Ricardo Bofill

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Bofill and the second or maternal family name is Leví.
Ricardo Bofill Leví
Ricardo bofill levi.jpg
Born (1939-12-05) 5 December 1939 (age 81)
Barcelona, Spain
NationalitySpanish
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)Serena Vergano (divorced)
PracticeRicardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
ProjectsLa Muralla Roja, Walden 7, La Fábrica, Les Espaces d'Abraxas, Antigone district in Montpellier, Barcelona Airport, 77 West Wacker Drive (Chicago), W Barcelona Hotel, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

Ricardo Bofill Leví (Catalan: [riˈkaɾðu buˈfiʎ ləˈβi]; born 5 December 1939) is a Spanish architect. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. According to architectural historian Andrew Ayers, his creations rank "among the most impressive buildings of the 20th century."[1]

Family and early years[]

Born in late 1939 just after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Ricardo Bofill grew up in a well-to-do family with deep Catalan and Barcelonese roots. His grandfather  [ca] (1860-1938) had been involved in prominent local institutions such as the Institute for Catalan Studies, the  [ca], and the  [ca]. His father Emilio Bofill (1907-2000) was an architect, builder and developer who studied at  [ca], Catalonia's oldest professional architecture school. Ricardo Bofill would later describe him as "republican, liberal, progressive, austere and logical."[2] Ricardo's mother, Maria Levi (1909-1991), was an Italian of Jewish descent born in Venice, who became a prominent sponsor of Catalan literature and culture in postwar Barcelona.[3]

Bofill studied at the Lycée français de Barcelone. He spent much of his youth traveling, first with his family and later on his own, and developed a passion for vernacular architecture.[4] His first project was a summer home in Ibiza, completed in 1960.[5] That year he enrolled at the  [ca], where he engaged in student activism with the unauthorized Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. In 1958 he was arrested in a demonstration and expelled from the university and from Spain.[citation needed] He moved to Switzerland and completed his formal architectural training at the  [fr].

Taller de Arquitectura[]

Main article: Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Les quatre barres de la senyera catalana, public sculpture by Bofill that alludes to the Catalan flag; in front of W Barcelona Hotel

In 1963, Ricardo Bofill and a group of close friends created Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (Ricardo Bofill Architecture Workshop), initially hosted in his father's construction business with offices on Plaça de Catalunya in the center Barcelona. Building on Catalan traditions of craftsmanship, he enlisted architects and engineers but also writers and artists into a multidisciplinary effort, which later branched into urban design and urban planning. The team experimented on original methodologies based on three-dimensional modular geometries, such as those of the  [ca] in Reus (1964-1970), El Castillo de Kafka in Sant Pere de Ribes above Sitges (1965-1968), Xanadu (1966-1971) and La Muralla Roja (1968-1973) in Calp.[6] The same thinking was developed on a larger scale with the project La Ciudad en el Espacio ("The City in Space"), whose construction started in the Moratalaz area of Madrid in 1970 but was abruptly stopped by Francoist mayor Carlos Arias Navarro.[7] It was instead realized with the construction of Walden 7 in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona (1970-1975). These projects were recognized as exemplars of critical regionalism and can be viewed as a reaction against both architectural modernism and the Francoist dictatorship in Spain.

In a context of tense political situation in Spain, Bofill started exploring opportunities abroad in the 1970s. He started a second team in Paris, and gradually introduced symbolic elements into the Taller's designs that echoes French traditions of classical architecture. A seminal concept of the period was the 1971 project of La Petite Cathédrale ("the small cathedral"),[8] actually intended as a large-scale development in Cergy-Pontoise but which remained unbuilt. Another major development was a competition-winning concept for Les Halles in Paris in 1975, whose construction subsequently started but was reversed in 1978 by the newly elected mayor Jacques Chirac.[9] Other projects did come to fruition in the  [fr] around Paris which offered a favorable environment for large-scale experimentation, including Les Espaces d'Abraxas in Marne-la-Vallée and Les Arcades du Lac in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. This phase culminated in the expansive Antigone new district of Montpellier in Southern France, for which Bofill presented the initial master plan in 1978.[10] It is associated with both large-scale industrialization in precast concrete and classical forms and geometries in contemporary architecture, which Bofill has called "modern classicism". As a consequence, Bofill is often cited as one of the most representative postmodern architects in Europe.[11][12]

From the mid-1980s, he increasingly shifted to glass and steel for the materials used in his projects, while still using a classical vocabulary of columns and pediments. Representative projects of that period include the 77 West Wacker Drive office tower in Chicago, the extension of Barcelona Airport ahead of the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the National Theater of Catalonia, also in Barcelona.

In 2000, Bofill re-centralized the activities of the Taller at its head office near Barcelona. His designs in more recent years have gradually shed his classical decorative vocabulary of the 1980s and 1990s, while retaining a highly formal sense of geometry. Representative buildings of this more recent period include the W Barcelona Hotel on the Barcelona seafront and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Ben Guerir, Morocco.

Personal life[]

Bofill has two sons, both of whom as of 2021 work with him at Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura: Ricardo Emilio, born in 1965; and Pablo, born in 1980. He lives in Barcelona together with designer  [ca].[13]

Selected works[]

Main article: List of works by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

Urban design[]

Buildings[]

Books[]

  • Ricardo Bofill, Hacia una Formalización de la Ciudad en el Espacio, Barcelona: Blume Editorial, 1968
  • Ricardo Bofill, L’Architecture d’un Homme, Paris: Arthaud, 1978
  • Ricardo Bofill and Jean-Louis André, Espaces d’une vie, Paris: Odile Jacob, 1989 (Translated into Spanish as Espacio y Vida, 1990, and in Italian as Spazi di una vita, 1996)
  • Ricardo Bofill and Nicolas Véron, L’Architecture des villes, Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995

Films[]

  • Circles, 1968. Color, 35 mm, 17 minutes. Directed by Ricardo Bofill and Carles Durán. Actors: Serena Vergano, Salvador Clotas. Phography: Juan Amorós. Presented at Festival de Tours, France, 1968
  • Schizo, 1970. Color, 35 mm, 60 minutes. Directed by Ricardo Bofill, Carles Durán and Manolo Núñez Yanosvski. Actors: Serena Vergano, Modesto Bertrán. Phography: Juan Amorós. Choreography: Antonio Miralles. Presented at 48 Mostra Cinematografica Internazionale di Venezia, Sala Volpi, 1991.

Gallery[]

  • Carrer Bach 28, Barcelona (1963)

  • Carrer Nicaragua 97-99, Barcelona (1965)

  • Barri Gaudí, Reus, Catalonia (1970)

  • Apartaments El Castell, Sant Pere de Ribes

  • Walden 7, Sant Just Desvern (1974)

  • Walden 7, Sant Just Desvern (1974)

  • Sanctuary of Meritxell, Andorra (1977)

  • Taller de Arquitectura, Sant Just Desvern (1970s)

  • Place du Nombre d'Or, Montpellier (1984)

  • Esplanade de l'Europe, Montpellier (1980s)

  • Les Échelles de la Ville, Montpellier (1987)

  • Communauté d'Agglomération, Montpellier (1991)

  • Pa Soder Crescent, Stockholm (1992)

  • United Arrows Building, Tokyo (1992)

  • 77 West Wacker Drive, Chicago (1992)

  • Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Barcelona (1996)

  • Apot Building, Madrid

  • Olympic Swimming Pool, Montpellier (1999)

  • Nexus II building, UPC Campus Nord, Barcelona (2002)

  • Citadel Center, Chicago (2003)

  • W Hotel

  • Hotel W and Quatre Barres monument

  • Barcelona Airport, Terminal 1 (2010)

Recognition[]

Exhibitions[]

Bofill and his Taller de Arquitectura were featured in three exhibitions of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City: "Transformations in Modern Architecture" (1979), "Ricardo Bofill and Leon Krier: Architecture, Urbanism, and History" (1985), and "Architecture & Design Drawings: Rotation 3" (2006).[15] They were also featured at the Venice Biennale in 1980, 1982, and 1992.

Degrees and awards[]

  • 1968: Fritz Schumacher Honoris Causa Degree, University of Hamburg
  • 1978: American Society of Interior Designers, International Prize
  • 1979: Architecte Agréé,  [fr]
  • 1980: Prize of Architecture of the City of Barcelona, for the renovation of the cement factory in Sant Just Desvern
  • 1985: Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Architects
  • 1989: Ordre des Architectes Conseils du Brabant, Belgium
  • 1989: Chicago Architecture Award, Illinois Council / American Institute of Architects / Architectural Record
  • 1989: Académie Internationale de Philosophie de l´Art, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1995: Doctor Honoris Causa, Metz University
  • 1996: Honorary Fellow of the Association of German Architects
  • 2009: Life Time Achievement Award, Israeli Building Center
  • 2009: Vittorio de Sica Architecture Prize, Quirinal, Rome

Honors[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Andrew Ayers (December 2020), "Ricardo Bofill, A l'échelle de l'histoire", L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui
  2. ^ "Architecture". Villa Tupinetti.
  3. ^ "Emili Bofill i Benessat (España, 1907-2000)". El Poder De La Palabra.
  4. ^ Sofia Borges (2013). Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura: Towards a Human Vernacular. Berlin.
  5. ^ Serena Vergano, ed. (2009). Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura: Architecture in the era of local culture and international experience. RBTA. p. 30.
  6. ^ Pedro Alberto García Hernández (2013). "La Agregación Modular Como Mecanismo Proyectual Residencial en España: El Taller de Arquitectura". Escola Técnica i Superior d'Arquitectura La Salle - Universitat Ramon Llull.
  7. ^ Montserrat Villaverde Rey; Anna Martínez Duran (30 November 2020). "La cultura de la rebelión. La ciudad en el espacio de Moratalaz. Taller de Arquitectura (1969-1970)". Bitácora Arquitectura.
  8. ^ "La Petite Cathédrale". Hidden Architecture. 27 February 2017.
  9. ^ Michèle Champenois (27 October 1978). "M. Chirac fait interrompre la construction de l'immeuble Bofill". Le Monde.
  10. ^ "Antigone : Ricardo Bofill présente le projet". Association Georges Frêche.
  11. ^ Stefanie Waldek (5 March 2019). "Discover the Surreal Architecture of Postmodernist Ricardo Bofill". Architectural Digest.
  12. ^ Tom Morris (14 May 2019). "Dreams and Manifestos: The Architectural Vision of Ricardo Bofill". Newsweek.
  13. ^ Josep Sandoval (14 June 2014). "Se casó Pablo Bofill, hijo del arquitecto". La Vanguardia.
  14. ^ "El Palacio Municipal de Congresos retoma sus actividad con un acto para conmemorar sus dos décadas de vida". La Vanguardia. 24 April 2013.
  15. ^ "Ricardo Bofill". MoMA.
  • José Agustín Goytisolo, Taller de Arquitectura : poemas. Barcelona: Blume, 1976
  • Ricardo Bofill, Projets Français 1978-1981. Paris: L’Equerre, 1981
  • Annabelle D’Huart, Ricardo Bofill, Los Espacios de Abraxas, El Palacio, El Teatro, El Arco. Paris: L’Equerre, 1981
  • “Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura”. Global Architecture No.4, New York: Rizzoli International, 1985
  • "The City: Classicism and Technology". Max Protetch Gallery. Artforum 4, 1986
  • Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura: Edificios y proyectos 1960-1984. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1988
  • Warren A. James, Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura: Buildings and Projects 1960-1984. New York: Rizzoli, 1988
  • Annabelle D’Huart, Ricardo Bofill. Paris: Editions du Moniteur, 1989
  • Ricardo Bofill. Barcelona Airport. Milan: Edizioni Tecno, 1991
  • Jean-Louis André and Patrick Genard, Swift, Architecture & Technologie. Taller Design, 1991
  • Bartomeu Cruells, Ricardo Bofill: Obras y Proyectos. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili 1992
  • Memory-Future. Barcelona: Taller de Arquitectura, 1993
  • Bartomeu Cruells, Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. Bologna: Zanichelli Editore, 1994

External links[]

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