Débora Mesa Molina, (Madrid, 1981) is European Licensed Architect by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She is principal of Ensamble Studio, a cross-functional team she leads with her partner Antón García-Abril, based in Madrid and Boston. Balancing research and practice, their work reflects a bold approach to architectural design and construction. Among the studio’s most relevant built projects are Hemeroscopium House and Reader’s House in Madrid, Music Studies Center and SGAE Central Office in Santiago de Compostela, The Truffle in Costa da Morte, Telcel Theater in Mexico City and, more recently, Cyclopean House in Brookline and Structures of Landscape for Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana. Their work is extensively published, exhibited world-wide - Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 and 2010, GA International Exhibitions 2016-2010 in Tokyo, MOMA NY 2015, MAK Vienna 2015, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism & Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen, etc.- and awarded with international prizes – 2016 NCSEA Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards, Iakov Chernikhov Prize 2012, Rice Design Alliance Prize 2009 to emerging architects, Architectural Record Design Vanguard Prize 2005, among others. In addition to her professional work, Débora keeps an active academic and research agenda: has been architecture critic and lecturer at different universities and architecture forums –The Met NY, AA London, GeorgiaTech, Harvard GSD, Hong Kong University, Tonji University, Universidad Marista de Mérida, etc.-, invited professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 and Cornell University in 2008, and teaching advisor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 2009 and 2010, while completing her doctorate studies. Currently she has joined The Cooper Union as Benjamin Menschel Visiting Professor of Architecture, and is research scientist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she cofounded the  POPlab (Prototypes of Prefabrication Research Laboratory) in 2012.

ENSAMBLE STUDIO INSIDE OUT, proposes an immersion into the processes of conception and materialization of the firm’s works; where design is developed through action, through experimentation with matter, structure, form and space simultaneously; where construction is understood as a the final performance of a carefully composed orchestration that needs to be rehearsed beforehand; where the creative mind of the poet meets the practical mind of the builder to make ideas come true.

This event is open to current Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff. Room 315F.