Projects

Curatorial platform

The architectural curatorial project IAC is a platform for the promotion, provocation, and dissemination of architecture, with a primary focus on Latin America—formerly DistopíaLab. Through a range of public formats, it establishes relationships between diverse practices across the continent and fosters a plural dialogue through both theoretical and project-based tools. By enabling spaces for exchange and exhibition, it stimulates discussions on architecture, the arts, culture, communication, politics, and society, while constructing a tangible continental network. From 2009 to 2017, the International Architecture Festival IAC was held annually in Maracaibo, Venezuela—and in 2015 in Medellín, Colombia—bringing together over 150 architects and creators working across curatorial practice, the arts, design, and culture, from countries including the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, among others, with a total attendance of more than 6,000 participants.

Programs developed through the IAC curatorial project range from the International Architecture Festival and Diario— presented at the São Paulo Architecture Biennale 2019 — to exhibitions, interventions, and public platforms such as Actions on a Closed Pavilion (Maracaibo–Venice), Panorama, The Public Night, Parasite, SUB40—Emerging Architecture in Venezuela, Interval, and Works and Projects in Ibero-America, as well as Sala Base and La Sala, among others.

Participants (2009–2017):
Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Urban Think Tank, Adamo & Faiden, Supersudaca, Camilo Restrepo, Derek Dellekamp, Gualano + Gualano, Franco Micucci, Paisajes Emergentes, Al Borde, Antonio Yemail, Ecosistema Urbano, Triptyque, Ariadna Cantis, Alejandro Haiek, Lourdes Peñaranda, Roberto Puchetti, ODA, NMD Nómadas, Andrés Jaque, West 8, PLAN B, Francisco Pardo, Elisa Silva, Cadaval & Solà-Morales, Cristina Goberna, Urtzi Grau, Zuloark, Manuel Villa, Solano Benítez, PRODUCTORA, Álvaro Puntoni, Eva Franch, Henry Vicente, CTRL-G, PKMN, Willy Müller, Tomás Díez, Beatrice Galilee, Mauricio Rocha, Gabriela Carrillo, Carla Juaçaba, Henry Rueda, Langarita-Navarro, Handel Guayasamín, Miguel Braceli, Ignacio Cardona, Glocal Studio, AGA Estudio, PRO-A, Daniel Belandria, Assemble, Grupo Talca, Jorge Pérez Jaramillo, Luis Callejas, OPUS, Daniel Feldman, Estudio Altiplano, CAMPO, Iván Darío Quiñones, Latitud, LANZA Atelier, SIAA, RAMA Estudio, Entrenos Atelier, Adjkm, Taller 25, Central Arquitectura, Incursiones, maan, Colectivo Caso, MAT, Juan Pablo Astudillo, Daniela Atencio, Proyecto Colectivo, NONES Arquitectura, Luis Ángel González, Víctor Sánchez Taffur, Carla Urbina, José Naza, PICO Colectivo, among others.

Teaching

Operating across the intersections of architecture, curatorial practice, exhibition and ephemeral design, communication, and cultural management, our work engages in writing, drawing, inventing, and constructing stories and spaces. Within this framework, academia plays a fundamental role in the processes we undertake.

Through experimentation, research, and academic exercises, we challenge the traditional boundaries of professional practice, provoking new conversations and debates that engage with politics, space, culture, and society, in an ongoing attempt to shape the discipline of architecture.

Maximillian Nowotka has participated as a lecturer, professor, and juror at various institutions and universities across Europe and Latin America.

Selected teaching work

Spacial representation

Mexico City

Tec de Monterrey

2026

Mexico City

Tec de Monterrey

2025

Mexico City

CENTRO

2025

Time Space Existence

Venice, Italy

European Cultural Center

2025

Possible futures

Lima, Perú

Lima Architecture Biennale

2021

Coporaque, Perú

Latinamerican Social Workshop

2013

Santiago, Chile

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

2010

LUZ-URU

Maracaibo, Venezuela

2009