José Rafael Moneo Vallés was born in Tudela (Navarra) in 1937. He studied at the Madrid School of Architecture, graduating in 1961. In 1970, he was made Professor of Elements of Composition at the Barcelona School of Architecture and in 1980 he moved to Madrid where he taught until 1985, the year he was appointed Chairman of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, a position he held until 1990. Currently, Rafael Moneo is the Josep Lluis Sert Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.

His most recent projects include the expansion of the Prado Museum in Madrid (2007), the LISE building - Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering at Harvard University, Cambridge (2007), the Roman Theatre Museum in Cartagena (2008), the University of Deusto Library (2009), the Laboratories for Novartis in Basel, Switzerland (2009), the "La Romareda" Civic Centre in Zaragoza (2010), a science laboratory for Columbia University, New York (2010), the Riberas of Loyola Parish Church in San Sebastián (2011), the Congress Centre in Toledo (2012) and a Center of Neurology and Psychology at Princeton University, New Jersey (2014).

Rafael Moneo’s work as an architect has been complemented by his activity as a speaker and critic. Co-founder of the magazine Arquitecturas Bis, Moneo’s writings have been published in numerous professional journals, and the presentation of his work in exhibitions and conferences has taken him to institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2005, he published the book “Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects", which has been translated into 7 languages​​. In September 2010, his book "Apuntes sobre 21 Obras" (Gili) and "Remarks on 21 Works" (Monacelli) was released simultaneously in the two versions.

Rafael Moneo has received numerous awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1996 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2003. He was elected to Académico Numerario in Fine Arts in 1997, and took up his post in early 2005. In 2006, the Superior Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain honoured him with the Gold Medal of Spanish Architecture and, in 2012, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts.