Born in Madrid in 1931, Fernando de Terán studied drawing, painting, and architecture at the Escuela Superior Técnica de Madrid (ETSAM). He graduated in 1961 and earned his PhD in Architecture in 1966 and his PhD in Urban Planning in 1967. He has devoted himself primarily to urban planning, authoring numerous professional works on urban analysis, planning, and design, and having also held management positions. However, his work is primarily intellectual in nature, both for his analysis of the evolution of the theoretical foundations of urban planning and for his approach to urban history, not as an understanding of the city of the past, but as a way of understanding the city of today.
He was Technical Director of the Madrid Metropolitan Area (1977-1980) and Professor of Urban Planning at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, at the School of Civil Engineering (1980-1993), and at the School of Architecture (1993-2001), where he headed the Department of Urban Planning and Territorial Planning. He was also Director of the Institute for Local Administration Studies (1985-1987). He is an honorary professor at the Argentine Universities of Mendoza and La Plata, as well as at the Latin American Faculty of Environmental Sciences (UNESCO Chair).
He combines his professional work with his intellectual activity as a researcher, teacher, and writer, and has an extensive list of publications in planning theory and urban history. He is the author of fourteen books, has collaborated on many others, and has published numerous articles and essays. His book "Madrid" won the Madrid City Council Urban Planning Award in 1993. His book "Historical Atlas of Spanish Urban Planning" won the 2024 Madrid Architects' Association Award. In 1969, he founded the first Spanish urban planning journal, "City and Territory," which he edited until 1989. He also founded and edited the magazine "Urban" (1997-2007).
In 2000, he received the Gold Medal for Urban Planning from the Community of Madrid and, in 2002, he joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where he served as secretary general from 2010 to 2014, the year in which he became its director. Since 2020, he has been honorary director of this prestigious institution.
In 2005, he received the King Jaime I Award from the Generalitat Valenciana for Urban Planning, Landscape, and Sustainability.
He has combined his primary professional dedication to urban planning with a limited practice of painting, notable for exhibitions in Madrid in 1995, 2000, and 2012.
