Gabriel Castro-Andrade

Gabriel Castro-Andrade is an Ecuadorian and Catracho American from Highland Ave in Orange, NJ. He is a Master of Architecture Candidate '25 with a concentration on the relationships between labor, grief, and migration within the built environment across the Americas. His design work, both in studio and within professional practice, focuses on purposely missing between the interiors and urbanism. Working across scales as directed by the political economies of absence, construction, and self-recognition.

His current research examines the long-term occupational health of construction laborers, considering their trade and material specialty. He also conducts ethnographic studies on how U.S. immigration and labor laws subsidize industry at the expense of laborers' overall well-being.

Prior to MIT, Gabriel studied at the University of Virginia, earning a B.S. in Pre-Professional Architecture. His studies revolved around Architecture and Architectural History, with a specialization in Urban Cybernetics. He has worked at firms such as Ennead Architects, New Affiliates, and Seviva Design, where he contributed to projects spanning urban design, architecture, interiors, and digital interfaces (UI/UX).

In addition to his architectural work, Gabriel has served as a design researcher in urban policy, working for the Federal Chambers of Commerce and the Smart Environment Lab at UVA. He has also taught architectural design to students from the graduate, undergraduate, high schooler, and middle schooler level.