Rocio Crosetto Brizzio
Crosetto joins MIT as the Pietro Belluschi Fellow. Rocio is an Argentinian architect and co-founder of the architecture office Balsa Crosetto Piazzi, based in Argentina and the US. Founded in 2018, their work has been awarded and exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Ibero-American Biennial, and the Argentinian Biennial, among others. The practice focuses on architecture across multiple scales, from the design and construction of projects to research, writing, and curatorial work.
Rocio has taught design studios and seminars at Columbia University in New York, Syracuse University, NY, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina, Universidad Nacional de Asunción in Paraguay, and Universidad Andres Bello in Chile. She has served as a guest critic at universities in the US, Europe, and Latin America and has given lectures at various national and international congresses in Spain, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, the United States and Argentina.
Rocio’s academic research explores the relationships between technologies, ecologies, and politics, understanding these as components of a designed reality that fosters unorthodox networks of power and shapes different ways of living together. She has been an editor at PATIO Magazine, a publication on Latin American architecture and culture in New York City.
Balsa Crosetto Piazzi has received awards in various professional competitions, including the First Prize for the Design and Restoration of the National Argentinian Bank Historic Headquarters, the First Prize for the Design of the Manuel Belgrano Square in Villa Allende, Córdoba, and a short-listed selection for the Design and Curation of the Argentine Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennial, with the project "Invisible Structures."
Crosetto earned her degree in Architecture from the School of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, and holds a Master’s Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. At Columbia, Rocio received the Dean's Scholarship award and graduated with honors, receiving the William Ware Prize for Excellence in Design and the Saul Kaplan Traveling Fellowship.