GIA evolves into Built4Life Lab

Established in 2017, GIA consolidated its research trajectory under the leadership of Belinda López-Mesa, achieving recognition as a Reference Research Group by the Government of Aragón in two consecutive calls.

In 2023, the group entered a new stage by adopting the name Built4Life Lab, while maintaining its continuity as the same recognised research group and its status as a Reference Research Group.

Also in 2023, Lucía C. Pérez-Moreno joined Belinda López-Mesa as co-director of the group. This shared leadership reflects the consolidation of Built4Life Lab around two main research lines: Tech–Inhabitāre, led by Belinda López-Mesa, which explores how we conceive, construct and transform the built environment in response to changing relationships between humans, technology and nature, while developing models, tools, strategies and practical initiatives to support its sustainable transformation; and Socio–Inhabitāre, led by Lucía C. Pérez-Moreno, which explores architectural history and theory through gender studies, feminist theory, inclusion and diversity, critically revisiting architectural narratives and developing new ways of understanding and disseminating architectural culture. Each line develops its own research projects and expertise, while their intersections provide a space for integrated approaches to the built environment.

The new name reflects this maturity and provides a more distinctive identity for the group’s research. Built4Life expresses a broad understanding of the built environment as something created for life: addressing environmental challenges, supporting more inclusive ways of inhabiting, and reconsidering the relationships between buildings, people and nature — building habitats for all beings.