Beatriz Ramo NL
https://st-ar.nl/
Kipstraat 7B | 3011RR Rotterdam
Beatriz Ramo C.V.
1979: Born in Zaragoza, Spain.
1997-2005: Studies at the ETS Architecture in Valencia and the TU Eindhoven.
2003-2004: Works at OMA in Rotterdam.
2006: Founds STAR strategies + architecture in Rotterdam.
2006-…: Lecturer, guest critic and jury member at international institutions.
2007-…: Guest professor at several institutions in the Netherlands.
2008-…: Managing & contributing editor of MONU Magazine on Urbanism.
2009: Wins the international competition for “Mirador del Palmeral” in Elche, Spain, against MVRDV, SANAA, Ábalos, Lapeña & Torres.
2012: Nominated for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative.
2012-2016: Member of the Scientific Council of the AIGP - Atelier International du Grand Paris.
2015-2024: START-Ivry experimental housing project (288 dwellings, Ivry-sur-Seine, Greater Paris): competition win and realisation.
2024: The Cabanon, 7m² micro-apartment, Rotterdam.
2024: Wins ARVHA National Prize for Women in Architecture, category “Œuvre Originale” for START-Ivry.
2024-…: START-Ivry, Cabanon, Housing Research receive more than 60 international distinctions: Architizer (US), German Design Awards (DE), ADC-Art Directors Club Awards (US), AZURE (CA), FRAME (NL), Dezeen (UK), MIX (UK), Baffa Rivolta (IT).
2025: “Small Firm of the Year” by Archello Awards (NL).
2026-…: Works on the book on her housing research, the Inverse Method and START-Ivry.
Beatriz Ramo / STAR strategies + architecture
Beatriz Ramo
Beatriz Ramo is a Spanish architect, urban designer, and writer living in Rotterdam.
She is a recognised critical voice, especially in the field of collective housing, where she challenges the ongoing standardisation of housing production. Her research and built work advocate for adaptable designs that respond to the diversity and evolving needs of contemporary households—a position that has made a significant contribution to the debate on housing quality. She was awarded the ARVHA National French Prize for Women in Architecture in 2024 for her housing research and experimental project START-Ivry, comprising 288 affordable and adaptable dwellings.
She graduated from the Technical School of Architecture in Valencia (ETSAV), Spain. In 2002, she received a scholarship to study at the TU in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She worked for Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), where she participated in projects such as the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas, before founding her office, STAR strategies + architecture, in Rotterdam in 2005.
Since 2007, Beatriz Ramo has been a guest professor at various architecture, urbanism, and interior design institutions in the Netherlands, such as the Academies of Architecture in Amsterdam and Tilburg, the Sandberg Institute, and Stadslab. Beatriz has also been invited as a guest critic at several European architecture schools, including the Berlage Institute, AHO in Oslo, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, or the ACU – Ateliers de Création Urbaine in Paris. She has been a jury member for several architecture competitions in France (e.g., Réinventer Paris), Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Norway, where she was the chairman of the jury for the Europan 12 competition.
Beatriz Ramo has lectured internationally on architecture in general and the work of STAR in particular, at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris, the National Art Gallery in Vilnius, the SCA in Buenos Aires, ENSA in Versailles, Architecture Club in Kiev, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, Elisava School in Barcelona, the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, or the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.
Beatriz received several grants, including FVBK grants from the Dutch government for young practices at the beginning of her career, and two grants from the Creative Industries Fund in 2025: one to further develop research into procurement methods that strengthen the role of architects in the development process, such as the Inverse Method, and another to support a publication on her housing research and built-case experimental project START-Ivry, aimed at improving housing conditions.
Since 2008, she has been the managing contributing editor of MONU – Magazine on Urbanism, where she has collaborated since its first issue. For MONU, Beatriz has conducted interviews with renowned figures such as Winy Maas, Adolfo Natalini, Petra Blaisse, Reinier de Graaf, and Floris Alkemade.
In 2012, Beatriz was nominated in the discipline of architecture for the “Young Talents in Architecture” programme organised by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. From 2012 to 2016, she served on the Scientific Committee of the AIGP – Atelier International du Grand Paris, advising the French government on housing issues.
Beatriz has maintained a critical view on architecture and has written several essays over the years, including O’Mighty-Green, The Re-creation of the European City, In the Name of the Past, Sympathy for the Devil, or The Housing Crisis Is Also a Design Crisis.
With her office STAR, she has led a diverse range of projects, always with a strong commitment to collective housing—a field she believes is the most profound and impactful work an architect can undertake.
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STAR strategies + architecture
STAR strategies + architecture is a practice engaged with architecture in all its forms. The office works on projects and research of all scales, taking responsibility for every phase of the process — from concept to completion. STAR has won awards in international competitions for collective housing, public buildings, and urban planning in France, the Netherlands, China, Iceland, Lebanon, Norway, and Spain. The practice has also received several distinctions and finalist positions in awards by iF Design, Architizer, Archello, Dezeen, German Design Council, FRAME, The Pineapples, Azure, and MIX Interiors.
The office’s portfolio includes a wide range of projects, from a prototype for a hybrid complex combining a Ferris wheel and a railway station, a multifunctional cinema adapted to city centres, a 50-hectare urban plan for a flood-prone site, to an eighty-meter-long panorama representing the European Union — created in collaboration with, and commissioned by, OMA/AMO. That said, since its creation, affordable, adaptable, and evolutionary housing has been STAR's main field of research and experimentation. STAR has explored these topics in depth through competitions, commissions, texts, and self-initiated and funded research, from theory to 1;1 experimentations.
STAR has thoroughly researched the adaptation of housing to changing lifestyles and the growing diversity of today’s households, the optimisation of “servant” spaces, the scalability of apartments, the maximisation of space, the modulation of heights, and especially the capacity of housing to become a real social infrastructure.
Results from this research include: the study “The Interior of the Metropolis”, a year-long research project translating household needs into spatial solutions; the concept of ‘Co-Residence’ for the French government — before co-living had been established as a meaningful housing model; “The Cabanon” in Rotterdam (a fully equipped 7 m² apartment) a radical experiment in space; the “Cadrete House”, a low-budget evolutionary house; or START-Ivry in Greater Paris, the materialisation of the office’s theories on housing into a real project comprising almost 300 affordable and adaptable dwellings.
The work of STAR has been widely published in more than 50 countries, in major international media, including The New York Times, El País, and Libération, as well as leading architecture magazines such as AA Files, Arch+, Arquitectura Viva, Casabella, Le Moniteur, Domus, Abitare, Architectural Review, and Deutsche Bauzeitung, accounting for more than 500 publications. In addition, the office has exhibited at renowned institutions such as Storefront Gallery in New York, NAi (Het Nieuwe Instituut) in Rotterdam, Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris, and Ludwig Forum in Aachen.
What people say about Beatriz Ramo / STAR:
“The work of her practice encompasses a wide range of interventions (...). Through this diversity, Beatriz and her office, STAR, confront dysfunctional models—spatial, urban, economic, regulatory and programmatic models that continue to be employed despite no longer responding adequately to contemporary realities. In doing so, they unlock the full potential of each project while simultaneously establishing spatial strategies with lasting relevance.
The Cabanon in Rotterdam (...) exemplifies this approach. What was once merely a built corner now breathes architecture, offering an inspiring and undeniably pleasurable way of inhabiting space that engages all the senses. It is therefore no coincidence that this work has garnered such an impressive collection of publications, distinctions and awards. Yet this project—modest in size but immense in its capacity for living—is far from an isolated achievement. Rather, it reflects the consistently remarkable quality of virtually all the projects realised by STAR. Through her practice, the Aragonese architect Beatriz Ramo has established a constellation entirely of her own.”
— Félix Arranz, Spanish architect, architectural critic, founder and editor of SCALAE, an influential architectural platform, June 2026.
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"The interview traces her trajectory from OMA to the foundation of her office, highlighting a practice that combines project, research and writing. Architecture appears here as an expansive field, where storytelling, arguing, and positioning critically is just as important as building.
One of the central issues is housing: facing rigid and standardized models, Beatriz proposes adaptable spaces, able to anticipate changes in the lives of its inhabitants. Flexibility, more than an option, is posed as a contemporary necessity linked also to sustainability and extending the lifespan of buildings.
There also emerges a critical look at the current architectural production system, where many decisions are determined by economic logic rather than by the actual needs of people.
In short, a practice that understands architecture as a strategy: open, narrative, and deeply connected to everyday life and its transformations.”
— ConArquitectura (Spain), editorial introduction to the interview with Beatriz Ramo, April 2026
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"What I find really interesting about this project is the fact that before and at the same time of being a project, it is a strategy. A truly sustainable project today can only be done with strategies before and during the production of the project.
We were able to really immerse ourselves in this gigantic research work that was done by Beatriz with her office during these nine years that passed between the start of the project and the delivery. And that is fascinating."
— Ludovica di Falco, architect, founding partner of SCAPE Architecture, presenting Beatriz Ramo, winner of the ARVHA Prize “Oeuvre Originale” (Original Work), November 2024
