The Barcelona architect and principal of Josep Ferrando Architecture, in keeping with the multifaceted vision of architecture that he defends, is part craftsman, part academic and part cultural manager.
In 2003, he set up his practice in Barcelona. Thanks to the methodology he uses in his work, and considering monomateriality, geometry and efficiency as fundamental values, Ferrando produces solutions that not only never repeat forms, but are also not predictable, thereby achieving the most appropriate and ingenious architectural outcome for each circumstance.
His work has been shown in various countries, and he has had monographic exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014, the prestigious Architekturforum Aedes in Berlin and the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. In 2016 he took part in the exhibition Unfinished in the Spanish Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, which won the Golden Lion. He has received international recognition, winning FAD Awards and first prize in the Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennial BIABA’15, and being a finalist in the Iakov Chernikov International Architecture Award.
This approach and way of working coexists, interacts and overlaps with the activity that, since 1998, he has carried out in the international academic field and the management of cultural projects associated with institutions and organizations in the sector. In the world of teaching, he has developed an intensive career in projects since 1998 at numerous European and American faculties, and lectured at prestigious international universities and congresses such as UIA’11 in Tokyo and BIAU’19 in Asunción. Since 2020, as Dean of La Salle Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSALS), he has developed a new educational program based on two pillars. The first is learning-by-doing with the design studio as the nerve centre of the process, where practical work is combined with technical and scientific and cultural and humanistic courses. The other is a methodology based on the personalization of the student’s curriculum.
As a cultural manager, Ferrando has been director of the Culture Department of the Architects’ Association of Catalonia-COAC since 2018, during which time the institution was awarded the Premi Nacional de Cultura and Creu de Sant Jordi, and the city of Barcelona named UIA-UNESCO World Capital for Architecture 2026. In this position he shapes and directs the Centre Obert d’Arquitectura, an international space for knowledge and architectural culture to stimulate architecture’s links with society, promote research and further its innovative role.
In short, these three aspects define his professional profile, driving reformulation of the model and urging him on to constant discovery.