HABITABLE studio
DESIGN / ARCHITECTURE / CITYinfo@habitable.studio
t. (+1) 530 507 8896

PHILOSOPHY

Economy · Ecology · Elegance

A habitable space is one that changes just as our lives change.

HABITABLE Studio designs transformable environments across scales — from a single piece of furniture to an urban block — for living, working, and playing. Every project is guided by precise proportions, meticulous materiality, and a deep attention to light.

Small things make a big impact.

DESIGN SERVICES

Spatial Transformation

Joyful Spaces

Adaptable Furniture

Design Consultation
ARCHITECTURE / ART / URBAN DESIGN
“Marta’s expertise of maximizing small spaces is without compare.” Jay Marroquin, client.
FOUNDER

“Small is not only beautiful, small implies experimentation, ecology, economy, efficiency, and intimacy. Small things make a big impact!”

MARTA RODRIGUEZ

Neuroarchitecture Researcher · Design Consultant
marta@habitable.studio

A chair and a city are not as different as they seem. Both are environments that can support human life.

I started my career at OMA / Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, on the team that won the international competition for the New Court Rothschild Bank in London. Back in Madrid, I ran my own practice winning several public building competitions, while collaborating with Lahoz Lopez Architects on schools and hospitals.

In 2008 I began a research path that took me to Tokyo — funded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation — then to UC Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Japanese Studies, and to Sciences Po in Paris as a Visiting Fellow, where I co-led a seminar on Japanese urbanism with sociologist Adrian Favell. That research became my PhD, specializing in Japanese architecture and French design, reviewed by scholars from Japan and France. In 2017 I was Visiting Professor at TU Graz in Austria on an Erasmus+ grant.

In 2014 I joined the University of Houston as an Assistant Professor, tenured since 2020. In 2020 I founded HABITABLE Studio — a research-driven design practice. The work moves between scales: from the Ludens Prototype (an international competition in Japan exploring play and spatial freedom), to the Living Chair (an urban furniture landscape crafted from recycled materials), to the Pinocchio Children's Library in Italy (a world that unfolds like origami), to collective housing proposals for San Francisco, Oakland, and Amsterdam. The common thread is transformability — designing for how life actually changes.

I also founded Habitable City, a research and editorial platform with contributions from scholars at UC Berkeley, Rice, UT Austin, Harvard GSD, and others. In 2021 I published a book on Charlotte Perriand and Kazuyo Sejima.

My writing and design work have appeared in Metropolis, TAD, AV Proyectos, Pasajes Arquitectura y Crítica, and Cover, with a chapter published in Thames & Hudson's Architecture: The Whole Story. Presented at conferences across the US, Europe, Korea, and Japan. A piece invited by Harvard GSD is coming in 2026.

I am interested in design research, spatial innovation, and the future of how we design environments — from objects to cities — around the way people actually live.

HABITABLE TEAM

+ Marta Rodriguez, PhD
Founder & Principal - Professor, Author, and Urban Researcher.

+ Michael LindemannArchitectural Designer.

+ Collaborators since 2008:
Lené Fourie, Alejandra Velazquez, Dijana Handanovic, Tuan Mai, Ghazal Saliman, Ingrid Selse, Emine Canak, Eirik Erstad, Marta de las Heras, Alejandro Sanz, Rafael Ureña, Natalia Varela.

HABITABLE studio
DESIGN / ARCHITECTURE / CITYinfo@habitable.studio
t. (+1) 530 507 8896

PUBLICATIONS

MEDIA

Instagram

Habitable City
Promoting a more egalitarian, connected, safe, and LIVABLE city

Subtle Revolution
SMALL is not only beautiful but sustainable and has enabled architectural subtle revolution beyond borders and times.

LET’S TALK!
info@habitable.studio t. (+1) 530 507 8896

HABITABLE

DESIGN/ ARCHITECTURE/ CITY

Double City
EUROPAN 14, "Productive Cities," Amsterdam, NL (2018)

Double City, located in Amsterdam, on the north side of the IJ river, acts as a pivotal point between industrial and residential areas. The project proposes to reinvent the concept of a traditional or pre-industrial city. Urban renewal is based on combining habitation, innovation, and production to reinvigorate the fabric of the “European City.”

The project aims to maintain the benefits of Amsterdam’s identity while addressing the required increase of tripling the city’s density and offering an alternative experience for tourism. Inspired by the elevated streets of the Spangen Quarter (1919) and later theories of Team X, Double City proposes one city on top of the other with an elevated public market area in between.

Double City allows businesses, creators, and residents to live together in flexible spaces, provided by a sensible and complex mix of uses offered by an autonomous circular economy based on a modern integration of agriculture, research, and production into housing.

The intersection between the two cities becomes an open market area, which allows social interaction. Commercial passageways and little plazas, energized by productivity, offer a vibrant and livable ambiance full of restaurants, bakeries, and small shops.

The project is realized in three phases, with 285 units in total. Each unit contains sleeping, creative and manufacturing areas divided into equal proportions, with at least two different entrances. The traditional living room and kitchen become the creative and co-working space and can be rented to freelancers. Those spaces also act as “lanterns” to the entire community with 24-hour activity, recovering the scenography character of the traditional Dutch city. The sleeping areas each have the same dimension and act as micro-apartments, one of which is designed to be rented.

Project team: Marta Rodriguez +
Tuan Mai + Ingrid Selse + Emine Canak

CONTACT
info@habitable.studio
t. (+1) 530 507 8896

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