Xavier Costa-Guix - Biography#

Dr. Xavier Costa-Guix is currently Full Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Northeastern University in Boston, where he served as Founding Dean of the College of Arts, Media and Design between 2010 and 2015. This academic year, Dr. Costa is a Visiting Researcher at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Metropolis Program, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

He served as Dean and Professor of Elisava School of Design and Engineering at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona between 2002 and 2010. In this role, he oversaw the creation of a graduate school with 24 programs, including a doctoral program in design. In partnership with the Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and the University of Dalian in China, Dr. Xavier Costa created a system of international master’s degree programs. At the same time he served as Professor and Director of the Metropolis Graduate Program in Architecture and Urban Studies at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, a program focusing on an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and the contemporary city.

Dr. Costa has held academic and research positions at Harvard University, ETH Zurich, Cornell University, Columbia University, and the Architectural Association in London; he served as curator for La Biennale in Venice, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; and given scholarly lectures in Paris, Stuttgart, Delft, Palermo, Budapest, Cyprus, and Helsinki, among other institutions in 23 different countries.

He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in the history and theory of architecture and in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He also holds a professional degree in architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and a B.A. in art history from the Universitat de Barcelona.

His research has been published in many journals, including AA Files, Daidalos, Lotus, Arquitectura Viva, Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, and Quaderns. Some of his main publications include Coup de Dés. A Symposium on Housing and Public Space (Mies van der Rohe Foundation, 2010), Ai Weiwei (Mies van der Rohe Foundation, 2010), Wiel Arets: Works, Projects, Writings (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), Josep Lluis Sert: Architect in New York (MACBA, 1997), Situationists. Art, Politics, Urbanism (MACBA, 1996).