MC Pérez Gutiérrez

Biography

PhD Architect that has combined for more than twenty years her hybrid research with the work as structural building consultant and teaching at University in the field of Building Structures.

Her interest in high-rises began more than fifteen years ago. It started bearing its fruits in 2010 when she published her PhD Dissertation: Evolution of the Spanish high-rise structural systems. Madrid, Barcelona, Benidorm. (cum laude).

In this research she could integrate the history of the world tall buildings, how they influenced the Spanish high-rises and the specific challenges of their building structure. Furthermore, how its structural type was chosen to meet the Architecture requirements.

She took part as speaker in some specialized international congresses, as:
• CSIC 2011, Vertical Milestones as economical thermometer. Skyscrapers versus crisis
• IABSE 2014 2020 Skyscrapers, Challenge or Mistake?
She wrote some book chapters regarding tall building issues as:
• TIMES and CITIES Time and Symbolism
• Monografía ACHE 20-21. Proyecto Edificios Altos. Realizaciones.
She also gave talks in several Universities:
• 2021 New York Institute of Technology Towards the slimmest.
• 2017 UFV New York Skyscrapers: the highest, the proudest, the slimmest
• 2014 ETSAM. UPM. Condicionantes de Diseño. Towers Architectural Tools.
Linked with tall buildings special features, she started to research in the field of Performance-Based design. She was part of the team ESPIA-H funded by Banco de Santander to develop research to apply Performance-Based design to fire safety and accessibility. Because of this project, she collaborated in the contribution: Managing Sustainability through Risk Characterization in the Built Environment. where the team explains with an example that has to do with energy consumption how performance-based codes might offer the opportunity to really match building needs, costs, and benefits. Sustainability involves many biases and perspectives not only when facing new projects but also when tackling existing ones. This also affects to the building structure design.

In some of the building structures calculations she was in charge of, this performance-based method was applied. For example, in the building for Fundación Cetal (Lugo, Spain) designed by the architect Jacobo Bouzada and awarded by the CSAE.

In her University, San Pablo CEU, she combines tasks as Academic Secretary (since 2007, part of the Institute of Technology direction team) with teaching.

She has been giving classes linked with Structural Analysis (statically determinate and indeterminate systems, dimensioning of structures, structural design…) since 1999. Since 2012 she is also part of the final thesis project panel. She has evaluated together with Architects from other Universities and practitioners, more than 500 projects.

Teaching Structural Analysis to Architects is a challenge. That is why she and her colleagues (INDAGAN team, funded by Banco de Santander) have developed many activities (some of them awarded with Teaching Innovation prizes) to make the students work for it: Competitions in the Lab (spaghetti trusses, balsa wood beams, frames, grids); betting systems, structural battles, Scape Rooms… The research findings were shared in congresses and contributions as:
• INTED 2016. Towards the challenge of coincidence between the required skills and the skills acquired by the students. Our experience example: balsa wood grids design competition evolution.
• I CEUCIED 2020. Preparación de los exámenes mediante juegos de escape competitivos.
• II CEUCIED 2021. QUAERO: El juego académico diseñado para la participación de estudiantes presenciales y virtuales (síncronos y asíncronos)
• III CEUCIED2023. STEM without EXAMS. Risk or opportunity?
• 2022 Could Innovation Activities Improve the Students Learning Process?: Making the Students Work for It – Also Online
This performance-based way of teaching, struggling to find the essential concepts students must understand and the best way of accompanying them along the learning process is linked with some of her contributions as building structures consultant in projects as Campo Baeza “de Blas House”, “Guerrero House”, or “Olnick Spanu House”, widely published in specialized bibliography.

Since 2018 she has been part, as codirector, of another challenging program where research and teaching innovation meet: training students with intellectual disability as Universal Accessibility Consultants. This diploma is funded by ONCE and FSE. Its success relies on the inclusive classes and activities. Students of different degrees (Architecture, Engineering, Visual Communication, Psychology) work in teams together with students with disability. Each one understanding their role in the team. This course was awarded with the San Pablo CEU Teaching Innovation Prize.