Julia Capomaggi is an architect, scholar, educator, and practicing architect whose
work examines domestic space, interior typologies, housing systems, and the
integration of computational methods in design. She earned her initial Architecture
degree from the National University of Rosario (UNR) , followed by a
Master’s degree in Architecture: Criticism and Design Projects (2005) and a Diploma
of Advanced Studies (2006) from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB–
UPC), as well as a second Architecture degree from the Higher Technical School of
Architecture of Seville (ETSAS) in 2010. In 2015, she completed her PhD with
Summa Cum Laude at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) under
dissertation advisor Xavier Monteys Roig. Her doctoral thesis, Domus 1948–1978:
The Shaping of Domestic Interior Space Through Furniture, analyzed postwar
domesticity and interior spatial organization through specialized architectural media.
Alongside her academic research, Capomaggi established her design practice early
in her career. In 2000, she won First Prize in the provincial design competition for
Parque a la Bandera in Rosario, and in 2004 she received the Young Architects
Award (AJAC) from the Catalan Association of Architects for her linear urban park
project in San Pedro del Pinatar. In 2008, she was awarded First Prize in the
international Europan 9 competition for Landstrips in Zagreb, Croatia, a proposal
integrating varied residential typologies with surrounding rural landscapes and river
infrastructure.
From 2011 to 2021, Capomaggi taught at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
School of Architecture, serving as Clinical Assistant Professor and tenure-track
Associate Professor. During her time in Chicago, she maintained an active built
practice through Capomaggi+ . Her design for Dos Casas
(2018) in Carcarañá, Argentina—a single-family residential project reinterpreting
local handmade brick construction and traditional domestic layouts—received First
Prize in the AIA Chicago Small Projects Awards, Second Prize in the FADEA
National Architecture Award, and selection for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
(MCHAP) exhibition. Her built pavilion prototypes, including Quincho Leones and
Quincho Ituzaingó (2014), were selected for exhibition at the International Biennial of
Argentine Architecture (BIA-AR).
Capomaggi currently co-directs the architectural practice JL-Office alongside Lluís
Ortega. Her practice has delivered projects across scales, including the adaptive
reuse and parametric facade design of Xpace Digital Park in Hangzhou, China (built
in 2020 and recognized as a finalist for The Plan Award), as well as the modular
exhibition design for the 2022 and 2024 European Prize for Urban Public Space at
the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB).
In academia, Capomaggi is Serra Húnter Associate Professor and Master''s Program Coordinator
at the Universitat de Girona (UdG), having also served as Department Secretary and
taught at ETSAV–UPC and Elisava in Barcelona, UIC ( Chicago, USA), BAC ( Boston, USA) and UNR ( Rosario, Argentina).
Her recent research centers on the intersectionof residential design, data curation, and machine learning.
As a co-researcher on the nationally funded MALEAD project (2021–2024), she co-authored PUBLICPLAN
(2024), an open-access dataset of curated social housing layouts used to train and
evaluate AI models against spatial and ethical criteria. This research led to Recycling
Intelligences, an installation selected for exhibition at the 19th International
Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2025). She also serves as editor
for the scientific journal i2 Investigación e Innovación en Arquitectura y Territorio.