Natalia Escobar Castrillón

Assistant Professor

• natalia.escobar@carleton.ca

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Natalia Escobar Castrillón is a licensed architect and a professor of Architecture and Social Justice. She holds a PhD in Architecture and a Master in Design from Harvard University, as well as a Masters in Architecture from the University of Seville. Prior to Carleton, Escobar Castrillón taught graduate courses and advised master students at Harvard University, Boston University, Chile Catholic University, and São Paulo University. Prof. Escobar Castrillón’s research and teaching work addresses questions of spatial justice, social equity, collective identity, immigration and displacement, and representation in the built environment. Her publications unpack the complexities of contested buildings and sites worldwide, and discuss the role of design and narrative-making in supporting or silencing social groups. She has taught courses on these topics pursuing engagement practices with local communities.

She has been awarded grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Spanish Ministry of Education (TALENTIA), the Jorge Paulo Lemann Foundation, the David Rockefeller Foundation, the Harvard Asia Center, and the São Paulo Academic Research Foundation (FAPESP), among others, which allow her to pursue fieldwork in Europe, Latin America, and Asia where she studied the intersection of architecture with questions of power, gender, race, and social class through the work of architects Lu Wengyu and Wang Shu, and Lina Bo. More recently, Prof. Escobar was awarded a Carleton-SSHRC Development Grant to produce visualizations of oppression and resilience of migrant populations in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank. This work been presented in conferences and accepted for publication in the upcoming Journal from the Society for the Study of Canadian Architecture.

Prof. Escobar Castrillón is also the founder of the architectural journal Oblique that received the AIA NY Center for Architecture Publications Award and aims to revise hegemonic historic narratives through innovative design practices and discourses. She is also the founder of Foreign-Futures design lab, where she collaborates with local and international partners to develop equity-centered approaches to urban planning and design.