Xavier Matilla
Former Chief Architect, City of Barcelona
Xavier will be in conversation with Young Urbanist Lee Wratten for the closing session, Looking to Europe: Barcelona in Conversation day conference in Manchester on Friday 4 October 2024
Xavier Matilla Ayala is an Architect, Urban Planner and Professor based in Barcelona.
His academic and professional career has focused on urban and territorial planning and especially on urban regeneration linked to proximity and naturalisation strategies.
Xavier was Chief Architect of the city of Barcelona (2019 – 2023). During this period, he led and oversaw the Barcelona Superblock program, internationally recognised as an urban strategy to transform city streets into greener, healthier and stronger social and economic relations spaces. He also implemented Barcelona’s School Streets program, which has improved the environmental quality and safety of more than 200 school environments, as well as public space transformations on Meridiana Avenue, Parc de Glòries and Via Laietana, among others.
His work has been recognised with different national and regional planning awards in Spain. He is Co-founder of Territoris XLM, an office based in Barcelona, dedicated to urban planning and public space design.
He is a Professor at the Department of Urbanism, Territory and Landscape at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), at the Master Metropoli at Metropoli Institute of Barcelona (IMB), and a guest lecturer at several universities.
