Josep Acebillo (born in Huesca, Spain, in 1946) is a Spanish architect.
Professor at the Architecture Academy Università della Svizzera Italiana (Mendrisio, Switzerland).
Member of the Board of Directors and Professor of Barcelona Institute of Architecture (Barcelona, Spain).
CEO (chief executive officer) and Director of Barcelona Regional (Metropolitan Agency).
CEO (chief executive officer) of BcnSuS Barcelona Strategic Urban Systems.
Partner architect of Architectural Systems Office (Mendrisio, Switzerland).
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Josep Acebillo obtained his architecture degree in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB-1974).
From 1975 to 1981, he works independently or in collaboration with the MBM studio (Martorell, Bohigas and MacKay MBM (architecture firm)). At that time he wins two urban planning and two architecture competitions. From 1981 to 1987 he is director of Urban Projects for the City of Barcelona, position that involves projecting and directing the infrastructures, monuments and urban projects promoted by the city. From 1988 to 1994 Acebillo is the director of the Urban Development Institute of the city of Barcelona (Olympic Holding), in charge of leading the projects and building the main infrastructures for the 1992 Summer Olympics games.
He is the recipient of the Honorific Medal of the City of Barcelona in 1992 for his contribution to the urban transformation. The Harvard Graduate School of Design gives him the 1990 Prince of Wales Prize in urban design for the quality of the urban spaces designed and built under his direction. Starting from 1994 he is the CEO (chief executive officer) of the Metropolitan Agency Barcelona Regional [1], a “think tank” to spearhead the development of strategic urban projects and infrastructures of the city. His efforts are awarded with the Special European Price of Urbanism 1997/1998 of the European Commission for the project Infrastructure and General Metropolitan Systems. Later on 1998 he is appointed “Commissioner of Infrastructures and Urban Planning” of Barcelona.
In 1999 he becomes Chief Architect of the city of Barcelona. During the same year he is named honorific member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)[2]. In 1999 Barcelona is also the recipient of the RIBA awards with the Royal Gold Medal [3] for Architecture due to the contribution of: Narcís Serra i Serra, Pasqual Maragall i Mira, Joan Clos i Matheu, Josep Acebillo and Oriol Bohigas. Under the urban leadership of Acebillo, Barcelona has received worldwide recognition for the positioning of the city in the international architecture plane. Following this recognition, Josep Acebillo is frequently called to assess other cities such as London, Ostend, Kazan, etc... and guide their urban transformation endeavours. In 2003, in the case of London, he was appointed member of the International Design Committee (London Development Agency) to assess the city development.
Josep Acebillo has always been very active in teaching, first at the Ilaud (International Architecture and Urban Design Laboratory) of Urbino, then as visiting professor in several architecture schools, among them the School of Architecture of the Yale University, the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the architecture school of NUS (National University of Singapore). Since 2001 Acebillo teaches Culture of the Territory in the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio (Università della Svizzera italiana), in which he has been the Dean of the Faculty during two consecutive mandates, from 2003 to 2007. In 2004 he founded the Institute for the Contemporary Urban Project (i.CUP) and in the same year is named Director for Architecture and Infrastructure of the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona.
Since 2007 he takes up again his independent practice and opens a professional studio, AuS Architecture and Urban Systems [4] in Switzerland which becomes Architectural Systems Office [5] from 2011, and he continues teaching in the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio.