José Ibarra
- Assistant Professor of Architecture
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Architecture and environmental uncertainty
319 Stuckeman
- Email jmibarra@psu.edu
Biography
José Ibarra is a Venezuelan designer, researcher, and educator whose interdisciplinary work explores the intersection of architecture and environmental uncertainty. He is currently an assistant professor of architecture in the Stuckeman School at Penn State, director of Studio José Ibarra, and co-founder of House Operations and the Agency for Work and Play.
Ibarra’s research centers on architecture’s capacity to meaningfully engage with crisis, whether social, ecological, or planetary. Through design, curation, writing, and teaching, he develops multifocal approaches that reframe architecture as a responsive and relational practice amid social unrest, environmental degradation, and climate crisis.
Recent projects include “Werewolf: The Architecture of Lunacy, Shapeshifting, and Material Metamorphosis” (AR+D 2022), co-edited with Caroline O'Donnell; “Table Manners,” a series of performative, academically grounded events that brings people together in unexpected ways; and “Casa Libertad,” a private residence in Tecate, Mexico.
He has served as editor for ASSOCIATION, The Cornell Journal of Architecture, Pidgin Magazine, and the Architecture Reading Group. His teaching has earned numerous accolades, including the 2022 ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award, 2024 ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award, and the 2025 Tulane Honorable Achievement for Interdisciplinary Climate Change Curriculum in Architecture. His design and scholarly work have been recognized and published internationally, including with a Graham Foundation grant for his collaborative project with Liz Gálvez, “Latinx Coalition Chats.”
He is currently working on two book projects: “Table Manners: Participatory Design amidst Planetary Crises,” which reimagines architecture as a dynamic platform for activism and planetary repair; and “Architecture, Time, and the Anthropocene: Designing with Geoempathy,” which positions architecture as a mediator of process, kinship, and deep time across species, calling for design collaborations between humans, animals, plants, grounds, and atmospheres.
Ibarra served as an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Colorado Denver (2022–25) and the University of Virginia (2020–22) and previously served as an Urban Edge Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2019–2020). He also taught courses at Cornell University and practiced architecture at firms including Barkow Leibinger, CODA, and Studio Eber.
Ibarra holds an associate degree in arts and architecture from Miami Dade College, a B.Arch. with a minor in German studies from Cornell University, and a post-professional M.Arch. from Princeton University, where he also earned a certificate in media and modernity. At Princeton, he received multiple honors, including the 2019 Robert Geddes Post-Professional Award, the 2018 Howard Crosby Butler Fellowship, and the Princeton University Fellowship.
Collected Works
