Gold Medal for Architecture 2025 to Joan Busquets and Fernando de Terán

With parallel trajectories but different careers, De Terán and Busquets represent two approaches to the conception of the city: theoretical analysis and urban historiography in the case of the former; strategic intervention and large-scale urban planning in the case of the latter. Their works, research, and projects form a plural but coherent vision of how to inhabit, understand, and transform urban space. The jury wanted to highlight the contribution of both architects in considering urban planning as an “inseparable part of architecture at the service of a fairer and more balanced society.”

Born in El Prat de Llobregat in 1946, Joan Busquets is a key figure in the evolution of contemporary operational urbanism. His participation in the transformation of Barcelona prior to the 1992 Olympic Games—where he coordinated interventions such as the redevelopment of the seafront, the integration of the railway system, and the improvement of neighborhoods such as Ciutat Vella—established him as an international benchmark in urban regeneration.

His studio BAU (B. Arquitectura i Urbanisme), founded in 1992, has been intensely involved in design, with such notably projects as the Toledo Special Plan (1995), the PXOM, and the Port of A Coruña (2013), as well as urban plans in Delft, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Toulouse, and Ningbo. In the academic field, his chair at Harvard GSD has served as a platform for applied research, as with the Case Study series on Manhattan, Chicago, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, among other cities.

Among his theoretical works are Barcelona: The Urban Evolution of a Compact City, Urban Grids: Handbook for Regular City Design, and Modern Architecture and City: A Quick Immersion, in which he proposes a clearly structured urbanism that is sensitive to the existing urban fabric and open to functional diversity. His influence on architectural and urban debates remains active, as demonstrated by his honorary chairmanship of the Scientific Committee of Becoming: Architectures for a Planet in Transition, the UIA World Architecture Congress to be held in Barcelona in 2026.

For his part, Fernando de Terán (Madrid, 1931) has developed a prolific career as an architect, urban planner, historian, and teacher in which urban planning manifests itself as a critical discipline. Author of the fundamental works Madrid, winner of the Madrid City Council's Urban Planning Award in 1993, and Historical Atlas of Spanish Urban Planning, recently awarded by the COAM (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid), he has been able to translate the morphological evolution of the city into conceptual tools for contemporary planning.

Founder and director for two decades of the magazine Ciudad y Territorio, and later of Urban, De Terán has influenced several generations of urban planners from his professorships at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and his work at the Instituto de Estudios de Administración Local. His approach, characterized by rigorous documentation and critical reflection, has opened paths to understanding the city from a temporal, political and cultural dimension.
 

The joint award of the Gold Medal to De Terán and Busquets—to be given at an award ceremony in Madrid on July 3—is not only the recognition of two exemplary careers, but also a statement on the centrality of urbanism in contemporary architecture. As the works of these two masters highlight, the project of the city is not just about building space, but also about building society.