Pablo De Soto

(Gijón, 1977)

Experimental architect, cartographer and teacher. Master in Architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a PhD in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Director of LABoral Center for Art and Industrial Creation.

He works at the intersection of art and architecture with digital media technologies exploring new conceptual frameworks and cutting-edge tools. His research uses fieldwork, radical cartography and critical epistemologies to produce spatial knowledge and investigate today's political and environmental context. He was co-founder of hackitectura.net between 2000 and 2011, a group of architects, computer scientists and activists who pioneered a wide range of experimental architecture projects on uses of hardware, software and the Internet in public spaces. In 2010 he launched Mapping the Commons, an experimental method and participatory research project on urban commons. In 2015 he created Drone Hackademy, a citizen science laboratory and critical theory platform for the use and discussion of unmanned aerial vehicles as a social technology.

He has been recognized with the following awards: NTNU AiR Award 2019, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; DKV LABoral 2018 Award, organized by LABoral Centro de Arte & DKV; 2013 Elinor Ostrom Award, for the Democracy, Society, New Economies Program, University of Buenos Aires; 2011 Tokyo Wonder Site Artist in Residence; 2009 EME3 Barcelona Architecture Festival Award, Laboratory Category Award; 2009 Artist in Residence at Townhouse Gallery Cairo; 2007 LAB_Joven Experimenta Award, LABoral Center for Art and Industrial Creation; 2007 LAB_Ciberespacios Award, LABoral Center for Art and Industrial Creation and the 2006 Plaza de las Libertades Seville International Architecture Competition Award.