Programa Profesional en Edificación Industrializada con Madera

Daniel Ibañez is a practising architect, urbanist, and educator. He holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard University and serves as Director and CEO of IAAC, as well as principal of the Urbanitree design studio. Since 2017, Daniel has been a senior urban consultant for the World Bank, advising on timber housing and urban development globally.

His work centres on timber construction’s architectural and urban implications. Daniel co-authored the book Wood Urbanism: From Molecular to Territorial (Actar, 2019) and co-organized a Harvard GSD conference under the same theme. His award-winning projects include the Fab Lab House (Madrid), Endesa Pavilion (Oslo), and the Voxel (Barcelona), with exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and Oslo Triennale.

Daniel has taught at institutions such as Harvard GSD, Rhode Island School of Design, and Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile. He co-directs Margen-Lab, a design firm focused on ecologically and materially driven projects, and is an editor of New Geographies. His publications include Third Coast Atlas (Actar, 2017) and Wood Urbanism.

His work has been recognized by the La Caixa Foundation, the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard, the Venice Biennale, and more.

Vicente Guallart was the chief architect for Barcelona City Council from 2011 to 2015, where he was responsible for developing the strategic vision for the city and overseeing major development projects. He co-founded and directed IAAC from 2001 to 2011, leading notable projects such as the Media House Project (in collaboration with MIT’s CBA), HyperCatalunya, and the Fab Lab House.

Guallart’s professional practice, Guallart Architects, has delivered widely published projects, including the ports of Fugee and Keelung in Taiwan and the Sociopolis neighbourhood in Valencia. He is currently working on projects in China and Russia, focusing on innovative urban solutions. As an author, he has written books like Plans and Projects of Barcelona (2011-2015), Geologic, and The Self-Sufficient City, and he co-authored the Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. His work has been exhibited at prestigious venues such as the Biennale of Venice and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, with a solo exhibition organised by the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C., in 2010.

Laia Pifarré holds a Law degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2002) and participated in the Erasmus program at the Università degli Studi di Parma in 2003. In 2015, she completed the Global Trends, Local Impacts: An Urban Futures Masterclass at the London School of Economics, and in 2018 she earned a second degree in Political Science and Administration from the Universitat de Barcelona.

Her professional career spans both the public and private sectors. From 2011 to 2015, she served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Urban Habitat at the Barcelona City Council, where she was involved in the development and implementation of urban policies. Since joining the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), she has participated in numerous initiatives focused on architecture and urban innovation, with particular responsibility for coordination with companies, institutions, and public administrations.

She is currently Executive Director of Valldaura Labs, IAAC’s forest campus located in the Collserola Natural Park. Situated on a 130-hectare estate, Valldaura Labs is dedicated to research on human habitat, with a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability, ecology, forest management, food production, and the development of advanced ecological wooden buildings. In 2022, she served as Executive Secretary of Barcelona European Forest Capital, an initiative led by the European Forest Institute that included the organization of a scientific event on Biocities at the Barcelona Design Museum, as well as the internationally acclaimed Mass is More installation at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. From Valldaura Labs, she has spearheaded and managed a wide range of innovative projects, including the Tiny House (2019), the Quarantine Cabin—the first prototype built with CLT using local Valldaura timber (2020), the Solar Greenhouse (2021), the FLORA prototype developed as part of Barcelona’s designation as European Forest City (2022), the MO.CA mobile wooden housing unit (2023), and CORA House (2024), a robotic fabrication facility for timber-based prototypes. Many of these projects have been recognized in international competitions and featured in publications such as The New York Times and Monocle.