Laura Cuesta Urquía

Laura grew up in Madrid, where she realized that a career in architecture would enable her to combine her aptitude for mathematics and physics with her passion for art. Volunteering on projects in Ethiopia and Kenya deepened her interest in collaborating with resource-challenged communities to find viable means of improving their building stock. Laura’s Bachelor of Architecture thesis at Universidad Politécnica Madrid grew out of her volunteer work in Muke Turi, Ethiopia, where she researched construction techniques for working with the limited range of locally available building materials to provide greater occupant comfort and better resistance to wet and dry season extremes. As part of her studies, she spent a year at Technische Universität Wien (Vienna) as an Erasmus exchange student. There, she gained proficiency in using specialized software and data analysis to optimize building performance. She completed her Master of Architecture at Universidad Politécnica Madrid. While with Madrid-based Ensamble Studio, Laura managed a competition in Saudi Arabia and prepared installations for exhibitions in France and Denmark. In addition to being a native speaker of Spanish, she is fluent in English and French and has intermediate proficiency in German. Her current projects at PLANT range from a large-scale townhouse renewal for Toronto Community Housing to infrastructural improvements at Eglinton Park, a City of Toronto District Park.