Dear ISOCARP Friends,
Plato said in his “Dialogues” that the most beautiful kind of wisdom is the building of a city. The life of Javier de Mesones was a delightful source of wisdom, a life strongly associated with his friends in ISOCARP and his work as a President of our organization.
He had an ethical commitment with the profession and with the planning discipline that led him to dignify, give special value and recover the importance of the planning profession in our society. In 1993, at the end of his presidency of ISOCARP, he delivered a speech on the “State of the Profession” advocating the need to avoid fear, corruption, dogmatism and arrogance. Javier de Mesones has furnished important contribution in the field of ethics with his exemplary professional carrier, through the messages given along his extensive teaching activities and with his intensive commitment with professional associations, particularly AETU (Spanish Association of Technical Planners, ECTP (European Council of Town Planners) and our International Society of Cities and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).
Together with his wife Adriana Dal Cin, he founded Plan & Design S.A.L., developing projects at different scales, from regional vision, to the articulation of metropolitan areas, medium size cities, rural villages, urban design, landscape and even singular architecture. He has been one of the most influential planners of his generation in Spain, not only developing strategic projects in our country, but also having an important impact in the education of a new generation of planners.
His was very generous with his time and always sharing enthusiasm and ideas in many different contexts, particularly in international events and professional association.
I am thoroughly convinced that his continuous commitment to innovation, his exquisite awareness towards environment, his particular way of understanding structure and order, his transdisciplinary, methodological rigor, scientific view of planning discipline, the emphasis on social participation, his valuable contribution to regional projects and his unrelinquishable ethical compromise with the profession are great lessons and a nice kind of wisdom for the building of cities.
The work of Javier de Mesones shows a thrilling trajectory of one of the most important Planners of the last sixty years. The human dimension of Javier, his love for people, and his special style of generous leadership is the main legacy that we will always remember.
Alfonso Vegara