The UIC Governing Board announced several appointments, including the new director of the ESARQ School of Architecture. The architect and urban planner Pere Vall was chosen for the position.

Pere Vall defined the strategic lines he wants to reinforce during his tenure, while insisting that the work of the previous director, Vicenç Sarrablo, was excellent and that he plans to establish a policy of continuity. The board will be made up of Álvaro Cuéllar as the Assistant Director of the Teaching Staff, Marta Benages as the Head of Studies and Carmen Mendoza as the Assistant Director and Head of Institutional Relations.

During the tenure of Vicenç Sarrablo, the ESARQ School of Architecture was committed to becoming a model for architecture schools in Barcelona through the human values associated with the field, including compulsory subjects on cooperation, sustainability and accessibility. Innovation in teaching, a close relationship with construction companies (with two University/Business Chairs) and a strive for excellence have been constants over the last few years and have been recognized by two awards for Best Final Project in the last two Spanish Architecture and Urban Planning Biennials.

The new director, Pere Vall, as well as continuing in this line, hopes to reinforce the internationality and multidisciplinary approach between different areas. He also hopes to involve the teaching staff and students more directly in the management of the school.

“The challenge we face in the future is to create a university that meets society’s needs by transmitting knowledge. ESARQ should provide civil society with talent and work to build a better society”, said the new director.

CVs of the new ESARQ-UIC Governing Board

Pere Vall (Barcelona, 1964), the new director of the ESARQ School of Architecture, has a PhD in architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Until now he was a professor and the Director of the Urbanism and Spatial Planning area of the ESARQ. He combines teaching and research on cultural landscape and regional development. He has developed techniques for intervention in cultural landscape and, most recently, has worked on studies of sprawl repair through heritage networks and the recycling of pre-urban patterns. Together with the architect Carmen Mendoza, he is the Director of the UIC Master’s Degree Programme in Regenerating Intermediate Landscapes: Sustainable Strategies for Contemporary Landscapes and is the author of several publications.

Álvaro Cuellar (Santiago de Chile, 1970), the Assistant Director of the Teaching Staff of the ESARQ, is an architect and has been a professor at the ESARQ since 2008. He has published several articles and has participated in projects in both Spain and Chile. 

Marta Benages (Barcelona, 1982), the Assistant Director of Students of the ESARQ, is an architect and has been a professor at the ESARQ since 2008. She has published articles in several professional journals and has work on several architecture firms.

Carmen Mendoza, the Assistant Director of Internationalization, has a PhD in Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and is an associate professor and a member of the ESARQ Urban Design and Planning Centre (LAU). She combines teaching with research on the regeneration of neighbourhoods in the Barcelona metropolitan area and in developing countries. She is the head researcher for the UIC study of Cooperation in Architecture and Urban Planning and is the Co-director of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree Programme in International Cooperation and Sustainable Emergency Architecture. She is a founding member of the architecture firm DACarquitectura, Rehabilitació i Urbanisme SLP.