IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section A

Maria Buhigas: Chief Architect at the Barcelona City Council. Architect and urban planner, since 2023 she is serving as Chief Architect at the Barcelona City Council. She holds a degree in Architecture from the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB-UPC) and completed a Master of Science in Urban Planning at Columbia University. She has collaborated with the UN-Habitat agency on projects in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Cuba. She has also worked as an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pasqual Maragall Catalunya Europe Foundation. Previously, she was part of the Barcelona Regional team (1999–2013), where she led the Urban Strategy Department (2006–2013) and run her own practice specialised in urban strategy and planning (from 2014 -2023). She has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion (ESPON) (2017–2019) and served as a councillor at the Barcelona City Council (2019–2020).