affirma
Affirma is a design studio based in Santiago, Chile, and Syracuse, New York. We explore the blurred space that exists between architecture, politics, and environments. Projects can take the form of research, small-scale built work, and speculative design exercises.
Affirma was founded in 2022 and is directed by Magdalena Valdevenito.
We love to collaborate, so please reach out for any inquiries.
CONTACT
BUILT WORK:
Acceso Politécnico San Luis
Animals
Soft Intervention
Casa MN
Terrace Plinth
INSTALLATIONS:
Visite Piloto
Estrella Nacional
In Process
SPECULATIVE DESIGN FILMS:
Multiscalar Estractive Taxonomies
Life Support Ecosystem
Manufactured Landscape
RESEARCH:
Education Acupuncture
In Process
UNBUILT WORK / ONGOING:
Platónicos Tropicales
El Baño de la Abuela
A Garden in the Mountains
Soak
Section
Area: 74 m2
Design Team: Magdalena Valdevenito, Pabla Amigo, Fabian Ruminot
Status: Built
Year: 2025
New access for public school that opens a public plaza towards the city’s edge.
Program: Installation
Design Team: group collective (Juan Balsa, Rocío Crosetto, Ayesha Ghosh, Edgar Rodriguez, Laura Salazar, Lauren Scott, Pablo Sequero, Magdalena Valdevenito)
Photography: Anna Morgowicz / ESTO
Status: Built
Year: 2024
A pinpointed take on adaptive reuse by occupying the space with deployable furniture made with as-found and off-the-shelf materials.
Program: Installation
Design Team: group collective (Juan Balsa, Rocío Crosetto, Ayesha Ghosh, Edgar Rodriguez, Laura Salazar, Lauren Scott, Pablo Sequero, Magdalena Valdevenito)
Photography: group collective
Status: Built
Year: 2024
Screens and planters that act as spatial dividers for The Gere Block, a mid-renovation Factory building alongside the Erie Canal.
Collaborators: WAI Think Tank
Program: Poet’s home
Status: Unbuilt
Year: 2023
House commissioned to WAI Think Tank, designed for a local poet. Aided in the Construction Development drawings and in finalizing the design.
Output: Analysis and Documentation
Design Team: Magdalena Valdevenito
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
Continuous research and design collaboration with Non-profit Educational Corporation San Isidoro for small, incision like intervention in their 14 public schools.
Program: Single-family home
Team: Philippe Boisier, Magdalena Valdevenito
Status: Built
Year: 2019
House designed with a modular prefabricated panelling system that allowed optimal comfort for the coastal desertic climate of La Serena.
Program: Loudreading
Type: Speculative Design Film
Year: 2021
A graphic narrative that describes a revolution. An estimation of the colonial footprint of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is calculated by the recollection of stolen objects that are held in this space, tracing back their origins and histories.
Team: Collectivo Por un Habitar Digno
Program: Protest Installation
Status: Performed
Photographer: Tomás Bravo
Year: October 2019 - March 2020
A 1:1 scale public drawing that showcases the inequity in housing across the city of Santiago. The median size of dwellings in both the most vulnerable and the richest areas of the city.
Team: Collectivo Por un Habitar Digno
Program: Protest Installation
Status: Performed
Photographer: Tomás Bravo
Year: October 2019 - March 2020
The drawing of the indigenous Mapuche star on a hillside close to the city of Santiago.
Program: Exhibition
Design Team: group collective (Ayesha Ghosh, Edgar Rodriguez, Laura Salazar, Lauren Scott, Rocio Crosetto, Pablo Sequero, Magdalena Valdevenito)
Photography: Anna Morgowicz / ESTO
Status: Exhibited from 09.12.25 until 12.15.25
Year: 2025
Supported by the Architectural League of New York and the New York State Council of the Arts, this exhibition highlights alternative strategies for engaging with the built environment, which are grounded in observation, historical layering, and collective memory.
© CARGO TEST 2027