Beatriz Ramo Lopez de Angulo
Zaragoza (Spain), 1979.
Beatriz Ramo is a Spanish architect, urban designer, researcher and writer living in the Netherlands.
She is a recognised critical voice in architecture, particularly in the field of collective housing, where she challenges the ongoing standardisation of housing production. She argues that the housing crisis is also a design crisis, questioning the assumption that the shortage can be solved through production alone. Her work—across research, writing, and built projects—develops concrete design strategies for adaptable and affordable housing that respond to the diversity and evolving needs of contemporary households, advancing a clear position that challenges prevailing models of housing design and production. In 2024, Beatriz was awarded the ARVHA National French Prize for Women in Architecture for her housing research and experimental housing project START-Ivry.
She graduated from the Technical School of Architecture in Valencia (ETSAV), Spain. In 2002, she received a scholarship to study at the TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands. She worked for Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), where she participated in projects such as the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas, before founding her office, STAR strategies + architecture, in Rotterdam in 2005.
Since 2007, Beatriz Ramo has been a guest lecturer at various architecture, urbanism, and interior design institutions in the Netherlands, such as the Academies of Architecture in Amsterdam and Tilburg and the Sandberg Institute. Beatriz is regularly invited as a guest critic at several European architecture schools, including the Berlage Institute, AHO in Oslo, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, or the ACU – Ateliers de Création Urbaine in Paris. She has been a jury member for several architecture competitions in France (e.g., Réinventer Paris), Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Norway, where she was the chairman of the jury for the Europan 12 competition.
Beatriz Ramo has lectured internationally and participated in public debates at leading cultural and academic institutions, including the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine and Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris, the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, the National Art Gallery in Vilnius, the SCA in Buenos Aires, LUCA in Luxembourg, ENSA in Versailles, Architecture Club in Kiev, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, and the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
Beatriz received several grants, including FVBK grants from the Dutch government for young practices at the beginning of her career, and two grants from the Creative Industries Fund in 2025 to further deepen her research into procurement methods that strengthen the role of architects within the development process and to develop a publication on her housing research and built-case experimental project START-Ivry, aimed at improving housing conditions.
Since 2008, she has been the managing contributing editor of MONU – Magazine on Urbanism, and a member of its editorial board, where she has collaborated since its first issue. For MONU, Beatriz has, among others, conducted interviews with key figures in contemporary architectural discourse, including Adolfo Natalini (Superstudio), Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Petra Blaisse, Reinier de Graaf, Floris Alkemade, Winy Maas, and Bjarke Ingels.
In 2012, Beatriz was nominated in the discipline of architecture for the “Young Talents in Architecture” programme organised by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. From 2012 to 2016, she served on the Scientific Committee of the AIGP – Atelier International du Grand Paris, advising the French government on housing issues.
Beatriz has maintained a critical view on architecture and has written several essays over the years, including O’Mighty-Green, The Re-creation of the European City, In the Name of the Past: Countering the Preservation Crusades, or The Housing Crisis Is Also a Design Crisis.
With her office STAR, she has led projects across very different scales and programmes, with a sustained focus on collective housing—a field she considers the most profound and impactful work an architect can undertake. Her work develops proposals that elevate housing to the level of social infrastructure, with a particular focus on adaptability, long-term use, and spatial efficiency.