Xavi Laida Aguirre

Assistant Professor of Architecture

Xavi Laida Aguirre [SHAH-bee] is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Founder/Director of the architectural design practice stock-a-studio, an award winning practice based in Boston and Detroit. With equal interests in the entertainment and the utilitarian realms, they create digital/physical cultural productions, develop material techniques and assemble architectures that consider our relationship to circular resources, aesthetics and supply systems. Projects include: a solar powered mobile XR kiosk, a used furniture rescue project, an arts gathering hub in Berlin and they are the designer behind someparts: a line of perpetually reassemble-able architectural kits. 

Aguirre’s work has been commissioned by Dartmouth College, MOCA Geffen, Superblue Miami, Design Core Detroit, Berghain Club, Materials & Applications, Queer Pile Up, Salone del Mobile Milan, and Oya Music Festival in Oslo. Their research has been published in e-flux, Pin-up magazine, Gradient Journal and Art Papers and has been profiled by the New Yorker. They hold a B.A. from Northeastern University in Political Science and a Master’s of Architecture from California State Polytechnic Pomona. 


They are currently a 2021/2022 Mellon Researcher at the Canadian Center for Architecture for the collaborative project ‘The Digital Now: Architecture and Intersectionality’ and one of the recipients of the 2022 Architectural League Prize. They previously taught at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where they were the 2017-18 William Muschenheim Fellow. They are currently designing ‘Sonic Hub’, an experimental music and performance space at Dartmouth College in collaboration with T+E+A+M, developing several large scale installations and starting MxM - Mixed Matters Lab (Working Title), a XR production lab they are founding at MIT.