José María de Cárdenas

José María de Cárdenas (Seville, 1965) graduated in architecture from the Seville School of Architecture (1993), after studying Economics and Mathematics at the University of Seville. In 1992 he founded, with his fellow student Luis Ybarra, a small technical office under the name DeCYA, which was renamed EDDEA in 2007. He has led the firm since its foundation.

In those early years he directed refurbishments in Seville’s historic centre — Plaza Mata, calle Alegría, calle Santa Clara —, the Morgan Stanley offices on Paseo de Colón and the studio’s own headquarters in the Port of Seville, opened in 2005.

As the partner responsible for urbanism and strategy, he led the Santa Bárbara district masterplan in Seville, winner of the ASPRIMA award for best urban development of 2007, and the masterplans for the former bus station of Constanța (Romania) and for the Białołęka district of Warsaw (Poland), where the studio opened its first international office in 2006. For more than a decade he headed the firm’s international practice, with commissions such as the Spanish Quarter in Moscow; he drove the creation of CITYTHINKING in 2009 and, in 2013, of Atlántica Platform, the alliance with Ghenova and Grupo Galia, which he led as managing director.

Today he heads the technical office of the Port Urban District of Seville and is a regular voice in the debate on cities and housing: he has written on industrialisation and affordable housing in Andalucía Inmobiliaria and has spoken at forums such as the Iniciativa Sevilla Abierta series, Efisur, “La ciudad que piensa” and PORTUS 50. He is a co-founder of the Asociación Andalucía Sostenible and has directed the expert courses in Real Estate Management and in Integrated Project Management at the Instituto de Estudios Cajasol.

• 2026 · PORTUS 50: “Connecting experiences, building the future” — RETE and Seville Port Authority. José María de Cárdenas presents the Port Urban District at the panel on port–city integration.
• 2025 · Workshop on river port cities — AIVP and Seville Port Authority.
• 2024 · “Referentes” series, 9th edition — Abbantia and Clínica Cuve, Seville. Luis Ybarra and José María de Cárdenas: “We shape cities, create communities and build homes”.
• 2024 · Jury of the Andalusia Architecture Awards — Regional Ministry of Development, Junta de Andalucía.
• 2024 · Port Cities. Inclusive urbanism — International University of Andalusia, La Rábida.
• 2024 · Industrialisation in urbanism and architecture — class in the Master in Business for Architecture & Design, IE School of Architecture and Design, Madrid (26 April).
• 2023 · “Rethinking Cádiz’s residential model” — Zona Franca de Cádiz and Diario de Cádiz. Panel “Navalips, reinventing a new space”, with Jorge Izquierdo (EDDEA).
• 2022 · “The thinking city” — Zona Franca de Cádiz and Diario de Cádiz. José María de Cárdenas, “Seville, territory and attractive cities”, alongside Geneviève Garrigos (City of Paris).
• 2021 · Strategic foundations for port–city integration — presentation of the Strategic Framework of the Port of Seville.
• 2021 · The city as a liveable, sustainable space — Vimcorsa Forum, ABC Córdoba.
• 2020 · World Urban Forum 10 (WUF10) — UN-Habitat, Abu Dhabi (8–13 Feb). Citythinking presented, with José María de Cárdenas and Cristina de Cárdenas, its methodologies for digital innovation and residential design within the framework of the New Urban Agenda, using the studio’s Russian experience as a case study.
• 2017 · Closing lecture at the 3rd Meeting on Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Construction (Efisur) — Seville.
• 2014 · Who is thinking about the Seville of the next 20 years? — Instituto Superior de Arquitectura, Seville.
• 2011 · Arcas. Urban and territorial initiatives — Instituto Superior de Arquitectura, Seville.
• 2009 · Masterplan for Seville, the Guadalquivir river and Tablada — public presentation, Hotel NH Plaza de Armas, Seville.

Teaching: director of the Integrated Project Management programme at the Instituto de Estudios Cajasol, with expert courses in Real Estate Management and in Integrated Project Management.