Rodrigo García González
Rodrigo García González graduated in Architecture at the Technical University of Madrid (ETSAM) in 2009 and also completed various PhD courses in advanced architecture at his alma mater.
In 2006, the architect student joined an EU Asia-Link sustainable humane habitat program that included stints at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University in India. He also won a SMILE scholarship to study industrial design at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile for one year. In 2011, he obtained a scholarship to study industrial design and business at Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden. In 2014, he completed two master’s programs in innovation design engineering run by London’s Imperial College and Royal College of Art.
In July 2014, he co-founded Skipping Rocks Lab, that was later pivoted into Notpla, a UK-based startup that develops compostable and edible packaging materials made of seaweed and other plants.
Since 2007, he has worked with various institutions in Europe, Latin America and the US including Cornell University, CEPT, Imperial College and Royal College of Art. In 2016, he became a senior lecturer for a degree program in product and furniture design at Kingston University.
He has two patents for his work on structural and deployable systems. His designs have also been featured in prestigious art centers like the Cite de l'Architecture of Paris and the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Other projects include the Hop! suitcase that can follow the user by tracking the signal of the user’s mobile phone and Aer, an artificial cloud that can evaporate “drinkable” water from the sea. He also developed Zipizip, an architectural system that enables the construction of several floors of a building in a few hours.
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