He graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid with Honors and obtained an MARCH2 degree from Harvard GSD with Distinction. He worked at OMA in Rotterdam prior to establishing first FOA in 1993, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo architecture in 2011, the vehicles where he has developed a successful international professional practice since. In parallel to his professional activities, Alejandro Zaera-Polo has developed a substantial role within academia. He is currently the dean of the school of architecture at Princeton University and was the former Dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. He was a Visiting Professor at Princeton University and the inaugural Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor at Yale. He has published extensively as a theorist in El Croquis, Quaderns, A+U, Arch+, Volume, Log and many other international magazines and is a member of the London School of Economics Urban Age project. He has recently published Sniper’s Log, a compilation of his most relevant writings. Alejandro Zaera Polo's award-winning projects include the Yokohama International Cruise Terminal in Japan, noted for its use of dramatic form, innovative materials, and fascination with the interplay of architecture, landscape, and nature, credited by the Design Museum as a design sensation alive with bustling urbanity and seaside tranquillity. Other projects include a new building for Ravensbourne in Greenwich, the John Lewis Department Store, Cineplex and Footbridges in Leicester, Carabanchel Social Housing in Madrid, Meydan Retail Complex and Multiplex in Istanbul, the Spanish Pavilion at the 2005 International Expo in Aichi, a large coastal park with outdoor auditoriums in Barcelona, a Municipal Theatre and Auditorium in Torrevieja, La Rioja Technology Transfer Centre in Logrono and the Dulnyouk Publishing Headquarters in Paju, South Korea. AZPA’s current projects in the UK include Birmingham New Street Station in Birmingham and Trinity EC3 office complex in the City of London. In Spain, AZPA is involved in a new Hospital in Lleida, a Biotechnology centre in Barcelona, the redevelopment of the Santander Waterfront, including the design of a new ferry terminal and the yacht club which will host the World Cup in 2014, the Gurrutxaga Winery in Lekeitio and the Cerezales Foundation. AZPA is also involved in the development of two high-rise residential towers in Busan, Korea and the Locarno cinema film festival headquarters in Switzerland. The work of Alejandro Zaera-Polo has been widely published and exhibited, and represented Britain at the 8th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002; he has received the Enric Miralles Prize for Architecture, five RIBA Awards, the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale Award, and the Charles Jencks Award for Architecture.
