UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Stuckeman School in the College of Arts and Architecture will welcome Spanish architect and educator Amadeu Santacana to its Department of Architecture faculty as an assistant teaching professor, effective Aug. 1.

Santacana comes to Penn State after teaching at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya/Barcelona Tech Vallès School of Architecture (ESTAV-UPC) in Spain since 2005. He most recently served as Serra Hunter Professor and chair of the architectural design department and was a member of the Proto research group where he focused his work on machine learning and relational architecture.

"We are excited that Amadeu Santacana will be joining us at Penn State this fall,” said Frank Jacobus, professor and head of the Department of Architecture and Stuckeman Chair of Integrated Design. “His extensive teaching experience spans notable institutions, and he is an accomplished author and editor with significant contributions to architectural literature. His works showcase his impact on contemporary architecture discourse, and his exhibitions and curatorial projects at prestigious venues further highlight his innovative vision.”

Santacana has had two books published: “Event in a World as Juxtaposition,” published by Fundación Arquia in 2020 and “Residential landscapes,” published by AxA in 2022. He is also co-editor of “Create!” (Actar, 2014), “Crossed Lines: New Territories of Design” (Actar, 2003) and “Soriano & Palacios: It’s Small, It Rains and with Ants” (Actar, 2000). Santacana has collaborated with several magazines including "Quaderns d'arquitectura i urbanisme" and "Fisuras de cultura contemporánea and in February 2024, his co-authored article — titled “The impact of architecturally qualified data in deep learning methods for the automatic generation of social housing layouts” — was published in the Journal of Automation in Construction.

Santacana has also curated exhibitions such as “Crossed Lines: New Territories of Design” at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, “Diagrams” in the “Climate Change Series” for the Housing State Department at Madrid and the “P Event” at the Spanish Foundation of the Official College of Architects of Madrid.

In addition to his time at ESTAV-UPC, Santacana has been a visiting professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid, UIC Barcelona, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and at the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture.

“We are thrilled to have the world-renowned architect Amadeu Santacana joining our faculty at the Stuckeman School this fall,” said Chingwen Cheng, director of the Stuckeman School. “His global perspective and expertise in the emerging technology of machine learning and design bring exceptional additional assets to the architecture department and the school.”

In practice, Santacana is a partner at Bartleby Studio, which opened in 2020, and he served as a partner at Nug architects from 2000 to 2020. He earned his doctorate from the Barcelona School of Architecture and his undergraduate degree from ESTAV-UPC.