Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts 1993

Francisco Javier Sainz de Oiza (Caseda, Navarra, Spain, 1918 – Madrid, Spain, 2000) first went to school in Seville and then studied Architecture in Madrid, later broadening his education in the USA with a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. On his return in 1949, he began a period of intensive teaching work at the School of Architecture in Madrid, where he was director and with which he was associated until his retirement at the age of 67. He then continued on at the school as an Emeritus Professor. He combined his teaching with studio work, designing buildings that ranged from social housing to skyscrapers. He collaborated with the Romany team in the building of social housing between 1954 and 1962 in different areas of Madrid (the townships in Fuencarral, Calero, Batan, Entrevías, etc.). He also designed the Aranzazu Sanctuary (Guipúzcoa), the Torres Blancas building in Madrid –European Excellence Award 1974–, the Bank of Bilbao building in Madrid (in the AZCA complex), the Santander Auditorium and the social housing building next to the M-30 in Madrid, among many others.

Speaker and author of numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, he was a jury member at numerous competitions and awards and received several distinctions. In 1954, he won the National Architecture Award and, in 1989, the Gold Medal for Architecture, awarded by the Council of Architects’ Colleges of Spain. He was awarded the Public University of Navarre Gold Medal in 2000.