Research Bio
Professor Gutierrez is an innovator at the intersection of architecture and materials engineering, exploring the invention of materials from nano to building scales. Her research focuses on the radical innovation of construction biomass materials and water recycling capacities in regions under severe water challenges, both drought and flooding.
Gutierrez's research and design have been featured in leading scientific and architectural journals, including Science, as well as public forums such as Science Nation and the BBC. She is the recipient of various scientific and design awards, including the 2024 National Science Foundation Convergence Award, the 2024 Bakar Prize, the RIBA 2020 President's Medal of Research Award (Climate Change/shortlisted), semi-finalist of the 2014 Buckminster Fuller Award, the 2010 Emerging Frontiers National Science Foundation Award, and the 2010 ACSA Creative Achievement Award. Her design work has been featured in prominent venues, including the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the 2025 São Paulo Architecture Biennale, and the Field Museum in Chicago.
She has developed extensive fieldwork in remote regions, including in the Americas, on advancing sustainability, health, and equity in construction innovation in remote zones, such as the Northwestern Amazon, including her leadership as Senior Fellow for the Energy Climate Partnership of the Americas (2011-16) and a Nexus Fulbright Fellow. She has two forthcoming books: Regeneration Wall (2026, Routledge) and The Forest, The Fields, 3D Printing Now and Then (2026, Cambridge Scholars), as well as two provisional patents on 3D printing innovation. Gutierrez holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Building Science/Materials Engineering from the University of Cambridge. She has three provisional patents in additive manufacturing and solar greywater disinfection and energy generation.
Research Expertise and Interest
biomass, natural waste composites and additive manufacturing, flood resilience
In the News
Bakar Prize Recipient Maria Paz Gutierrez Showcases Project at Biennale Architettura 2025
2024 Bakar Prize Recipients Target Skin Disease, Spintronics and Tree Bark
Biowalls to Spare the Air
Architect named Fulbright NEXUS scholar for Western Hemisphere research on sustainable, affordable housing
María-Paz Gutierrez, a University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor of architecture, has been named to the 2011-2012 Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Scholar Program as part of a 20-member team working to promote best practices in fighting poverty and inequality in the Western Hemisphere. She will be focusing on building a sustainable, affordable housing prototype for deployment in an emergency, especially flooding.
NSF funds interdisciplinary team's grey water disinfection plan
A UC Berkeley team has been awarded a $2 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for research on biologically-inspired technologies for grey water reuse and thermal energy management that may propel sustainable building into a new era.The grant comes from the NSF’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation’s 2010 Science in Energy and Environmental Design program for engineering sustainable buildings. Leading UC Berkeley’s award-winning research team as principal investigator is Maria Paz-Gutierrez, assistant professor of architecture in the College of Environmental Design, and the only architect serving as principal investigator for any of the NSF’s eight EFRI-SEED grants this year.