Founded in 2010, Z4A/Z4Z4 is an architecture and design practice based in Houston/Madrid led by co-principals Rafael B. Duran and Ophelia Mantz. Z4A/Z4Z4 understands architecture at the intersection of disciplines and scales. Z4A/Z4Z4 believes in the architecture’s powers to respond to the present complexities of the built environment. Across scales, Z4A addresses current ideological, theoretical, and aesthetic issues. Z4A is committed to pedagogy: both current professors at the Hines CoAD of the University of Houston, Rafael, who leads the Undergraduate Architecture Studies, and Ophelia, who leads the Material Research Collaborative. Z4A is the recipient of several first prizes and awards for its built work, including Architecture Review, ACSA, Texas Society of Architects, S.ARCH, and BIEAU
Their works have been published in magazines such as: Log, DOMUS, MARK, ARQ, ACTAR, Tashen, Architectural Review, Architectural Record, AV magazine, HOUSES, ARQUINE, FUTURE, CENTER 23, PPA, AR20, Pasajes de Arquitectura, TEDx, Diseño Interior, Detail, Con-Arquitectura, BIEAU XI, ArchDaily, Europan, Experimenta, Diseñart, Dezeen, Arch20, Architizer, Bannana Design, Summa+, Archelo, Design Boom, Metalocus, Divisare, Catalogo Diseno, Afasia, Archilovers, Arkitera, Design.Mk, Archinovosti, Idea Msg, Dezain…
Awards
TxA 2024 & 2026, ACSA 2019 & 2026 Faculty Design Award, Build 2019, S.ARCH Award 2018- Best Design Project. -AR Emerging Architecture 2016. Finalist. -Premio Nacional de Parques Públicos de España 2015 - Listening Tree, Spanish Biennial XI 2011. - Olympic City of Baghdad. First Prize. 2010 - Conference Hall of Huesca. First Prize 2005. - Castilla y León Pavilion. First Prize. 2008. - San Andrés Etxea Hotel. First Prize. 2005. - SEGO. First Prize. 2007. - Experimental Theater CMC en Getafe. 2007. - Centro de Gestión del Deporte en Leganés. 3rd Prize. 2009. - Europan 10. Taboadella. Awarded, 2010. - Hospedería de Turismo en Castuera. Awarded. 2009. - Hospedería de Turismo en Herrera de Duque. Awarded. 2010.
Rafael B. Duran is co-principal of Z4Z4 | Z4A-Office of Architecture and Professor and Director of Undergraduate Architecture Studies at the Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston. His work on the practice and theory of architecture spans the field of material thinking. His PhD. dissertation, Atmosphere as Form in Architecture, has been a source of academic production interrogating ecological consciousness and materiality in architectural practice, published in academic journals – Log, ARQ, Materia, Plot, Center – and in books such as The Materiality of Air, awarded at the BEAU XVII, or Bodies of Air, published by Actar in 2026.
His work has been recognized and awarded at the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture 2016 (Finalist), S.ARCH 2018, COAM 2016 Award (Finalist), 2016 London Biennale Manila Pollination, 2016 London Transart Triennale, 2016 The Architecture and Design Film Festival New York, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennale 2016, Spanish National Award of Public Parks and Gardens 2015, XI & XVII Spanish Architecture and Urban Design Biennale 2011.
Rafael B. Duran´s works have been published in Books and Magazines such as: Log, DOMUS, MARK, ARQ, ACTAR, Architectural Review, Architectural Record, CENTER 23, AV magazine, ARQUINE, FUTURE, Detail, Tashen or Pasajes de Arquitectura; as well as by Media such as: Dezeen, Arch20, Architizer, Bannana Design, Archelo, Design Boom, Metalocus, Divisare, Afasia, or Archilovers.
Rafael B. Duran has been teaching at the College of Architecture of Texas Tech University (CoA-TTU), Architectural Association (AA), Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM-UPM), and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (ESAyT-UCJC) as director of Theory, Aesthetics, Composition Program
Ophélia Mantz is co-principal of Z4Z4 | Z4A Architects, and Assistant Professor and Director of the Material Research Collaborative at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston. She holds an Architect DPLG from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville and a Master in Bioclimatic Architecture and Sustainability from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid. Her research on the construction of ecological thinking in architecture and the city has appeared in JAE, Assembly, Materia Arquitectura, SAJ, PPA, ARQ, and RA, among others.
She has participated as a guest critic at the School of Architecture at Rice University, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the University of Texas Austin, the University of Virginia School of Architecture, and the University of Cambridge.
She has been recently published in ARQ editions 108, Chile, 2021; PPA 25 Sevilla, Spain, 2021; and in the book Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter: Towards the possibility of an Italian Charter for Resilient Communities. Publisher: Springer, Editors: Maurizio Carta, Maria Perbellini and J. Antonio Lara-Hernandez, 2022.
TEAM
Rafael Beneytez, Ophelia Mantz, Enrique Krahe, Arancha Montero
PAST COLLABORATORS
Olivia Blas, Matthew Alessandro, Simon Chiquito, Patrick Margain, Caleb Mattheson, Xiuyin Hu, James Taylor, Shakil Shimul, Franco Denari, Caleb Matheson, Steve Roop, Daisy Limon, Javier Cardoso, Ilia Reyes, Victor Cano-Ciborro, Paul Galindo, Eva Gil Lopesinos, Diego Barajas, Esau Acosta, Mauro Gil-Fournier, Cristina Romero, Alejandro Martin Mate, Borja Iglesias, Ana Belen Santos, Ignacio Rodriguez, Sara Orcasitas, Raquel Limeres, Marcos Rojas, Juan Manuel Nicas, Piet Jacobs, Emilio Jarrin, Marcel Noeding, Jeremie Koempgen, Noah Jaffe, Ethan Pound, Yara Baello, Puy Luengo, Marina Llés, Beatriz Sendin, Sara Carrasco, Pilar Penacho, Maria Payo, Jose Rayos, Andrea Ramos, Ismael Aboli, Marcos Zaragoza, Chema Silva, Barbara Baron, Monica Sedano, Francisco Blanco, Camille Vidal, Anne Voght, Tania Fonseca, Pablo Grande de Roda, Pedro Lopez Quintas, Lucila Lorenzale, Javier Armanda…