Iñaki Alday

Dean, Richard Koch Chair in Architecture

  • New Orleans LA UNITED STATES
  • Tulane School of Architecture
ialday@tulane.edu504-865-5392

Iñaki Alday utilizes a multidisciplinary global vision and social and environmental ethics to examine the role of architecture in society

Contact

Social

Biography

Iñaki Alday received a Master of Architecture degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1992. Together with Margarita Jover, he founded aldayjover architecture and landscape in 1996 in Barcelona. The multidisciplinary, research-based practice focuses on innovation and is particularly renowned for its leadership in a new approach to the relation between cities and rivers, in which the natural dynamics of flooding become part of the public space, eliminating the idea of “catastrophe.”

He has taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the University of Navarra and the University of Virginia. At the University of Virginia, he was the Elwood R. Quesada Professor of Architecture from 2011 to 2018, and Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2011 to 2016. Since 2016, he has been the co-director and founder (with Pankja Vir Gupta) of the Yamuna River Project, a long-term, interdisciplinary research program whose objective is to revitalize the ecology of the Yamuna River in the Delhi area. The project involves an interdisciplinary team with expertise in architecture, land planning, civil engineering, environmental science, public-private partnerships, anthropology, political science, history and cultural studies. The team’s objective is to engage the efforts of government agencies, experts and activists in an ongoing program to address the multidimensional challenges of Delhi and the relation with its river.

Both in academic research and in practice, Alday promotes a new attitude towards the transformation of our environment and how architecture can contribute to the inhabitation of the most challenged areas of the planet. He utilizes a multidisciplinary global vision and social and environmental ethics to examine the role of architecture and architects.

Areas of Expertise

Architecture
River City Urban Planning
Sustainable Architecture
Eco-ethics
Architecture and the Built Enivronment

Accomplishments

International DAM Architectural Book Award (2018)

The Frankfurt Book Fair and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) bestowed the International DAM Architectural Book Award to "The Yamuna River Project, New Delhi Urban Ecologies," co-authored by Iñaki Alday, naming it one of the world’s 10 best architectural books of 2018.

FAD Prize for Landscape and City (2009)

The Metropolitan Water Park in Zaragoza, Spain, was awarded the Luis Buñuel FAD Award in the category of Landscape and City, "to be assessed by the jury as" paradigm" of the new attitude of man with nature, while providing a "new relationship the city with the landscape and the environment."

Fernando García Mercadal Prize (2005)

El Molino Cultural Center

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Education

Polytechnic University of Catalonia

M.Arch.

Languages

  • Spanish
  • English

Media Appearances

New deans, new directions

Tulanian Magazine  print

2019-01-07

“The big question mark is how we are going to inhabit the planet 20, 30 years from now,” said Iñaki Alday, dean of the School of Architecture. With issues of climate change and sea-level rise looming, “the School of Architecture has a responsibility to propose new models of how we are designing our cities, our public spaces, our infrastructure — our streets, our parks — and how this can improve equity in the city, so environmental injustice becomes environmental justice.”

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Tulane School of Architecture’s community design center nationally recognized for collaborative approach

Tulane News  online

2019-02-11

“This award is a recognition of the Tulane School of Architecture’s leadership, through the Small Center, in architecture and social engagement. We are committed to supporting our community through high quality design and beauty, which are essential to develop pride and care for neighborhoods,” said Iñaki Alday, dean of the Tulane School of Architecture and Koch Chair in Architecture. “Each project is also an innovative exploration, advancing the field of design and of community engagement processes through multidisciplinary modes, all in the real life.”

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aldayjover architecture and landscape winner international design competition High Park Buenos Aires

Metalocus  online

2018-10-25

aldayjover architecture and landscape, with the collaboration of KLM Kelly Lestard Maldonado arquitectos, has been announced as the winner of the International Design Competition High Park- Parque en Altura Barrio 31-Retiro, in the city of Buenos Aires, with the proposal named ‘Vertebrando’, exaqueo with the proposal ‘Alto Parque’.

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Event Appearances

Cities & Rivers - Integrating Nature through Hybrid Infrastructure

Global Forum for the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience (SURR) Global Practice  World Bank, Washington, D.C.

2019-03-11

Research Focus

The Yamuna River Project

Iñaki Alday is Co-Director of The Yamuna River Project, an inter-disciplinary research program whose objective is to revitalize the ecology of the Yamuna River in New Delhi, thus reconnecting India’s capital city back to the water.

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