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 spaces emphasize precise proportions and a sense of spatial freedom.

MISSION

Habitable Studio creates
transformable environments
for living, working, and playing,
indoors and outdoors.
HABITABLE emphasizes flexibility and elegance across projects of multiple scales.

Thoughtful simplicity, meticulous materiality, and adept play with light define our approach.
DESIGN SERVICES

Human-scale urban desgin
Joyful living environments
Adaptable Furniture
Design Consultations
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

PH.D. ARCHITECT & DESIGN CONSULTANT
MARTA@HABITABLE.STUDIO

Marta Rodriguez started her career as an architect in 2004 at OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture)/Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. She was part of the team that won the international competition to design the New Court Rothschild Bank in London.

In 2006, while working at an Engineering company (Ingenor) in Madrid, she won the first prize in the competition for designing the new University Library of the South Campus of the UPM in Madrid. From 2007 to 2009, Marta collaborated with Lahoz Lopez Architects in designing and developing schools and hospitals, including the expansion of the Toledo National Hospital of Paraplegics and San Gil Abad Public School in Cuenca.

In 2008, she initiated her own practice in Madrid, winning several awards in public architectural competitions. These included the first prize in a competition for designing a University Research Center for the University of Valladolid (2010), the second prize for designing a research & classroom building facility for the UVA (2009), and the second prize in the architectural competition for building Affordable Housing for Young People in Cordoba (2008).

In 2013, after extensive studies at UC Berkeley and Science Po in Paris, and research in Tokyo, Marta earned her Ph.D. in Architecture (ETSAM), specializing in Japanese architecture and French Design. Interview

Subsequently, she moved to Houston in 2014, becoming an Associate Professor (tenured since 2020) at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. Her recent work reimagines urban spaces to foster community engagement and social interaction, transforming underutilized areas into vibrant public places while challenging traditional notions of architecture and design to promote inclusivity and ecological awareness.

In 2020, Marta founded HABITABLE Studio, a design firm focused on creating healthy, inclusive, and transformable environments, indoors and outdoors.

Marta's research-driven design approach has been featured in numerous design and architecture publications. In 2021, she authored a book on Charlotte Perriand and Kazuyo Sejima, a manifesto reflecting her philosophy that advocates bringing a more humanistic and ecological sensitivity into the built environment. Marta has also created an online journal, Habitable City, which promotes a more egalitarian, connected, safe, and livable city.

HABITABLE TEAM

+ Marta Rodriguez
Founder & Principal - Professor, Author, and Design Consultant.

+ 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

New Court Rothschild Bank
London, UK (2005-2011)

OMA's design for New Court is the fourth iteration of Rothschild's London headquarters, all of them built on the increasingly dense and architecturally rich site on St. Swithin's Lane, a narrow medieval alley in the heart of the City.

The building offers the opportunity to reinstate a visual connection between St. Swithin's Lane and St. Stephen's Walbrook. Instead of competing as accidental neighbors, the church and New Court forms a twinned urban ensemble, an affinity reinforced by the proportional similarity of their towers.

The new building unites all of Rothschild's London staff in one location for the first time in decades. A reading room and space for displaying the family's archive ground the new building in the bank's illustrious history.”

The central cube has a distinctive repeated pattern of structural steel columns embedded in the façade. At street level, the entire cube is lifted to create generous pedestrian access to the tall glass lobby and a covered forecourt that opens a visual passage to St. Stephen's Walbrook and its churchyard - creating a surprising moment of transparency in the otherwise constrained opacity of the medieval streetscape.

New Court is made up of a central cube of ten efficient and flexible open-plan office floors - which facilitate views over St. Stephen's and the surrounding City - linked to four adjoining annexes, with meeting rooms, enclosed offices, vertical circulation, reception areas, and a staff cafe and gym. The top of this central cube features a landscaped roof garden with outdoor meeting areas. This in turn is overlooked by an adjacent Sky Pavilion - a small tower with three double-height storeys peering out over the city - which houses meeting and dining rooms and a multifunctional panorama room with extraordinary and unfamiliar views across the City, including St. Paul's Cathedral. © OMA

Published in Arquitectura Viva - AV Monographs 178-179: Rem Koolhaas OMA/AMO 2000-2015

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

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