Hernan Diaz Alonso: "Form and Gloom"

Hernan Diaz Alonso is principal and founder of Xefirotarch, a Los Angeles-based design practice. Considered one of the most influential voices of his generation, Diaz Alonso assumed the new role of Graduate Programs Chair at SCI-Arc, after having coordinate the school's graduate thesis process for the past several years.

Previously, he was a design studio professor at Columbia University GSAPP, and head studio professor in the "Excessive" post-graduate program at the Universitat fur angewandte Kunst in Wien, Austria. He was recently honored by Yale University with the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professorship of Architectural Design for fall 2010.

Diaz Alonso has lectured extensively at major institutions around the world. His architecture designs have received numerous awards and have been displayed in both architecture and art museum exhibitions. His work has been widely published in magazines and periodicals worldwide and multiple books, including the "Excessive" monograph.

In 2005, Diaz Alonso was the winner of PS1 MoMa's Young Architects Program (YAP) competition. His work has since been the subject of solo shows at the San Francisco MoMa in 2006, and the Art Institute of Chicago and the MAK Centre, Wien in 2007. He is currently scheduled to produce a solo show at the Pompidou Center, Paris in 2011.

His work is part of the permanent collections of the FRAC Center, the San Francisco MoMa, and the Art Institute of Chicago.