María Arquero de Alarcón is currently an Assistant
Professor in Architecture and Urban Planning and Design in Taubman College, the
University of Michigan. Her research, teaching and practice focus on the
design, representation and use of public space both as environmental infrastructure,
and as a field of experimentation to devise new forms of civic engagement. Her
recent work in the city of Detroit and surrounding region interrogates the
agency of the design and planning disciplines in territories under dynamics of
urban contraction and sustained population loss. Other current academic
collaborations look at the visualization of water dynamics in the Great Lakes
region as a vehicle to better inform land use decisions. This line of research
articulates the role of visual representation as a mode of inquiry and spatial
thinking, a platform to enable design synthesis across geographies, scales and
disciplinary cultures.
Arquero de Alarcón is a founding partner, with Jen
Maigret, of MAde-Studio, a research-based design practice focused on the
development of environmentally and culturally sound urban design practices. She
brings to this partnership her experience in professional practice both through
interdisciplinary collaborations and as an independent consultant in
international settings in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East. In
2013, MAde has been recognized with an ACSA Faculty Design Award (Liquid
Planning Detroit) for their speculative work contributing to debates of green
infrastructure in Detroit, and two AIA Michigan Design Awards (A Dozen
Playgrounds and Eastside Recreation Center) re-centering the role of elementary
public school grounds and recreation centers as neighborhoods' cores in the
urban stabilization efforts in the region.
Arquero de Alarcón is a member of the Metropolitan
Futures Group (MFG), a design research collective in Taubman College. Arquero
de Alarcón has been a visiting professor in the Pontificia Universidad Católica
de Chile, and has taught and lectured in different design schools, including Boston
Architectural College, Dalhousie University, GSD Harvard University,
Universidad de Talca, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, and Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Rio de Janeiro. Her work and research have been
presented in peer reviewed academic conferences and published in different
platforms, including PLOT, UHF, and an essay in a forthcoming volume on the
evolving land use patterns in Detroit, from Wayne State University Press.
Arquero de Alarcón holds degrees in Architecture, from the E.T.S.A.M.,
Polytechnic University, a master of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture
from the E.T.H. Zurich, and a master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design
from the G.S.D., Harvard University.
