COMPUTATIONAL COMPOST

Marina Otero Verzier is an architect and researcher. She is Lecturer in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she leads the Data Mourning Clinic, a research platform examining digital infrastructures in the context of climate catastrophe. Otero received the 2022 Wheelwright Prize from Harvard for research into the future of data centers. She has collaborated with scientific institutions to develop alternative models for storing data, including Computational Compost. She was invited by Chile’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation to participate as an expert in the development of the country’s first National Data Centers Plan, working with local communities on the front lines of extractivism. Otero was Head of the MA Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven (2020–2023) and Director of Research at Het Nieuwe Instituut (2015–2022). She has curated many exhibitions including Compulsive Desires: On Lithium Extraction and Rebellious Mountains and Work, Body, Leisure at the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. She co-curated Opera Aperta, awarded a Jury Mention at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, and After Belonging, the Oslo Architecture Triennale. She is the author of En las Profundidades de la Nube (2024) and Flotando en Litio (2025), and has directed films and edited numerous books on architecture, digital infrastructures, resource extraction, memory, and the politics of care. She is advisor of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.