Cyrus Peñarroyo

Cyrus Peñarroyo is an associate professor at University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His research and creative practice examines the urbanity of the internet: namely, the material, spatial, and social dimensions of urban life continually transformed by the internet’s pervasiveness. Trained as an architect, he rethinks formats for critical engagement, coexistence, and collaboration in order to design architecture for an ever-changing, digitally mediated world. His work has been featured in Ardeth, The Architect’s Newspaper, the edited volume Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech, and other publications. He has exhibited in international venues and received several awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers (2019). Peñarroyo was also awarded residency fellowships at Akademie Schloss Solitude (2023), Art Omi: Architecture (2024) and Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (2026). He is an editorial advisor for DISC, an experimental publication that explores media, technology, and environments through themed books, events, and products.

Peñarroyo received a bachelor of science in architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master of architecture from Princeton University. He has held visiting appointments at other US institutions, including Columbia University, Syracuse University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to arriving at Taubman College, he worked at Bureau Spectacular in Chicago and Office for Metropolitan Architecture and LTL Architects in New York. He is a partner in the Ann Arbor-based design practice EXTENTS.

Portrait by Tommy Kha.