Ivan Valdez graduated from the Architectural Association´s Graduate School, London, UK and previously from FAADU - UMSA, La Paz, Bolivia. He is the recipient of the AA Studies Bursary and was awarded the Tony Byng Scholarship for Overseas Funded Research from the Association of Building Engineers, UK. Prior to moving to London he has taught at the Bolivian Catholic University and FAADU. His research work became later the catalyst for urbe_X grupo de arquitectos, a design practice he co-directed until 2001.Since 2002, relocated in London, he has worked and collaborated with several offices in the UK. As a project architect to Gustafson Porter + Bowman, he had the opportunity to work alongside ecoLogicStudio, FCBStudios, FOA, AKT II, Foster + Partners, Buro Happold and Arup’s Advanced Geometry Group.Ivan has been Studio Master at UCB´s Urban Design Master Program and the Icamp: New ideas for Messina International Workshop in Italy, he has taught workshops and seminars at the AA Landscape Urbanism MA program and the AA Intermediate Unit 10 between years 2005 and 2010. He has also been Unit Master at the AA Summer School "Futured Ecologies" 2006 and has lectured at a number of international universities.Most significantly he has worked at Zaha Hadid Architects as a senior architect, involved in a broad range of projects from concept design to construction, located in different parts of the globe.Subsequently he has joined Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and has worked on the redevelopment of the Ex-Commonwealth Institute Masterplan in Kensington, London. A new venue for the Design Museum + three high-end residential buildings. He is currently Director at Ivan Valdez_Architects, a design practice winner of an invited design competition to design a four tower corporate building (14.300 m2) in La Paz, which is part of the office’ s built portfolio. Iván is also a design studio professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires and has been the former undergraduate school of architecture director.