Luciana Varkulja is an architect and urban designer from São Paulo, Brazil, who has been living and working in the United States since 2005. While still in São Paulo, working as an exhibition designer for the Museum of Contemporary Art, she was awarded a grant to be part of the Design Department's team at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, specifically collaborating with the design of the DADA exhibition. Soon after that she moved to an architecture and urban design firm from Washington, where she spent 4 years working on various projects, from concept design to construction documents. Ms. Varkulja has a technical background that dates back to her work at an engineering firm in São Paulo, but has kept a straight connection with the art world through set design, exhibitions, installations and films. She graduated with a Master of Architecture from Columbia University, where she was awarded the prestigious William Kinne Traveling Fellowship Prize for the research project "From Temporary to Permanent: Social Engagement in the Urban Environment".

She was an architectural contractor at LTL Architects, contributing to the redesign of a New York City icon, the Coney Island Pier, as part of the reconstruction effort following Hurricane Sandy. Prior to that, she worked with Columbia University on the concept design and renovation of the space for the new Studio-X site in Johannesburg, South Africa. For three years, from 2013 to 2016, she was a senior designer at Allied Works Architecture in Portland, Oregon.

Ms. Varkulja has held teaching positions at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design in D.C, at Columbia University/ Barnard College in New York City and at Cal Poly Pomona. She currently lives and works in LA and is a Lecturer at USC School of Architecture and a Senior Lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design. 




View from Viaduto Santa Efigênia. São Paulo, 2010

Current Collaborations:

AIA LA Design for Dignity Committee, USC Initiative to Eliminate Homelessness, LA Forum (Board of Directors), Design for Freedom Working Group at Grace Farms.

Past Collaborations:

AWA+D (Advocacy Chair), 2x8 AIA LA Committee, Chun Studio, Hopson Rodstrom Design Workshop, AECOM, SOM, Dillon Phillips, Ko Falen Cultural Center, Allied Works Architecture, Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, LTL Architects, GSAPP Columbia University, KGP Design Studio, Yulia Graham, National Gallery of Art, Sāo Paulo’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Progen Projetos, Simone Mina, Espaço Cenográfico.