Andrea Bardón de Tena

Andrea Bardon de Tena is a Registered Architect and Ph.D. Candidate at the Polytechnical University of Madrid [ETSAM]. She holds both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the ETSAM, where her final thesis was awarded with the highest honors.

Her research focuses on the transformation that cultural hybridization and globalization produce in local vernacular architecture and territory over time. She is currently developing her Ph.D. dissertation about the Q'eqchi-Maya indigenous communities of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, where she has lived and worked. Her research has been exhibited at the 2018 Venice Biennale and has received several awards.

Since finishing her master's degree, she has combined practice and research with teaching. She taught final thesis’ studio and research tools’ courses at ETSAM. And, in 2021, she joined Tulane School of Architecture where she has taught several courses, coordinated the graduate summer courses, and worked as The ReView editor.

She has worked in different internationally recognized offices such as Burgos & Garrigo. There, she collaborated on a wide range of projects: from territory-landscape competitions to dwelling detail development. Last year, after years of independent practice and collaboration with other colleagues for social housing competitions and private commissions, she founded her firm Mendaro & Bardon de Tena, with Pia Mendaro. They are currently developing several projects focused on the reuse of obsolete rural typologies and the careful development of detail and materiality in architecture.