Jazz is co-founder and principal architectural designer at Estudio A0. He studied Architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University (Bachelor of Arts 1995, with honors; Diploma 1998, with honors). His thesis project, Channel 5, developed under the advice of professor Nick Temple, won an RIBA 1998 President´s Medal Student Award. In the year 1999, he was granted a Thouron Fellowship to study an March II at the University of Pennsylvania (2000, with honors), under the tutelage of Daniel Libeskind, Enrique Norten, and David Leatherbarrow. Between 2000 and 2002 he collaborated in the design of the Clifford Chance office building in Canary Warf, London; the Z4 Tower in Shangai; and the OMB office building in Hong Kong at KPF in New York. He also collaborated with Daniel Libeskind Architects in the development of the design for the World Trade Center and the Irish pier in Cork. In 2002, he moved to Quito, Ecuador, where he co-founded the design practice Estudio A0. Between 2004 and 2006, he collaborated with RVC Arquitectos. Jazz has won several awards for his designs, such as the second prize in the International Competition “Galapagos 0 Latitude: Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism” (XV Quito Architecture Biennial); an International Mention for the rehabilitation of the Teatro Sucre Plaza in Quito´s Historic District, designed in collaboration with Rafael Vélez Mantilla (XV Quito Architecture Biennial); the Design Excellence Award for the Oregon Living Smart Housing Competition; a Third Prize in the Competition Design with Nature (Takiron International Housing Design Competition, Tokyo); a First Prize in the John Stewardson Memorial Competition (AIA National Convention); a First Prize in Architectural Drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts in London; a Second Prize in Fabricated Evidence: Architectural Design Compeition; a Richard Rogers Partnership Student Award for Architecture and Landscape Architecture; and a West Yorkshire Achievements Award in Architecture. As design leader of Estudio A0, Jazz is always pushing for technological innovation in design and construction; for establishing strong relations between buildings, their urban context, and landscape; for passive-design and a sustainable awareness within all architectural interventions, incluiding the corporate designs which are his greatest strength. 

Ana María is an Ecuadorian architect and urban-environmental planner. She is a doctoral candidate at the Urban Planning department of UCLA. Under the advice of Professor Susanna B. Hecht, she is developing a dissertation on the history of urbanization in the Amazon basin, with a focus on the oil urbanisms of Ecuador. In the year 2010, she received a Loeb Fellowship in advanced environmental studies from the GSD (Harvard University) for her proposal to develop an open research network devoted to study the infrastructural integration of South America (IIRSA-COSIPLAN) from the design perspective, in order to provide alternative models of intervention in lieu of the primarily entropic urbanization that inevitably follows the deployment of extraction infrastructures, particularly highways. The network became the South America Project and was developed in close collaboration with professor Felipe Correa. In the year 2000, Durán Calisto graduated from the Master of Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also obtained a Certificate in Historic Preservation. In 1995, she was the first student to graduate from the Liberal Arts program at USFQ, with a Major in Anthropology and Minors in Comparative Literature, Art History, and Performing Arts. 

Durán Calisto co-founded the design firm Estudio A0 with her husband and partner Jaskran (Jazz) Kalirai in Quito (2002). Estudio A0 has designed a diverse array of projects, at all scales, in close collaboration with its clients (both private and public), and community partners. She co-edited the book Beyond Petropolis: Designing a Practical Utopia in Nueva Loja (ORO Publishers) with Michael Sorkin and Matthias Altwicker; and Urbanismo Ecológico en América Latina (Editorial GG) with Mohsen Mostafavi, Gareth Doherty, Marina Correia, and Luis Valenzuela. Her essays have been published in several books and magazines. Línea Imaginaria published her first poetry book in 2010. She has been teaching architecture studios at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador since 2002, and has been a visiting scholar in the GSD (Harvard University), GSAPP (Columbia University), and Taubman College (University of Michigan); as well as a teaching fellow in the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, and the History Department of UCLA. She has been juror in international awards like the Premio Rogelio Salmona and a member of the scientific committee in conferences such as the Temuco SBE19: "Sustainable Built- Urban Planning, Global Problems, and Local Policies." She is a member the Working Group “Living, Moving, and Working in the Amazon” for the Scientific Panel for the Amazon (SPA) convened by the United Nations. Between 2005 and 2007, she was the Executive Secretary and curator for the XV Quito Architecture Biennial: Visible Cities. In 2015, she was hired by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing as academic advisor on the development of national contents for the UN Conference Habitat III (Quito, 2016). Between 2013 and 2014, she was the National Curator for the IX Iberian-American Architecture and Urbanism Biennial.

Daniela has fifteen years of experience in architectural design and construction. She obtained her degree in Architecture from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, in Quito. She has ample experience in the development of commercial and corporate projects, real-estate development and large project management. Her strength is residential design, particularly low-income housing (collective and single-family dwelling compounds). Between 2003 and 2007 she volunteered at Un Techo para Ecuador, building homes with disenfranchised families. In 2020, she obtained a Master in Construction and Real-Estate Company Management from USFQ. 

Esteban is an Ecuadorian architect interested in exploring the relationships between architectural design, praxis, research and teaching, always with a focus on sustainability. Esteban received his Master in Advanced Architectural Projects from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (2014) and his Architecture First Professional Degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito, where he currently teaches design studios. He has over a decade of experience designing, managing and developing architectural projects of diverse scales and typologies (office buildings, housing, commercial venues, educational facilities, urban projects and landscape architecture), in the private as well as public sectors. Esteban is currently engaged in the design and construction of projects located in Ecuador and Peru.

Kate is an architectural designer with experience in commercial, educational, and dwelling projects, as well as research in the United States, Europe and Ecuador. Having received her post-graduate education in Architecture and Historic Urban Environments at The Bartlett School of Architecture University College in London, she has a special interest in adaptive reuse.

Kate’s responsibilities include the design, development, and documentation of projects. 

Nicolás is a designer with more than 8+ years of experience in architectural design specialized in a wide range of typologies of low and mid-rise buildings including residential, commercial, hospitality and interior design projects in Ecuador, Peru, Italy, and the United States.

He completed a Master’s degree in Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano in Milan – Italy in 2017. After completing his program he worked for the American award-winning design studio Brooks + Scarpa based in Los Angeles – California developing residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings.