Leading architects in Barcelona you should know about (II)
Talking about Barcelona and architecture automatically brings to mind Modernism, Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch, or Domènech i Montaner. This triumvirate is considered the spearhead of a discipline that has been renewing itself decade after decade and generation after generation, drawing from various sources and inspirations and varying in styles, yet all maintaining the value of the Barcelona school in their creations. Thus, in a TOP list of architects associated with Barcelona, we would find names like Enric Miralles, Ricard Bofill, Lluís Clotet, or Jordi Badia, whom we already talked about some time ago on our blog.
Today we revisit that theme to expand the list of key architects in Barcelona that you should know
ORIOL BOHIGAS
A living history of Barcelona's architecture with more than 90 years of existence. The architect behind the largest transformation of our city after the Cerdà plan and the International Exhibition of 1929. It was his project to open Barcelona to the sea for the Barcelona Olympics in '92. Among his legacy, the Olympic Village, the Olympic Port, Pompeu Fabra University, and the Tecnocampus in Mataró stand out. Works that have earned him the FAD Award, the City of Barcelona Architecture Award, or the Catalunya Construcció Award for Professional Career, an honorary distinction he received in 2017 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Barcelona '92. For better or worse, Bohigas can be considered the father of Barcelona's architecture of the last decades, as his long professional career has led him to influence the following generations of architects to this day.
ESTEVE BONELL
Born in Banyoles, Bonell has an extensive career, both in his native Catalonia and abroad. Noteworthy are buildings as unique as the new Sant Pau Hospital, located in the northern triangle of the historic precinct of the Hospital. Other buildings in our city designed by Bonell's studio include the Horta velodrome (FAD Award 1985) or the refurbishment of the Jaume I building of the Pompeu Fabra University. His distinctive work has been recognized on two occasions by the FAD Award (1975, 1985), the City of Barcelona or the Mies Van der Rohe Award for the Badalona Olympic Pavilion, designed for the aforementioned Olympic event.
JOSÉ ANTONIO CODERCH
He developed his career starting in 1940, when he graduated from the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture. Along with various architects, among whom Oriol Bohigas was already beginning to stand out, he was a founding member of the so-called Group R, a movement that sought to renew the academicist architecture that prevailed in postwar Spain.
Su legado recoge casas unifamiliares, como la Casa Ugalde en Caldes d’Estrach, edificios de viviendas como los de la calle Johan Sebastian Bach en Barcelona (Premio FAD 1960) y edificios públicos, como la ampliación de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona. Entre los más conocidos para el gran público de nuestra ciudad tenemos las Torres Trade (Diagonal con Gran Vía de Carlos III), las Torres de La Caixa en la Diagonal y el conjunto de viviendas Banco Urquijo que levantó en la confluencia de las calles Raset-Freixa-Modolell y que se pueden apreciar desde la Torre Enric Cera.
CARLES FERRATER
His first major work was the 54-unit residential complex Sant Just Park in Sant Just Desvern, a project inspired by Coderch. From that point on, he drew inspiration from various sources until he developed his own style, which he would ultimately express at the end of the 80s. The pre-Olympic boom led him to erect three blocks in the Olympic Village, design a housing complex in Vall d'Hebron, the Rey Juan Carlos I Hotel, and the Botanical Garden.
Other notable works by Ferrater include the Roca Barcelona Gallery, the institutional headquarters of Roca, the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, the headquarters of the Barcelona World Race, the Provincial Court of Barcelona, the intermodal building that connects terminals A and B of the Barcelona Airport, the Zaragoza-Delicias station, and the expansion of the Barcelona Fishermen's Market, a project unfinished at the time of this article's closure.
Bohigas, Bonell, Coderch, and Ferrater. Four architects who have contributed, to varying degrees, to making Barcelona an architecturally unique and striking city, through buildings like the ones described here. They have not been the only ones. The list goes on and will be expanded in a forthcoming installment. Stay tuned.
