Eva Franch i Gilabert (Delta de l’Ebre 1978) is an architect, curator, critic, and educator based in Barcelona, Prague, and New York. Franch has served as the director of the Architectural Association in London and Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. She was the curator of the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2014 with the project OfficeUS, which included three publications: Manual, Atlas, and Agenda (Lars Muller). Franch is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival -founded by the Barcelona City Council-, professor at UMPRUM, the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague, and a visiting professor at Princeton University and Cooper Union in the United States.
With a focus on curatorial activism and planetary pedagogies and practices, her work articulates global aspirations from local perspectives by generating new narratives and potential futures for a more equitable society. Franch has given lectures worldwide and curated international projects such as “Cartes a l’alcaldessa” with editions in more than 20 cities, including Barcelona, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Taipei, Berlin, and New York. She has also curated disruptive projects such as “Picasso: Untitled,” currently on display at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, in collaboration with 50 contemporary artists.
Franch has received recognition from the American Institute of Architects in New York for her contributions to the field, and the Alumni Award from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. She was named Architect of the Year by The New York Times / T Magazine Spain in 2019, one of the most influential people in London by the Evening Standard in 2018 and in the US by Surface Magazine in 2015, and one of the “New Change Makers” in 2020 by Harper’s Bazaar magazine.