Professor Luís De Garrido Talavera

Luís De Garrido Talavera, Ph.D. is Professor Doctor Honoris Causa at the Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Professor of Master’s Degree in Technologies for Sustainable Development at Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial at Polytechnic University of Valencia, and Professor of Advanced Research Master Programme in Architecture by National Association for Sustainable Architecture (ANAS), and the Self-Sufficient Architecture Association.

Luís was recognized with Doctor Honoris Causa for lifetime achievements in architecture in a way as a profession, in teaching, and research —a discipline in which he stands out internationally, becoming the main reference and maximum specialist in ecological, bioclimatic, and self-sufficient architecture, with zero energy consumption, and with an advanced unique design. He is recognized as a pioneer of the new ecological paradigm in architecture.

With his Advanced Master in Sustainable and Bioclimatic Architecture Programme, he teaches courses on the use of Advanced Creative Technologies for Sustainable, Self-Sufficient, and Zero Energy Architecture.

He is well noted for his studies, continuous training, multidisciplinary and holistic approach, and obtained the character of a Renaissance man. Luís has a long professional career, with more than 25 years of experience in the field of architecture, a discipline in which he stands out internationally and has completed more than 300 projects. He is the author of 23 books on Ecological, Bioclimatic, and Self-Sufficient Architecture including Manual de Arquitectura Ecológica. He has written more than 120 articles from various disciplines, including green architecture, modular and industrialized architecture, eco-urbanism, intelligent buildings, artificial intelligence, food, longevity, natural risks, astrophysics, psychology, sociology, human evolution, and anthropology.

Luís has received multiple awards. In 2008, he was named architect of the year by the International Steel Building Association (ISBU), in collaboration with the AIA (United States), and in 2009 he received the Architecture Cluster Award. In 2013, he received the “Top 50 Architect Award”, awarded by the International Association Green Planet Architects from the United States, for his outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of ecological architecture, and for his visionary architectural projects.

His works include the skyscraper La LLum finalist in the zero zone contest in Manhattan, GEODA 2055, Vert Moulin Rouge, Sayab Urbanization (Colombia), Ecopolis Urbanization in Valencia, GAIA Project, R4-House, and Green Box among other references for sustainable architecture worldwide.

Luís has completed more than 300 advanced projects, including more than 7.000 houses, making him a world leader in architecture.

Luís is interested in virtually any discipline of arts (drawing and painting, industrial, interior, multimedia), but is particularly interested in artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, engineering, medicine, psychology, astrophysics, ecology, and evolutionary anthropology.

Luís thinks that the scientific method is the best that man has created throughout his existence, and is the only ally that he has, to filter and process the right information at all times avoiding being manipulated and used by the irrational, arbitrary, interested clandestine entities and demeaning social, political, and especially religious power.

His philosophy is to be a relentless thinker, interested in identifying strategies which can be designed to achieve improvement and transcendence of humans in continuous balance with the ecosystem.

He studies human behavior, both individually and collectively — forming social networks — with the initial aim of identifying what differentiates humans from other living beings, or what is the same.

Luis’ view on human consciousness is deterministic taking a reductive physicalist position and with free will being an illusion.

He says that what differentiates us from other living beings, is based only on two pillars: High level of awareness and sense of free-will.

“The combination of our genetic inheritance and the programming of our brain during intrauterine development and to a lesser extent, during our early years, we create a certain brain structure in which are already largely determined our talents, our limitations and our character. In this sense, throughout our life we can not, for example, decide to change our gender identity, our sexual orientation, our aggressiveness, our character, our religion and our language. Similarly we can not avoid our predisposition to certain diseases or to have certain social, civil, and criminal problems. Once converted into adults many limitations to shape our brain exist and our characteristics are already set for life. (‘You can move channeling rivers and mountains. More difficult is to change the character of a man’. Chinese proverb).”

Certain intellectual ingredients reminiscent of Naturalism, Existentialism, and especially Transhumanism, can be identified in his Philosophy.

For his research, Lusi has collaborated and collaborates with several universities in the following disciplines:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Architecture and Happiness
• Architecture and Health
• Bioclimatic Architecture
• Cognitive Neuroscience and Neurobiology
• Cognitive Design Process
• Creativity
• Ecological Architecture
• Eco-Urbanism
• Medicine (Endocrinology, longevity…)
• Self-Sufficient Architecture

Since 2011, Luís has been leading three ambitious research projects in architecture, whose results can be extremely useful for the future of humanity.

• Moon City (Design of a self-sufficient city in the Moon)
• Desert City (Design of a self-sufficient city in the Namib desert)
• Proyecto 33 BIP VIP (33 Architectural Birthday Presents for Very Important People)

Luís has published two doctoral theses and earned two Ph.D.s. His first was in Architecture in 1989 with the thesis Applications of Artificial Intelligence in the core of Architectural Design directed by Joaquín Arnau (UPV) and Francisco Garijo (UPC) and his second in Artificial intelligence in 1991 with the thesis ARCHIDS. A Knowledge Based System in the core of Architectural Design directed by Francisco Garijo (UPC) and Ulrich Flemming (CMU-MIT), both from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

Currently, Luís is completing his third doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Complutense University of Madrid, directed by Franscisco Garijo with the title Modelling creativity by artificial intelligence systems. Applications to Architectural Design.

He has also completed three doctoral programs in Architecture, Industrial Engineering, and Computer Science.

Luís earned his Master’s Degree of Science in Architecture and Architectural Design from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain in 1986 and his Master’s Degree of Science in Urban Design Planning from Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain in 1993. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Computer Science from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain in 1987.

Luís has directed several doctoral theses on Artificial Intelligence and has been president of the Doctoral Thesis court on several occasions. In addition, he collaborates in research on artificial intelligence with the Departments of Design and Artificial Intelligence Carnegie-Mellon University, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, MIT, and the Complutense University of Madrid.

Throughout the years, Luís earned numerous Specialist Degrees including Conceptual Modeling of Information Systems (1985), Architecture of High-Speed Computers (1985), Automatic Speech Recognition (1985), Expert in Computer Aided in Industrial Design (1986), Computer Networks (1987), Computer Graphics (1987), Systems Programming in Real Time (1987), Expert in Intelligent Buildings (1988), Expert in Creativity, Heuristic and Foresight (1988), and Expert in Intelligent Buildings Design (1993).

He was Student of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience between the years of 1999 and 2005 at Spanish Open University (UNED), Spain.

Luís has taught at 13 universities from 7 countries, has lectured and has given specialization courses in 21 universities, and has given lectures in over 100 international conferences in 17 countries.

He has occasionally collaborated as a visiting professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, M.I.T., and Carnegie-Mellon University, and teaches several courses of specialization in architecture in collaboration with several universities and various professional associations of architects and doctors in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, the United States, and Mexico.

Luís has taught a large number of disciplines and subjects, such as: Architectural Design, Building Design, Digital Systems, Computer Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Architecture, Sustainable Architecture, Ecological Architecture, Bioclimatic Architecture, Self-Sufficient Architecture with zero energy consumption, Evolutionary Anthropology, Social Psychology, Astrophysics, Natural Hazards, Neurophysiology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Food Science, Endocrinology, and Habitat Health.

Luís also organizes Travel with Luís De Garrido, a travel program that aims to enjoy and learn about the architecture of the world, and achieve a high cultural and intellectual enrichment. He designed a set of routes not only for architects, but for any creative person, as well as their companions.

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