Lara Lesmes

Lara Lesmes is an architect and educator with over 10 years international experience in teaching and practice. Together with Fredrik Hellberg she directs the research and design practice Space Popular.

Founded in bangkok in 2013 and based in London and Spain since 2016, Space Popular creates spaces, objects, and events in both physical and virtual space, concentrating on how the two realms will blend together in the near future. It has completed buildings, exhibitions, public artworks, furniture collections, and interiors across Asia and Europe, as well as virtual architecture in the Immersive Internet. Clients, collaborators, and commissioners include national institutions such as The Clients, collaborators, and commissioners include national institutions such as The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design –ArkDes, Stockholm, the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, Sir John Soane Museum in London as well as independent galleries such as MAGAZIN, Vienna, and Sto Werkstatt, London.

Lesmes graduated from the Architectural Association in 2011, after which she joined the International Architecture Program INDA at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok as Second Year Coordinator and Public Programme Manager between 2011 and 2016. At INDA she also founded the academic research unit Tools for Architecture together with Fredrik Hellberg.

Between 2016 and 2021, Lesmes, together with Fredrik Hellberg, directs an MArch design and research unit at the Architectural Association in London, investigating visions for civic architecture in the virtual realm. Between 2020 and 2022 they also taught a research master studio, Landscape and Design, at Daniels, Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto, and since 2022 Lesmes and Hellberg teach an MArch studio at UCLA AUD in Los Angeles investigating visions for civic architecture in the immersive internet.