Joaquín Llorca is an architect and holds a PhD in Theory and History of Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona. He is an associate professor and researcher at the Department of Art, Architecture and Design of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, Colombia.
His research interests focus on research-creation and the development of transdisciplinary approaches between architecture, art, and the sonic environment. This has led him to explore the representation of the city through both visual and sonic imagery. In the visual domain, his doctoral thesis examined the city through the cinematic image of Cali, using cartographic tools as critical devices. In the sonic domain, he has been developing projects since 2007 on the soundscape of Cali and various regions of Valle del Cauca, emphasizing the agency of sound in the configuration of spatial identity.
He is the author of several academic articles and has led projects funded by the Colombian Institute of Science and Technology (Colciencias). From 2013 to 2016, he served as regional coordinator of the Annual Visual Arts Laboratory, a program of the Ministry of Culture, focused on the soundscape of the Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape.
He is currently researching the soundscapes of traditional market squares, based on field recordings in the cities of Cali, Bogotá, Pasto, Quito, and Madrid, with the aim of characterizing spatial and social relationships mediated by sound in these urban contexts.
In the academic field, he teaches undergraduate courses in History and Theory and coordinates the research group Theory and History of Architecture, aimed at strengthening students’ research training through the analytical study of spatial transformations in 20th-century Colombian housing based on documentary review.
His most recent academic outputs include the article The Cultural Dimension of the Soundscape: Beyond R. Murray Schafer’s Hi-fi and Lo-fi Duality (2024), and the sound piece iCLO-dBOG (2022), which he co-authored.