Willy Müller, PhD Architect

Career Trajectory:

Founder, WMA – Willy Müller Architects SLP (Since 1996)
Co-Founder, IAAC (Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia)
Director, Urban Sciences Laboratory, IAAC
Director, Intelligent Studio, Master in Advanced Architecture, IAAC
General Manager, Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Plan
Former CEO, Barcelona Regional Agency (2011-2015)
Former Development Director, IAAC (2003-2007)
Member of the Board of Trustees, IAAC Foundation
Founder, CodeShare Group

Willy Müller was born in Argentina and is an architect graduated from the University of La Plata, Argentina. In 1986, he completed his PhD program at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and collaborated on the project of the Palau Sant Jordi with the Arata Isozaki Office (1986-1988). Since 1996 he has been running his own firm, WMA – Willy Müller Architects, which has won several prizes in national and international competitions. These include the first prize for an Urban Resort in St. Petersburg, the first prize in the International Competition for Cargadero Puerto de Almeria, and the first prize in the restricted competition for the New Flower Market in Mercabarna. In 2010, the Mercabarna project received the International Real Estate Award in London for the best public services building in Europe.

Between 2006 and 2011, Willy Müller developed several large-scale projects specializing in urban strategies, industries, and tourism, such as Dream City in the Dominican Republic, Vitoria Bay in Brazil, and Blau@ Ictinea in Barcelona Harbor. In addition to running the WMA office, he leads the Intelligent Cities Studio within the Master of Advanced Architecture at IAAC, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, which he co-founded in 2003 with Vicente Guallart and Manuel Gausa. Willy Müller is the author of several books, including “Metapolis Barcelona,” “Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture,” “Media House Project,” “Hypercatalunya,” “Occupying Structures” (a monograph about his work), “Urban Exchange Platform HK/BCN,” “Changing Barcelona Waterfront,” and most recently, “X Paradigms for XXI Century” (IAAC, 2017).

From 2011 to 2015, he served as CEO of the leading public company, Barcelona Regional Agency, specializing in strategic planning, urban development, and infrastructure. This agency was created in 1993, based on the experience gained from the urban transformation of the city of Barcelona for the 1992 Olympics and the impact of tourism on the city. During his four-year tenure, Willy Müller led a large team of over 60 professionals, including architects, planners, engineers, geographers, economists, and biologists. They worked on major projects that transformed the city and gained recognition as a brand and a highly-regarded entity. Many urban development projects under his leadership offered unique perspectives on understanding complex urban phenomena. During this period, he also led large-scale projects in China, Russia, and South America, focusing on waterfronts, urban development strategies, and tourism plans.

Currently, Willy Müller has founded and leads a new space within IAAC called the Urban Sciences Laboratory. In 2021, they obtained a PhD Cum Laude from the University of Genoa with the thesis “Beyond Resilience,” which will be published by Actar at the end of 2023.

Since 2022, WMA continues to work on several projects in Saudi Arabia.