu is an architect, historian and design critic with expertise in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and its relationship with the transatlantic world. Her research focuses on study of modernism’s traces in pre-fascist Europe and its diaspora, the impact of pedagogical legacies on built heritage, as well as the effect of changes of ownership in the life and endurance of buildings.

Laura holds a Fellowship for Advanced Researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which she will spend in intermittent residency in the Professorship of History of Architecture and Curatorial Practice at the TUM Department of Architecture in Munich, Germany, and has been invited a Guest Scientist at the Oskar von Miller Forum. Laura has received many other grants for her scholarly work, including the first Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture (Mies van der Rohe Foundation), a Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators (BBVA Foundation), a Scholarship of Excellence (Rafael del Pino Foundation), several Travel Subsidies (Fritz Thyssen Foundation) and a Writer in Residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Laura has lectured widely, including at Harvard University, Seoul National University, and University of Illinois/ Urbana Champaign-Paris.

Laura’s essays have been published in a number of periodicals, including Architectural Histories, Archivo Español de Arte, Docomomo Journal, Massilia. Annuaire, d’Etudes Corbuseennes and RA. Revista de arquitectura. Chapters have appeared in several edited volumes: Mies van der Rohe-Barcelona 1929 (Tenov/ Fundación Mies van der Rohe 2017), Josef Albers: Minimal Means, Maximum Effect (Fundación Juan March, 2014), and her work as an editor encompasses Rafael Moneo: Remarks on 21 Works (The Monacelli Press, 2010).

In her recent research, Laura has linked the Bauhäusler with Spain through their travels, products’ transport and creative exchanges, and has demonstrated the critical influence of Lilly Reich’s and Mies’s 1929 Barcelona Exhibits on the architecture of Germany’s representative Pavilion, showing an embraced dialogue between tradition and modernism. The most recent outcomes are: the artistic intervention Re-enactment: Lilly Reich’s Work Occupies the Barcelona Pavilion (Fundació Mies van der Rohe, 2020) and the co-edited book Bauhaus In and Out: Perspectives from Spain (AhAU, 2019).

Laura holds a Master in Design Studies with Distinction (History and Theory of Architecture) from Harvard University, where she was later a Visiting Fellow, and a PhD in Architecture and a Professional Degree with Thesis Award of Excellence from University of Navarra. At IE School of Architecture and Design, Laura teaches in and coordinates the architecture history theory sequence and the first year bachelor, while conducts the international mobility program. Laura has supervised several PhD dissertations and is a frequent member of PhD dissertation committees.