Spanish architect Elisa Valero is the first woman to win the Swiss Architectural Award, in 2018, an international architecture award, which promotes an architecture that is attentive to the current ethical, aesthetic and environmental issues, thus encouraging public debate. It is remarkable her research on new affordable low energy building systems. My idea of architecture I began my career in México with the restoration of Felix Candela’s work, ‘Los Manantiales’ and wrote my first book at the Academia de España in Rome. Since 1997 my workplace is a small office in front of The Alhambra, Granada. My ties to the art world began in my childhood and it is thus natural that my work involves interaction with other arts. I am interested in architecture rooted in the earth and in its own time. While it is no longer stylish to speak of serving, I believe that an architect’s work is a quintessential service intended to make people’s lives more agreeable. Architecture is no place for the nostalgic, it is a job for rebels. Published books: LIGHT THE INTANGIBLE MATERIAL, published by RIBA London, 2015, Housing, 2017, La materia intangible, reflexiones sobre la luz en el proyecto de arquitectura 2004.Ocio peligroso, introducción al proyecto de arquitectura 2006. Espacios de aprendizaje 2006. La Universidad Laboral de Almería 1971-1974. 2008. Diccionario de la luz, 2008. Elisa Valero 1998-2008. Full professor at Granada University and invited professor at the Academy of Mendrisio.Visiting professor at the Technische Universität Berlin Institute für ArchiteKtur, Facoltà di Architettura de la Università di Roma Tre, Facultad de Arquitectura de la UNAM México DF, the BTU Architecture School Cottbus, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Escola da Cidade, Sao Paulo. Leading researcher in the Research Projects “Urban Recycling: rezoning residential areas for sustainable development” Ministry of Education and Science R & D (2008-2011) “Recycling Neighborhoods; a sustainable alternative” a research Project for the General Office of Architecture and Housing of the Government of Andalusia. July 2007. “Experimental Applications of Energy-efficient Building Systems in Mediterranean Residential Settings”. Project involving the participation of the universities of Seville, Malaga, Granada and Jaen, 2011.Financed by Feder funds. Responsible for the research Group: Urban Recycling, Efficient Housing RNM909.