Ángel Borrego Cubero (Spain, 1967)
PhD in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s School of Architecture (ETSAM), MArch from Princeton University (USA), where he was a Fulbright fellow.
In his over 20-year teaching career, Angel Borrego Cubero has taught architectural design at numerous institutions, including Princeton University, Pratt Institute in New York, the University of Alicante, Keio University in Tokyo, the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), and the School of Architecture of Madrid (2001- 2022).
He established the Madrid-based architectural, art, and urban research firm Office for Strategic Spaces (OSS) in 1999. For details about OSS’ production, see Office. He received several honors for his Factoria Cultural Matadero Madrid, including the COAM Award with Special Mention 2015 from the Madrid Chamber of Architects, the NAN Award for the Best Rehabilitation Project in 2016, and the third place in the Workplace & Offices category of the Rethinking The Future Sustainability Awards in 2016. 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 from the Madrid Chamber of Architects and the Architecture Dissemination Award from 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 from the XIII Spanish Biennial of Architecture 2016.
While trained in architecture, Ángel Borrego Cubero has built a production that connects architecture with topics beyond such as the contemporary urban condition, the relationship between private and public space, violence, surveillance and architectural fictions. His works, which primarily use site-specific, new media, and video installations, 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.
Read more about Angel Borrego Cubero in The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, El Pais Blogs.