Marta Delgado (Paris, 1994), a graduate of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, was recently awarded one of the prestigious postgraduate grants given each year by the Obra Social “la Caixa”. This grant will enable Delgado to study a Master of Science in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, between August of this year and May 2020. “I submitted a curriculum that was accepted and under which I will attend classes in the departments of Environmental Sciences and Architecture, as well as the departments of Psychology, Cognition and Neuroscience”, she explains.

UC Berkeley is one of the world’s leading universities in terms of both teaching quality and contributions to research in the fields of Psychology, Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience. “My aim is to acquire knowledge in disciplines that may not seem to have a connection with Architecture, but which will provide a complementary understanding of the role of built environments in the development of the brain functions on which people’s physical and mental well-being depend”, she points out. 

Her interest in the relationship between Architecture and the field of human health and well-being goes back a long way. In 2015, Marta Delgado, together with classmate Sergi Viñals, created the web project www.archiimpact.com, a site aimed at raising awareness of and analysing the impact of Architecture on our lives, which includes over thirty articles by renowned contributors. 

Marta Delgado studied the Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture at UIC Barcelona from 2012 to 2017, complementing her time at the School of Architecture with a mobility stay at the renowned Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Following her undergraduate studies, she completed the Postgraduate Degree in Health and Habitat Harmony at Escola Sert in Barcelona. “More than in spaces, I’ve always been interested in people; in understanding who we are and how we satisfy our need for well-being and happiness”, she concludes.