Busquets is first Bucksbaum Professor

Joan Busquets has been appointed the first Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design, effective July 1, the Graduate School of Design’s Dean Peter G. Rowe announced in July. Busquets comes to the Faculty of Design from a position at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, where he has been Professor of Town Planning in the School of Architecture since 1979.

A world-renowned urban planner, urban designer, and architect, Busquets served as head of urban planning for the Barcelona City Council during its formative years, from 1983 to 1989, and in the preparations for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, including the New Downtowns for the City program and the improvement process for existing neighborhoods.

In 1969, he was a founding member of the Laboratorio de Urbanismo in Barcelona and undertook a long-term study of squatter settlements in Barcelona and other Southern European cities, for which he received the Spanish National Award for Town Planning in 1981, winning the award again in 1985 for his masterplan for Lerida’s old town.

Busquets’ urban rehabilitation strategy for Toledo, Spain, of 2000 and the publication Toledo y su futuro were awarded a national prize and the Premio Europeo Gubbio, and he is presently at work on a similar rehabilitation strategy for the Cuitat Vella (Old Town) in Barcelona. Busquets has published many articles and books, including “Barcelona: Evolución urbanistica de una capital compacta” (1992 and 1994) and “La urbanización marginal” (1999). He has participated as a visiting professor in London, Urbino, Rotterdam, Rome, Lausanne, Geneva, and at the Design School, as well as on numerous juries for international competitions.

Professionally based in Barcelona since the 1970s, Busquets received his degree in architecture (1969) and his doctoral degree (1975) from the University of Barcelona.