Manuel Gausa Navarro was born on March 14, 1959, and died on August 22, in Barcelona. He earned his degree in architecture from the ETSAB (University of Catalonia) in 1986, where he also earned his doctorate in 2005. In 1991, he became editor of Quaderns magazine, where he remained editor until 2000. In 1994, he co-founded Actar, a publishing house that immediately became a benchmark for architectural culture at the time, and was one of the driving forces behind the Metapolis group, which later became the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). In 2004, together with Florence Raveau, he founded the Gausa+Raveau Actarquitectura studio, with which he developed architectural and urban planning projects.
His avant-garde attitude also led him to serve as vice president of the Advisory Council for Sustainable Development of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government). He also pursued an intense academic involvement, which began as an associate professor between 1995 and 2000 at the ETSAB (University of Barcelona) and continued as a researcher and professor, coordinating an urban research laboratory at the School of Architecture of the Università degli Studi di Genoa (Italy), where he also led the doctoral group and where he had been a professor since 2008.
Always open to invention, Gausa was proactive and influenced by all the sciences that could bring dynamic energy to architecture, such as physics, technology, biogenetics, literature, and philosophy, fostering critical perspectives on urban planning and architecture, and investing in the city and the territory. His most notable publications include Housing: New Alternatives, New Systems, the Metápolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture, HiperCatalunya: Research Territories, Housing: New Alternatives, New Systems, and Barcelona: Guide to Modern Architecture. He was awarded the Medal of the Académie d'Architecture of France in 2000. He has completed numerous international projects and competitions, including co-curating the Spanish Pavilion at the 2nd Rotterdam Architecture Biennial in 2008, the Plaza Pablo Picasso in Montornès, the Arrahona Industrial Estate in Sabadell, and the Wood Houses in Nantes (France).
