The University of Virginia School of Architecture has appointed Felipe Correa as the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor and the new chair of Architecture.  Currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Architecture in Urban Design program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Correa will assume the role on July 25, 2018.

Correa is an internationally renowned architect and urbanist. Working at the confluence of architecture, urbanism, and infrastructure, he has, through his design practice Somatic Collaborative, developed design projects with the public and private sector in multiple cities and regions across the globe. Designing across multiple scales and varied contexts, Correa is known for using architectural commissions, design competitions, and diverse forms of applied research to facilitate design’s role as a critical mediator between society and space.

At Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Correa co-founded and directed (in collaboration with Ana María Durán) the South America Project (SAP), a trans-continental applied research network that proactively endorses the role of design within rapidly transforming geographies of the South American continent. Correa’s forthcoming book, São Paulo: A Graphic Biography (University of Texas Press, October 2018), presents a comprehensive portrait of Brazil’s largest city, narrating its fast-paced growth and offering a compelling vision of how a city can transform its post-industrial fabric to alleviate the extreme socio-economic divide between city center and periphery. Correa is also the author of the recently published, Beyond the City: Resource Extraction in South America (University of Texas Press, 2016) and Mexico City: Between Geometry and Geography (ARD, 2015). 

“As one of the leading scholars on architecture and urban design in Latin America, Felipe brings a wealth of knowledge, creativity and experience to UVA,” said Ila Berman, Dean of the School of Architecture. “He will be a tremendous addition to the leadership team of the Architecture School and we’re extremely excited to welcome him to the community.”   

Correa’s design work, research, and writings have been published in journals, including Architectural Design, Architectural Record, Harvard Design Magazine, MONU, Ottagono, and PLOTamong many others. He has lectured and exhibited worldwide at many universities and conferences, most recently at Columbia University, Cornell University, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, Tulane University, University of Pennsylvania, The National Arts Club of New York, and the Pan-American Architecture Biennale. He is the co-editor of Lateral Exchanges: Architecture, Urban Development, and Transnational Practices, a publication series that explores the role of architecture and urbanism in the context of international development.

In addition to previous academic appointment at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Correa has taught at Cornell University’s School of Art, Architecture and Planning and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, School of Architecture. Through his academic appointments, he has served various leadership and advisory roles in support of curriculum and student affairs, including the Office of the Provost’s Advisory Board for Architecture Research at Universidad de la República (Uruguay), the Dean’s Academic Diversity Committee at Harvard, and the Dean’s Board of Advisors at Tulane University, among others. 

Robin Dripps, Fitz-Gibbon Professor of Architecture and member of the search committee, expanded upon Dean Berman’s enthusiasm about the addition of Correa to the faculty and as the Architecture Chair. “Felipe arrives at the School of Architecture with impressive accomplishments in academic leadership. Demonstrated over a wide range of scales, intellectual territories, and operational logics, he is an impressive intellectual and administrative leader. Felipe’s remarkable research accomplishments and publication record fit well within the department and School while considerably extending possibilities for future research. As a strong advocate for students to take on projects of their own even outside the University, he will help our students in establishing greater presence within the larger global discourse on architecture and design.”

“I am thrilled to join the UVA faculty as the new chair of the Department of Architecture. The instrumental and methodological diversity found in the school’s faculty, paired with an energetic student body, makes the department an ideal laboratory to further advance a collective agenda on how architecture can better bring spatial and aesthetic synthesis to the design challenges of the twenty-first century,” Correa said. 

“It is a distinct honor to join UVA and continue to build upon the extraordinary legacy of design education across multiple scales and mediums already present in the department and the school.” 

Correa received a Bachelor of Architecture from Tulane University in 2000, and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2003. He is a multi-year recipient of the David Rockfeller Center for Latin American Studies Research Grants, a Graham Foundation Grant awardee, and received the Academic Excellence and Leadership in Urban Design Award from Harvard, among many other awards and fellowships. His work has been exhibited world-wide, most recently in Germany (Ways of Life: Rethinking the role of hinterland living), in Lisbon (The World in Our Eyes: Lisbon Architecture Triennale), in Rotterdam(International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam), and in Buenos Aires (Bienale Internacional de Buenos Aires).