the thing itself is a repository showcasing a variety of initiatives, conversations, writings, architectural projects, objects, 'doings' and other 'things', led by María Páez González in collaboration with friends, colleagues, and allies.

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María was born in the Venezuelan Andes and is an architect who practices, teaches, publishes, and researches architecture across London, Vienna, and the Canary Islands. After over a decade practicing with Foster+Partners, she founded the Centre for the Architecture of (Common) Work (CAW), an architectural practice dedicated to rethinking office spaces as shared, contemporary common ‘front’. María is also an academic, currently the Programme Director of Professional Studies in Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture and teaching at both the London School of Architecture and the Architectural Association, where she co-directs the Canary Islands Visiting School research programme.​ In addition to her professional and academic roles, María co-edits LIMBO Press, an independent architecture publisher, alongside Brendon Carlin. Her recently completed PhD at the Royal College of Art explores the relationship between subjectivity and architecture in the context of Northern California and 'Big Tech'. Her current research focuses on architecture and the role and practice of the architect through two heuristic figures, the 'frontier' and the 'archipelago'.