José Duarte

With more than 30 years of experience as a researcher in the use of digital technology to design and make mass-customized affordable housing, José has developed computational frameworks to implement these principles at different scales from materials design to housing and urban design. He uses AI and BIM technology to generate design solutions that meet user, site, and technical constraints. Using this approach, he led the development of the software platform used to successfully design PennStateDen@Mars habitat in NASA’s 3D-Printed Mars Habitat Challenge.

Prior to becoming a founder of X-Hab 3D, José was co-founder of the Additive Construction Laboratory (AddCon Lab) at Penn State, where he has served as director of the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing and Stuckeman Chair in Design Innovation since 2016. He is also professor of architecture and landscape architecture and affiliate professor of architectural engineering and engineering design at Penn State.

José has authored or co-authored more than 70 journal articles and 100 conference papers on the application of computation to architecture and urban design. Recently, he co-edited (with Branko Kolarevic) the book “Mass Customization and Design Democratization” (Routledge, NY, 2019) and his team was awarded 2nd place in the finals of the NASA 3D Printed Mars Habitat Challenge.

José holds a professional degree in Architecture from the Technical University of Lisbon and is a member of the Portuguese Architects Association. He also holds a S.M.Arch.S. and a Ph.D. in Design and Computation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.