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I kind of think of design generally as problem solving.
I like to say that design is a journey... “exploración colectiva.”
It's about iterating, trying again, getting feedback,
and updating.
Design is a creative toolset to advocate for justice and equity.
Design is not just beauty and aesthetics.
I think when I tell my friends I'm a designer,
they think I just design beautiful stuff.
And of course, I design beautiful stuff,
but they're also practical, functional, and optimized.
Design is not exclusive or exclusionary.
You know, I don't think you have to be a professional designer
to design.
I think it's really just about taking action.
What do you research?
I use my design frameworks to create soft robots that
can gently interact with the world or work
in uncertain environments.
Designing structures to minimize the embodied carbon
based on where you're located in the world and what materials you
have access to.
Self-directed therapy chatbot for postpartum depression.
I'm developing tools and workflows
to enhance collaboration between humans, machines, and materials.
We aim to help people that live in informal settlements
to access the digital world and also
to secure their livelihoods.
I teach AI to design.
How disasters and their effects accumulate
for marginalized communities and what that means
in policy and urban design.
Discover and construct different types of structures that
can achieve extreme properties.
How to depart from the current construction industry,
from growing buildings with biomaterials to deploying advanced
3D printing technologies.
The way that we can design tools and systems
using what we know about sensory systems and the body
to improve our social connections and our learning.
Do you have a design hero?
Jane Jacobs was a journalist.
She established that cities and societies
should be focused on the human and not on big infrastructures.
I see her as my role model.
I love her.
Alberto López Gómez and every other Mexican artisan.
Minimalist or maximalist?
Definitely minimalist.
I think I live as a minimalist, and I design as a maximalist.
I think I've been a lifelong minimalist that's
slowly easing toward the dark side of maximalism.
What are your design superpowers?
I have a background in painting and sculpture.
And I think being able to combine
this kind of creative thinking with algorithm and computer
science is hopefully a little bit of a superpower for design.
To try and fail as quick as I can.
What is the biggest thing you've designed?
A malaria case detection project when
I was doing the Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa.
A greenhouse in Nepal.
We built it after one of the earthquakes.
The biggest thing I've designed is not in size but in meaning.
And it's a storefront for an Indigenous domestic worker
to help her recover from a disaster.
A 36-foot-tall timber tower where we repurposed discarded
tree logs into a materially efficient timber structure.
I'm from Argentina.
And I've been designing my life in order
to be here for a long time since I was a kid.
What is the smallest thing you've designed?
Right now, I'm using machine learning
to design different types of metamaterials.
And a few of the ones that we've 3D printed,
they're about the size of a piece of dust.
The box that I used to put the ring that
I used to propose to my wife.
What do you hope to achieve with this fellowship?
To form new collaborations and relationships
and expand my network within the design community.
Get a broader understanding of how to tackle
some of the world's biggest and most important design problems.
Interviewing pregnant women and clinicians
to better understand their needs and test our prototype.
Basically create the most generalizable design tool
possible and affect as many designers and practitioners
as possible with that.
What inspires you right now?
Right now, I'm really inspired by the mountains
and by structures that exist in nature.
I think it's fascinating how the world around us
evolves to optimal solutions that work really
well despite uncertainty.
Generative AI and how that could really change the way
we interface with making objects and designing things
in our physical environment.
Favorite design tool?
I probably have to say pencil.
Paper.
Figma.
I would like to say maybe my hands,
but I'd have to go with a 3D printer.
I love 3D printers.
They're my babies.
Wow, that's terrible.
What are you excited about when you think of the fellowship?
Oh, I'm excited to see what everyone else is doing.
To be surrounded by people who can do things I cannot —
that's when I'm the best version of myself.
I think that's the community I'll find here.