René Peralta is an architect, educator, and researcher whose work explores the evolving urban conditions of the U.S.–Mexico border, particularly between Tijuana and San Diego. He studied architecture at the New School of Architecture in San Diego and the Architectural Association in London, and holds a Master of Science in Planning with an emphasis in History and Theory from the University of Oklahoma.
René has held academic appointments at UCLA, Washington University in St. Louis, and Woodbury University, where he directed the Master of Science in Architecture with an emphasis in Landscape + Urbanism (2012–2014). From 2019 to 2021, he served as the inaugural Herb Greene Teaching Fellow at the University of Oklahoma.
His scholarship and curatorial work examine border urbanism, experimental housing, and regional design traditions. He is coauthor of Here is Tijuana (Black Dog Publishing, 2006) and co-editor of the commemorative edition of A Temporary Paradise (COLEF, 2018), originally authored by Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard. His research on the Experimental Housing Project (PREVI) in Lima was featured in MoMA’s 2015 exhibition Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980. He has curated and exhibited work internationally, including in Seoul, Buenos Aires, Shenzhen, Washington D.C., and across California and Mexico.
In 2017, René directed Hyperloop West, a semi-finalist team in the global Virgin Hyperloop One challenge. He also serves on the board of Fundación Esperanza de México (FEM), a nonprofit dedicated to community development through assisted self-built housing in Tijuana.
Based in Tijuana, René continues to engage architecture as both a cultural and civic practice—and plays congas for the local band “The Good Times.”
