Alejandro del Castillo

Alejandro del Castillo Sánchez is an architect trained at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM-UPM), with further studies in Urban Planning at Oxford Brookes University and postgraduate qualifications in Humanitarian Settlements, WASH in International Development and Emergencies, and City and Environment.

For more than 18 years, he has combined architectural practice, humanitarian action, research and teaching across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. His work focuses on architecture, human settlements and the transformation of the built environment in contexts of vulnerability, with particular attention to low-resource housing, climate resilience, adaptive design, inclusive infrastructure and participatory processes.

A significant part of his recent work has focused on climate-resilient construction and the adaptation of buildings and settlements to increasingly frequent climate and environmental stresses. He has contributed to the development of methodologies, technical guidance and capacity-strengthening processes related to resilient infrastructure, safer construction, environmental performance and the integration of climate considerations into humanitarian and development programmes.

Alongside his professional practice, he has taught in Master’s and postgraduate programmes and as a visiting lecturer at several universities. He is currently developing his PhD research on subtraction and minimum-intervention processes in the contemporary city.

In 2011, he co-founded n’UNDO, an architectural and urban practice exploring strategies of Not Doing, Redoing and Undoing as alternatives to continuous expansion and new construction. Its work has received several national and international recognitions, including the Spanish National Urban Planning Award in 2022.

He currently works as Global Construction Adviser at Save the Children International, combining technical leadership with strategic support on human settlements, resilient infrastructure and climate adaptation.