Born in Navarre in 1957, Francisco Mangado graduated from the University of Navarre School of Architecture in 1982 and has been teaching there since. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture. He is currently a Professor Extraordinaire of Projects at his alma mater in Pamplona and a Guest Lecturer at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

The numerous distinctions he has received include the Thienne Architecture Award, the Architécti Prize, the FAD Award for Architecture and the Construmat. The year 2009 brought him the Giancarlo Ius Gold Medal of the UIA, the García Mercadal Prize, the Copper in Architecture Award, the International Architecture Award, and the National Architecture Award of Spain’s Council of Architects’ Associations (CSCAE). He was named a RIBA International Fellow in December 2011 by the Royal Institute of British Architects, he has been granted an AIA honorary Fellowship by the American Institute of Architects in February 2013, and in June 2013 his project Municipal Auditorium of Teulada has been awarded with the RIBA EU Award.

In June 2008 he set up the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad.