The School of Architecture & Environment is celebrating the success of Design for Spatial Justice Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, Maríaluisa "Malu" Borja Lopez, for her firm's recent architectural award. Al Borde, an architectural practice founded in Ecuador by Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Malu, and Esteban Benavides, was recognized for the practice's excellence with the Swiss Architectural Award, a biennial international architecture prize. 

Al Borde was recognized and chosen from 31 candidates representing 17 countries, with the jury unanimously conferring the 2024 award to the firm for their projects Learning Viewpoint in the Cerro Blanco protected forest, Guayaquil, Ecuador (2021-2022), the Raw Threshold Pavilion in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2022-2023), and the Yuyarina Pacha Community Library in Huaticocha, Provincia de Orellana, Ecuador (2023-2024). These three significant works met the criteria of the prize which aims to promote architecture that is sensitive to contemporary issues and can facilitate debate while offering a relevant contribution to contemporary architectural culture.

Malu specializes in anticipatory methodologies and pedagogies for design-build and earned an MA in Gender, Conflict, and Social Justice Perspectives. Throughout the years, Malu has worked as a designer, construction manager, teacher, and facilitator of collaborative creative processes with diverse communities in Latin America. Al Borde is a collective project whose ethos opens the design and construction stages to the active participation of its users. Its aesthetic is a result of a material and energy discussion around the current modes of production of Architecture. Malu brings her extensive experience and expertise to the College of Design as a fall 2024 Design for Spatial Justice Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor.

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