Víctor Díaz Paunetto is the founder and principal of Díaz Paunetto Arquitectos, where he leads the design direction of a practice shaped by an ongoing interest in context, climate, materiality, and the capacity of architecture to transform the way places are experienced and inhabited.

Educated at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, his architectural formation was complemented early in his career by direct involvement in construction and design-build work. That experience established an approach to architecture in which conception and making are inseparable, and where material, detail, economy of means, and the realities of building are understood as integral parts of the design process.

Over more than three decades of practice, his work has ranged from houses and urban infill to civic, educational, institutional, and historic buildings. While deliberately diverse in scale and typology, the work shares an emphasis on responding specifically to place and climate and on finding opportunities for design within the constraints of each project. Rather than treating those constraints as limitations, Díaz Paunetto approaches them as generators of architectural ideas: opportunities to establish relationships between building and landscape, old and new, enclosure and openness, permanence and change.

This way of thinking has increasingly informed the practice’s work in rehabilitation and adaptive reuse, where existing buildings are approached not as static artifacts, but as structures capable of accommodating new life. Interventions seek to preserve what is essential while introducing contemporary uses, environmental strategies, and spatial relationships that extend the relevance of the original architecture.

Díaz Paunetto’s work has received more than thirty design awards at local, regional, national, and international levels, including Puerto Rico’s 2025 Premio Nacional de Arquitectura for the rehabilitation of the Medical Arts Building and Test of Time recognition from both AIA Puerto Rico and AIA Florida for Valle Escondido #30.

Beyond practice, he has maintained an active engagement with architectural education and the profession through teaching, design criticism, lectures, and institutional leadership. He has taught and served as a visiting critic at the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture and previously served as President of AIA Puerto Rico and in a leadership role with the Foundation for Architecture of Puerto Rico.

Education
University of Southern California — Bachelor of Architecture

Professional Registration
Puerto Rico · New York · Florida

Selected Leadership
Former President, AIA Puerto Rico
Former Chair, Foundation for Architecture of Puerto Rico