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Registration is forthcoming. 

This in-person colloquium is part of the exhibition and event series celebrating 25 years of the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) European Prize for Urban Public Space, "Design Matters: In Favor of Urban Public Space".

How can design respond to urgent challenges without reinforcing existing inequalities? What does it mean to design for resilience in a rapidly changing world? How can diverse voices shape the outcomes of design processes? What responsibilities do designers hold in shaping these futures? How might design move beyond problem-solving to become a tool for collective imagination and transformation?

Introduction: Prof. Fabian Llonch

Moderator: Prof. Julio Salcedo-Fernandez, Director, Graduate Program in Urban Design

Panelists (15-minute presentations):

Maria Buhigas, Chief Architect of the City of Barcelona

Josep Ricart, Principal, Harquitectes

Claire Weisz, Principal, WXY, New York

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Julio Salcedo-Fernandez (he/him) is an architect, urban designer, and educator whose work bridges architecture and urbanism across multiple scales. He is Director of the Master of Urban Planning and Urban Design (MUPUD) program at the City College of New York's Spitzer School of Architecture, where he teaches and leads interdisciplinary design initiatives focused on the future of cities. Alongside his academic work, he maintains an active design practice and has published and lectured on topics including urban resilience, adaptive reuse, and the relationship between infrastructure, ecology, and the built environment. He recently participated in New York City's Urban Resource Recovery Working Group.

Suggested Reading: Salcedo-Fernández, Julio. "Urban Manufacturing as a Vehicle for Social and Environmental Justice: The Case of North Brooklyn." In Urban Futures – Cultural Pasts, 680–685. Barcelona: AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society), 2023.

Josep Ricart (he/him) is founding partner at Harquitectes. HARQUITECTES is an architecture studio founded in 2000 by David Lorente, Josep Ricart, Xavier Ros and Roger Tudó. They combine their professional activity with teaching, in Polytechnic University of Catalonia Faculty of Architecture (ETSAV and ETSAB), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. They have been invited to Porto Academy, Architectural Association School of architecture, Barlett school, University of Texas at Austin, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, École d’Architecture Paris-Villemin, and Umeå School of Architecture, among other institutions. They have received several national and international awards and their work has been widely published and exhibited.

Suggested Reading: Harquitectes. Textos y conversaciones. Puente Editores.

Claire Weisz, FAIA, Hon. FRAIC, Hon. ASLA (she/her) is the founding principal of WXY architecture + urban design, a New York and Toronto-based practice recognized for community-centered work across architecture, planning, infrastructure, and the public realm. Weisz is committed to cities as shared civic environments shaped through design, policy, and public engagement. Her work includes Astor Place in Manhattan, the Rockaway Boardwalk reconstruction, and the Glass City Riverwalk in Toledo, among other civic public projects. She co-founded The Design Trust for Public Space and has received the AIA New York Medal of Honor and Architectural Record’s Women in Architecture Award. and

Suggested Readings: Weisz, Claire. "Op-Ed: As the City Adapts, Will Nature Guide Design?" Oculus, Winter 2024 and Weisz, Claire, and Jacob Dugopolski. "The Form Density Takes." Vital City, September 17, 2025.

All colloquia are free, open to the public, and held in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Sciame Auditorium. For live captioning, ASL interpretation, or access requests, please contact ssadean@ccny.cuny.edu.

Sciame Auditorium (Room 107) 141 Convent Avenue New York, NY 10031

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