Arnold Rivera

Arnold Abad Rivera is founder of odo:office for design operations, a think tank organization that applies architectural design thinking as a strategy for addressing complex socially relevant issues in developing countries around the world. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture with magna cum laude distinction from Florida A&M University and is a graduate of Harvard-GSD with a Master Degree in Architecture.  His graduate thesis at Harvard-GSD entitled “Quotidian Spaces” is an examination of the gaps created by the Big Dig Project in Boston and an exercise in socio-economic studies through architectural interventions. The quotidian holds a significant influence in the trajectory of odo's focus on socially relevant projects that examines the spatial challenges of the human living conditions in developing countries. Arnold is a native of the Philippines and a citizen of the United States of America. Although he has lived in the US for most of his life his connection to his native Philippines remain firm because of his interest in the socio-economic challenges presented by natural disasters and political instability. He is an idealist and an advocate of spatial democracy.