Barcelona, Best Architecture Guide: 20 buildings to discover the Ciudad Condal, BCN

Fermín Vázquez Huarte-Mendicoa (Madrid, 1961) architect since 1988. He studied at ETSAM (Madrid) and ETSAB (Barcelona). He leads b720 Fermín Vázquez Architects, which he set up with Ana Bassat in 1997, with offices in Barcelona, Madrid, São Paulo and Porto Alegre.

b720 is an international studio. It works globally, with offices in Brazil and Spain, on projects located in a dozen different countries.

The work of the studio, which has been shown in several events and museums, such as the Biennal of Venice, the Cité of París and MoMA of NY, has been awarded nationally and internationally with several prizes, among them are two RIBA Awards, a World Architecture Festival award, four awards ASPRIMA-SIMA, the Emporis Skyscraper Award and the European Public Urban Space award.

Among his best-known projects are the Agbar Tower -with Jean Nouvel Architectures-, Lérida's airport, the Plaza del Torico in Teruel, La Mola Conference Centre in Barcelona, the City of Justice of Barcelona and the building for the America Cup in Valencia -both with David Chipperfield Architects- and the Gran Casino Costa Brava in Lloret de Mar. Currently working, among other projects, on the new Mercat dels Encants in Barcelona, the new international airport of Cuzco in Perú, the regeneration of the Waterfront of Cais Mauá of Porto Alegre, a new neighbourhood for 70.000 residents in Brasilia and in several high buildings in São Paulo.

He usually combines professional practice with teaching. He has been a teacher at ETSAB, l'École d'Architecture et Paysage de Burdeos, and Universidad Europea de Madrid, and he has given courses and conferences at large universities and institutions all over the world.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in Aachen on the 27th of Marz of 1886 and died in Chicago on the 17th of August of 1969. He was active in Germany, from 1908 to 1938, when he moved to the USA and where he was until his death. He was also considered a “master” of the Modern Movement, since the 50s, and he was one of the fathers of this movement with Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mies van der Rohe, who in his childhood was guided by masters such as Hendrik Petrus Berlage or Peter Behrens, always kept tabs on the Villlet-Le-Duc’s rationalism or Karl Friedrich Schinkel eclectic classicism, having a strong connection with the architectural historicism. As he said in his manifesto “Baukunst und Zeiwille” about this: “it is not possible to move on looking back”.

In 1900 he began to work with his father in the stone workshop of the family and shortly afterwards he moved to Berlin to work with Bruno Paul in 1902, designing furniture. He planned his first house in 1907, the “Riehl House” in Neubabelsbers and worked from 1908 to 1911 in Peter Behrens’s studio. There he was influenced by structural techniques and designs based on steel and glass, as the AEG project in Berlin. While he was in Behrens’s studio he designed the Perls House.

In 1912 he opened his own studio and projected a house in The Hague for Kröller-Müller marriage. The studio received few jobs in its first years, but Mies, contrary to architects like Le Corbusier, in his first years already showed an architectural policy to follow, being an architect that changed little his architectural philosophy. To his epoch belonged the Heertrasse House and Urbig House as his principal projects.

In 1913 he moved to the outskirts of Berlin with his wife Ada Bruhn with whom he would have three kids. The family broke up when Mies was posted to Romania during World War I.

In 1920, Ludwig Mies changed his surname to Mies van der Rohe and in 1922 he joined as a member of the “Novembergruppe”. One year later, in 1923, he published the magazine “G” with Doesburg Lisstzky and Rechter. During this period he worked in two houses, the Birck House and the Mosler House. In 1926, Mies van der Rohe held the post of chief commissioner of the German Werkbund exhibition and became his president this year. In this period he projected the Wolf House in Guden and the Hermann Lange House in Krefeld and in 1927, he met the designer Lilly Reich, in the house exhibition of Weissenhof, where he was director, and he planned a steel structure block for her.

In 1929, he received the project the German National Pavilion to the International Exhibition of Barcelona) rebuilt in 1986=, where he included the design of the famous Barcelona Chair.

In 1930, he planned in Brün – present Czech Republic -, the Tugendhat Villa. He managed the Dessau’s Bauhaus until his closure in 1933. The Nazism forced Mies to emigrate to the United States in 1937. He was designated chair of the Architecture department at Armour Institute in 1938, the one that later merged with the Lewis Institute, forming the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and where he took the responsibility to build a considerable extent of the foundations of the Institute from 1939 and 1958. One of the buildings of this complex is the Crown Hall, IIT (1950-1956).

In 1940, he met the person who would be his partner until his death, Lora Marx. He became a citizen of the USA in 1944 and, one year later, he began with the Farnsworth House’s project (1945-1950). During this stage, in 1948, he designed his first skyscraper: the two towers of the Lake Drive Apartments in Chicago, which were finished in 1951. Shortly after, he planned another building of this typology, the Commonwealth Promenade Apartments, from 1953 to 1956.

In 1958 he projected his most important work: the Segram Building in New York. This building has 37 storeys, covered with glass and bronze, which was built and planned with Philip Johnson. He retired from the Illinois Institute of Technology the same year. He also built more towers and complexes as: the Toronto Dominion Centre (1963-1969) and the Westmount Square (1965-1968) and designed the New Square and Office Tower of The City of London (1967).

From 1962 to 1968, he built the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which would be his last legacy to the architecture. The building that rose as an exhibition hall is made of steel, glass and granite.

He died in Chicago on the 17th of August of 1969 leaving behind a large legacy and influence to the next generations.

The Mies van der Rohe’s most famous sentences are “Less is more” and “God is in the details”.

Enric Miralles Moya (Barcelona 1955 - Sant Feliu de Codines 2000) studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture, ETSAB, graduating in 1978. From 1973 to 1983 he collaborated with Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón, and in 1984 he founded the Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós studio, from this stage one of his most poetic works stands out, such as the Igualada Cemetery. In 1993 he began the EMBT study with his wife and partner Benedetta Tagliabue.

Considered an architect of great inventiveness, he defined himself as the enfant terrible of Spanish architecture. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Columbia University for the 1980-81 academic year. Two years later, he presented his doctoral thesis "Things seen to the left and the right, (without glasses)."

Since 1985 he was professor at ETSAB (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona), holding the Chair of Architecture since 1996. In 1990 he began as Director and Professor of the Master Class at Städelschule of Frankfurt and beginning in 1992 served as the "Kenzo Tange Chair” professor at the GSD of Harvard University. Moreover, he was visiting professor and lecturer at several universities in the United States (Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Yale), Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

As an architect of many works, his projects include, the Igualada Cemetery in Spain (1995) and the rehabilitation of Utrecht City Hall in Holland (2000). He was also active as an interior designer, with projects including The Hipostila shelving system(1989) in collaboration with Lluis Clotet and Oscar Tusquets Blanca for Bd Ediciones de Diseño, Lungomare Bench for Escofet,(2000), Vacante bench for Sellex (1991), and many other furnishing designs which were not put in production.

He has received numerous awards, including the National Prize of Spanish Architecture 1995, FAD Prize (Fomento Artes Decorativas) 1985 and 2000, The European ITALSTAD (Italy) 1991. Leone d’Oro Prize at the Biennale di Venezia 1996. His work has been published internationally in the most distinguished reviews, El Croquis N.100 101, Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue 1996-2000. GG. Miralles Tagliabue Time Architecture 1999. Electa, Documenti di Architettutra. Benedetta Tagliabue. Enric Miralles: Opere e Progetti. 1996. In 1999 he was named an Honorary member of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In 2002 he received posthumously the Gold Medal from the Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya.

Benedetta Tagliabue was born in Milan (June 24, 1963) and graduated from the University of Venice in 1989. In 1991 she joined Enric Miralles’ studio eventually becoming a partner. Her work with Miralles, whom she married, includes several high-profile buildings and projects in Barcelona: Parque Diagonal Mar (1997-2002), Head Office Gas Natural (1999-2006) and the Market and Quarter Santa Caterina (1996-2005), as well as projects across Europe, including the School of Music in Hamburg (1997-2000) and the City Hall in Utrecht (1996-2000).

In 1998 the partnership won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament building. Despite Miralles’ premature death in 2000, Tagliabue took leadership of the team as joint Project Director and the Parliament was completed in 2004, winning several awards.

She won the competition for the new design of Hafencity Harbor in Hamburg, Germany, a subway train station in Naples, and the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010 among others.

Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works with architectural projects, open spaces, urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition which espouses collaboration rather than specialization.

Their architectural philosophy is dedicating special attention to context.

Benedetta has written for several architectural magazines and has taught at, amongst other places, the University of Architecture ETSAB in Barcelona. She has lectured at many international architectural Forums as, for example, the RIBA, the Architectural Association and Bartlett School in, London, the Berlage Institut in Amsterdam, and in the USA, China and South America.

He began his professional career alongside architects Josep Lluís Sert and Josep Torres Clavé, with whom he helped found MIDVA (Furniture and Decoration for Contemporary Housing). In 1933, Antonio Bonet travelled on the Patris II from Marseille to Athens to attend the 4th CIAM Congress (International Congress of Modern Architecture) as a student associated with the GATEPAC group (Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture), participating in its activities. The trip, which ended in Athens (where he was photographed in front of the ruins of the Parthenon with his colleagues Josep Lluís Sert and Josep Torres Clavé), gave him the opportunity to connect with the leading figures of the Modern Movement.

In 1936, coinciding with the start of the Spanish Civil War, and having just finished his architectural studies, he travelled to Paris, where he began working in Le Corbusier's studio. There, as a student, he participated in the construction of the Spanish Republic Pavilion, designed by Josep Lluís Sert and Luís Lacasa, for the International Exposition in Paris (1937). The pavilion showcased extraordinary contributions, including those of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Julio González, Alberto Sánchez, and Alexander Calder. Picasso was given a prominent space designed to display his painting "Guernica," with mural dimensions of 349.3 x 776.6 cm. That same year, he had the opportunity to attend the 5th CIAM Congress.

During those years in Paris, he participated in the development of Le Corbusier's projects, such as the Maisons Jaoul (1937) and the Water Pavilion for the Liège International Exposition (1938), and met the Chilean architect and painter Roberto Matta.

In 1938, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Bonet decided to emigrate to the Río de la Plata region, going into exile in Argentina, where he lived for decades, dividing his time between Argentina and Uruguay (especially Punta Ballena). Following the spirit of GATEPAC, he founded the Austral Group with two of his colleagues from Le Corbusier's studio, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy. With them, he maintained an intense activity in disseminating the principles of Modern Architecture through various avant-garde manifestos and publications.

One of the most paradigmatic expressions of the principles of the Modern Movement crystallized in 1938 with the creation of the iconic BKF armchair (named after the initials of its designers, Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy). It won awards early on at interior design exhibitions in Buenos Aires in 1940 and received First Prize at the First Salon of Decorative Artists in 1943. It has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York since 1950, although its design is now officially attributed to the Argentine Jorge Ferrari Hardoy.

In 1943, Bonet founded the OVRA Group (Organization for Comprehensive Housing in the Argentine Republic), where he served as secretary. In 1957, he founded the magazine Mirador, a publication dedicated to promoting modern art and science. His American output ranged from furniture design to urban planning, including projects such as the Reconstruction of San Juan (1944), the Urbanization of Punta Ballena (1945–1948), the Urbanization of Bajo Belgrano in Buenos Aires (1948), and the Southern Plan of Buenos Aires (1956), in which he introduced rationalist thought into organically designed proposals.

Among his built works, the House of Studies for Artists stands out. This corner building, located at the intersection of Paraguay and Suipacha streets in Buenos Aires, was designed and completed between 1938 and 1939 in collaboration with Abel López Chas and Alejandro Vera Barros. The building is considered a manifesto of exceptional architecture, a work categorized by many as rationalist, organic, and surrealist, due to its innovative combination of brick vaults (whose sculptural treatment had been explored in the Maisons Jaoul), elements of folk tradition such as ceramic floors, stools, and objects made of natural fibers, which engage in a dialogue throughout the building with modern materials. The building's attic would be Bonet's home in Buenos Aires until 1941.

In 1941, he designed the group of houses in Martínez, in collaboration with Peluffo and Vivanco, followed by the Daneri house (1944), with Zalba, and numerous residences in the Punta Ballena development, including the Berlingieri, Cuatrecasas, Booth, and La Rinconada houses, as well as the La Solana del Mar restaurant, a central work of this period. He also built La Gallarda (1945), a house for Rafael Alberti in Punta del Este, and the Oks house in Buenos Aires (1953), in addition to unique buildings such as the Terraza Palace, in Mar del Plata (1957), and the Galería de las Américas in Córdoba (1958).

His return to Spain was gradual and was preceded by his attendance as a Uruguayan-Argentine delegate at the VII CIAM Congress, held in Bergamo, Italy, in 1949. There he presented the lecture: "New Clarifications on Architecture and Urbanism." He illustrated the lecture with slides and a documentary film: "The City Facing the River" (1948), made by Enrico Gras, which showed the Bajo Belgrano Housing Complex in Buenos Aires (1949).

From Argentina, he designed the Casa Mur in Barcelona (1944) and, later, the La Ricarda single-family home in El Prat de Llobregat (1949–1963), for which he received the FAD Extraordinary Award (1958–1978). He opened studios in Barcelona and Madrid in 1959 (the Rubio house in Cap Salou, Tarragona, dates from 1959), regularly collaborating with Josep Puig Torné. This collaboration brought him a large number of commissions in Spain, which led to his permanent settlement there in 1963. His urban planning projects are concentrated along the Mediterranean coast: Málaga, Murcia, Tarragona, Barcelona, ​​and Girona. After his return, Bonet was considered a prestigious architect, and in 1960, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, under the direction of Alexandre Cirici-Pellicer, organized an exhibition of his work.

Between 1960 and 1965, he designed, with Puig Torné, the Pine Beach residential complex in Gavà Mar, commissioned by the FAESA company, owned by the Guardans Cambó family. This complex is an example of rationalist architecture linked to the principles of the Bauhaus and GATEPAC. In Catalonia, he produced a wide range of work, from single-family homes—such as the Rubió, Castanera, Cruylles, and Rubio houses—and residential complexes, to apartment blocks and unique projects like the Meridiana Greyhound Track (1962), winner of the 1963 FAD Award, the Recovery Center for the Mutual Metalworkers' Association of Catalonia in Cambrils (1970), and various tourist development projects and radical urban proposals for Barcelona, ​​such as the Montjuïc Plan (with Bohigas and Martorell) and the Ribera Plan (1964).

In Madrid, he developed several highly significant works, including the building with the first curtain wall constructed in Spain, the Banco de Madrid on Carrera de San Jerónimo (1959), various residential buildings, the Retiro II housing complex (1971), and the General Council of Physicians—now the Constitutional Court—designed in collaboration with Francisco González Valdés in 1973. The latter was built between 1975 and 1980, the year it was finally inaugurated as the seat of the Constitutional Court.

Bonet considered architecture to be an organizing force in human life and believed that the architect's activity extended from the design of a piece of furniture to the planning of a city. One of his constants was the effort to integrate the various scales of the human habitat, researching new materials and forms to create architectural spaces and objects that served society.

Carme Pinós i Desplat graduated with a degree in architecture from the school of Architecture in Barcelona (ETSAB) in 1979. In the mid 1980s the architectural proposals she developed in partnership with Enric Miralles obtained recognition in several architectural competitions. In 1991 she set up her own studio and since then she has combined her activity as an architect with teaching as a guest professor at different universities such as the Graduate Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation de Columbia University (1999), the École Polytechnique Féderale of Lausanne (2001-02), the Graduate  School of Design of Harvard University (2003), the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (2005-06) o la Universitá di Roma Tre (2007-08).

Her built work and projects have been exhibited at several galleries and museums. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris hold models of her projects in their permanent collections. Her work has been published in several monographs (Actar, 1998: Monacelli Press 2004; “Documentos de Arquitectura”, nº 60, 2006). In 2008 she received the National Prize for Architecture and Urban Space from the Catalan Government in recognition of her entire professional career.

Pere Joan Ravetllat Mira. Architect, 1980. Master of Science in Building Design at Columbia University of New York, 1985. Dr. architect by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 1994. Full university professor since 2017. In charge of the design course ‘Housing and city’ in ETSAB, focused on the contribution of housing programs in urban contexts, from which books about housing such as ‘Des dels Edificis’ or ‘LIMITS’ have emerged. 

Author of different monographs about housing such as "Bloques de Viviendas" or ‘Habitatge i Tipus’, and different opinion articles published both in national and international magazines. He has led and coordinated the Barcelona Study Program of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been a member of different juries and international awards and has lectured or been a visiting professor both in Spain and European schools of architecture. 

He is the director of the Refurbishment and Architectural Restoration of the MBArch from ETSAB UPC, and he coordinates the research group REARQ, where different dissertations about refurbishment have been published. He has five accredited periods of six years on research work and has directed numerous theses and doctoral theses.

Currently, Ravetllat arquitectura carries out its professional work sharing the authorship of the projects with different members of the team.

Carme Ribas Seix. Architect. Professor of Projects at the School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) since 1987. From 1996 to 1998, she was a professor of interior projects at the ELISAVA School. Between 1998 and 2001, she was also a Project Lecturer in the degree of Landscaping at the ETSAB. Between 1981 and 1986 he was an architect of the Servei d'Elements i Urban Projects of the Barcelona City Council, where he made several projects related to urban design. Co-editor of the magazine A-30 during the period 1986-88, she has also published her work in several national and international journals, made since 1985 with Pere  Joan Ravetllat Mira. In 1985 he obtained the Diploma of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia from the Landscape Architecture Course.

They recently received other international awards such as the FX Awards (London) and the ARCHITIZER Awards (NY) for their renovation and expansion project of Barcelona's Port Vell Marina, and the OIC/IAKS Award (Cologne), a prestigious award sponsored by the International Olympic Committee, for their Urban Sports Facility projects.

Among their current projects, scob has won the competition for the renovation of Palma's Plaza Mayor and the Barcelona Center for Applied Neurosciences (BCAN) project.

Alongside their professional practice, they conduct research on landscape architecture in other formats. Their documentaries Landskating and Picapapedrers have been selected for several film and architecture festivals and have been screened in more than 15 cities in Europe and Latin America.

Sergi Carulla Architect. Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, 1996 Landscape architect. Master de arquitectura del paisaje UPC, 2002 Founder partner of scob arquitectura y paisaje, 2005 Currently teaches in Master in Landscape Architecture of Barcelona and the Italian Centre of Architecture in Milan.

Oscar Blasco Architect. Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, 1999 Landscape architect. Master de arquitectura del paisaje UPC, 2002 Founder partner of scob arquitectura y paisaje, 2005 Currently teaches in Master in Landscape Architecture of Barcelona and the Italian Centre of Architecture in Milan.