Ángel Borrego Cubero (Spain, 1967)
PhD of Architecture by the School of Architecture (ETSAM) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), MArch by Princeton University (USA) where he was a Fulbright scholar.
Ángel Borrego Cubero has a teaching career spanning 20 years in which he has taught architectural design at Princeton University, Pratt Institute in New York, the University of Alicante, at Keio University, Tokyo, the Hong Kong Design Institute – HKDI and, since 2001, at the School of Architecture of Madrid.
In 1999, he founded Office for Strategic Spaces (OSS), a Madrid-based architecture, art and urban research practice. For details about OSS’ production, see Office. For his Factoria Cultural Matadero Madrid, he won the COAM Award with Special Mention 2015 given by Madrid Chamber of Architects, as well as the NAN Award to the Best Rehabilitation Project 2016 and the 3rd Prize of the Rethinking The Future Sustainability Awards 2016, Workplace & Offices category. He was shortlisted among the 20 finalists of the XIII Spanish Biennial of Architecture 2016 and he was one of the 15 finalists at the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention 2019. He was a nominee at the European Prize of Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe 2014. His project Factoria Cultural Matadero Madrid was selected for the Spanish Pavilion, a Golden Lion winner at the XV Biennale di Venezia in 2016. For his feature documentary The Competition, he won the First Prize of the COAM Award 2014 given by Madrid Chamber of Architects and the Architecture Dissemination Award of the XIII Spanish Biennial of Architecture 2016. And, for his research project titled La Historia de la Escuela (The School’s Oral History) he won the Research Prize of the XIII Spanish Biennial of Architecture 2016.
While trained as an architect, Ángel Borrego Cubero has built a production, which connects architecture with topics beyond such as the contemporary urban condition, the relationship between private and public space, violence, surveillance and architectural fictions. Mainly making use of site specific, new media and video installations, his works have been exhibited at the National Museum of Art and Nature CDAN in Huesca, at the Museum of Modern Art Reina Sofia in Madrid, at the Contemporary Art Centre El Matadero Madrid, at the Art Centre LABoral in Gijon, at the Contemporary Art Centre ARTIUM in Vitoria, at the Contemporary Art Fair ARCO Madrid, galleries and festivals in Spain, Germany, Belgium, UK, USA, Argentina etc.
Angel Borrego Cubero is also the director of the documentary film The Competition, completed in 2013, after four years of documentation on architectural competitions. The première was in Rotterdam where The Competition opened the 2013 Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR) in front of 500 people while the Spanish première was held full house in 2014 at Filmoteca Española de Madrid.
In 2023, Ángel Borrego Cubero has been selected by the Venice Biennale to make a documentary of the first College Architettura of the 18th Biennale of Architecture curated by Lesley Lokko.
His art works are represented by the gallery Heinrich Ehrhardt.
Read more about Angel Borrego Cubero in The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, El Pais Blogs.