Joshua Guiness is an architect, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of spatial design, territorial transformation, and contemporary theory.
Viewing architecture as an expanded form of spatial intelligence, Joshua develops strategies that translate complex socio-ecological questions into spatial frameworks for territorial and institutional transformation — from conceptual ideation to execution. His work approaches architecture not as an object-based discipline, but as a relational practice capable of designing conditions for alternative eco-social futures.
Currently based in Zurich, Joshua’s practice spans design, research, and pedagogy. He is co-lead of Architecture Land Initiative, a collective developing trans-scalar approaches to spatial planning that integrate legal, economic, and ecological dimensions of land. He is a lecturer and teaching assistant at VOLUPTAS, a Master’s studio in architectural design at ETH Zurich, where design is developed through speculative scenarios and world-building. He also runs E-FX, a research platform investigating planetary renewal through the concept of spatial intelligence, focusing on infrastructures—from ecosystems to institutions—in transition.
His work engages deeply with contemporary philosophy and theory, combining writing, spatial analysis, and visual storytelling. Joshua is a researcher at the New Centre for Research and Practice and a fellow of Organismo: Art in Applied Critical Ecologies, a program facilitated by TBA21, a contemporary art foundation in Madrid. His writing has appeared in trans, Scroope, and Situation Magazine, among others. Across his projects, he works through rigorous constellations of word, image, and spatial speculation, often in collaboration with thinkers, designers, and institutions across disciplines.