Valérie Portefaix is Director of MAP Office and Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China.

She received her Master of Architecture from the School of Architecture Paris-Belleville and a PhD in Urbanism from University Pierre Mendes France.

Valérie Portefaix has held visiting professor appointments and lectured at numerous academic institutions including the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong University and she teaches in the Master of Design at the School of Design, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In 1997, she co-founded MAP office with her partner Laurent Gutierrez in Hong Kong – a collaborative studio involved in cross-disciplinary projects that incorporate architecture and the visual arts. They have participated in several local and international exhibitions, including the 7th Architecture Venice Biennale and the 1st International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, where they won an award for the best “Inspiration”.

She has published a number of articles on urban phenomena in Hong Kong and China with Laurent Gutierrez including Mapping HK (2000), which details both the physical and dynamic transformations taking place in Hong Kong; HK LAB (2002), a interdisciplinary book in which Hong Kong is seen as an advanced laboratory for innovative solutions; and an architectural monograph, Yung Ho Chang/Atelier Feichang Jianzhu - A Chinese Practice (2003).

Their current research on “Lean planning” explores the impact of production and distribution mapped onto a re-convertible environment, and the specific conditions of the “Made in China” in the Pearl River Delta region.

She was a member of the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Asia Pacific in 2011.