Juan Miró

Professor Juan Miró, FAIA LEED AP was born in Barcelona and obtained his professional degree at the Escuela de Arquitectura of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. In 1989, he earned a Fulbright Scholarship to complete a post-professional Master’s degree at Yale University, where he was awarded the William Edward Parsons Memorial Medal. He has been a faculty member at the UT School of Architecture since 1997.

Since 1998, Professor Miró has directed Studio Mexico, a program at the UTSOA that affords students the opportunity to travel to Mexico to study Mexican architecture and design. Professor Miró has lectured and written on Mexican Architecture with a special focus on the ancient city of Teotihuacan. In his teaching, practice, and research Professor Miró explores the connections between architectural design, placemaking, nature, and the relevance of history. Professor Miró was named a Distinguished Professor by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and is a member of UT’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He has received both the Texas Society of Architects’ Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions and the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. 

Starting in 2020, Professor Miró championed a multiyear, grassroots effort that led to banning the construction of new windowless bedrooms in West Campus and throughout Austin after learning that many of his students were housed in windowless rooms during the pandemic. The movement included op-eds for ArchDaily and Texas Architect; a petition that gathered over 800 signatures; outreach to Austin City Council; and interviews with local, state, and national news outlets. Juan is also a thought leader on urban development, using Austin as a case study for “The Landscape City” and making the case for American architects and planners to draw lessons from pre-Columbian civilizations and Latin America, rather than from European models. 

Professor Miró is a principal at Miró Rivera Architects, an architectural firm based in Austin. The firm works on a variety of projects spanning from urban design to institutional and commercial buildings to residential architecture. The firm was recognized as the 2023 recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts Award in Architecture and has garnered over 100 design awards, including the AR Emerging Architecture Award, Texas Architecture Firm Award, and numerous local, state, and national AIA Awards. Miró Rivera Architects has been included on lists of top architecture firms on ArchDaily, Archello, and Architizer. The firm’s work has been extensively featured worldwide in numerous exhibitions and many prestigious publications, including Architectural Record, The Architectural Review, Architectural Digest, and The New York Times. In 2020 the firm published its first monograph, entitled Miró Rivera Architects: Building a New Arcadia through University of Texas Press. 

Professor Miró is an active member of the American Institute of Architects. In 2011, he was elevated to the organization’s College of Fellows.

EDUCATION