RICARDO BOFILL - FOUNDER OF RICARDO BOFILL TALLER DE ARQUITECTURA

RICARDO BOFILL

The Basic Introduction

Ricardo Bofill is a Spanish Architect and he is the founder of Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura which was founded in 1963 and it was one of the best design practices that soon after it came into existence it developed into a leading international architectural and urban design practice and due to this practice, Bofill’s creation ranked among the most impressive buildings of 20th Century. 

 

The Early Life of Bofill

The Early Life of Bofill was good he born in late 1939 after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Ricardo grew up in a well-to-do family with profound roots in Catalan and Barcelonese. He got the sense of Architectural design from his family and his father and grandfather were well-known persons of the time. His grandfather was involved in prominent local institutions such as the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona, etc. His father Emilio Bofill was an Architect, builder, and developer who studied at Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona which was Catalonia’s oldest Architectural Institute. Later on, Ricardo Bofill described him as Republican, liberal, progressive, austere, and logical. Ricardo’s mother was an Italian of Jewish descent born in Venice who was the prominent sponsor of Catalan literature and culture in postwar Barcelona. Bofill has two sons and both of them worked with him at Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

 

Bofill's Studies and Early Projects

Bofill studied at the Lycee francais de Barcelona and spent much of his youth traveling firstly with his family and then on his own. He developed a passion for vernacular architecture and his first project was a summer home in Ibiza which was completed in 1960. In that year he enrolled at the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, where engaged in student activism with the unofficial Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia.  In 1958 he was kept behind the bars in a demonstration and expelled from the university and also from Spain. As a result of it, he had to move to Switzerland and there he completed his formal Architectural training at the Haute Ecole d’art de design Geneve which polished his architectural skills to a great extent. 

 

Taller d’Arquitectura

Taller d’Arquitectura was the creation of Ricardo Bofill and a group of his close friends who together placed the foundation of Taller d’Arquitectura in 1963 which was also known as Ricardo Bofill Architectural Workshop. It was initially hosted in his father’s construction business with offices on Placa de Catalunya which was in the center of Barcelona. Building on the Catalan traditions of craftsmanship Bofill enlisted the architects, engineers, artists, and writers into a multidisciplinary effort which later on branched into Urban Design and Urban Planning.

This team experimented on real methodologies based on Three Dimensional modular geometries like Gaudi District in Reus (1964 to 1970), El Castillo de Kafka in Sanr Pere de Ribes above Stiges (1965 to 1968), Xanadu (1966-1971), and La Muralla Roja (1968 to 1973) in Calp. 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 which was then abruptly stopped by the Francoist mayor Carlos Arias Navarro.

It was instead realized with the construction of  Walden 7 in Sant Just Desvern close to Barcelona (1970 to 1975). These projects are well-recognized examples of critical regionalism and can be seen as the reaction against both architectural modernism and the Francoist dictatorship in Spain. 

In the perspective of the intense political conditions of Spain, Bofill started the exploration of opportunities abroad in the 1970s. He started a second team in Paris and gradually introduced symbolic elements into Taller’s designs that exhibit the French traditions of classical architecture. A seminal concept of the period was the 1971 project of La Petite Carherdrale (the small cathedral) actually intended as a large-scale development in Cergy Pontoise which remained unbuilt.

Another major contribution was a competition-winning concept for Les Halles in Paris 1975 whose construction was started but later on in 1975 was stopped by the newly elected Mayor Jacques Chirac. His other projects were completed in the Villes Nouvelles around Paris which offered a suitable environment for large-scale experimentation which includes Les Espaces d’Abraxas in Marne la Vallee and Les Arcades du Lac in Siant Quentin en Yvelines.

This chapter culminated in the expansive Antigone new district of Montpellier in Southern France, for which Ricardo Bofill showed an initial master plan in 1978. It was linked with big-scale industrialization in the precast concrete and classical forms and geometry in contemporary architecture (which Bofilll said to be a Modern Classism). As a consequence Bofill obtained a position as one of the most cited representatives of postmodern architects in Europe.  

 

Glass and Steel for the materials of construction

Ricardo Bofill shifted to Glass and Steel for the materials of construction used in his project from the mid of 1980s. Still, he kept using the columns and pediments in his structures. The renowned projects of this decade are the 77 West Wacker Drive office tower in Chicago, the extension of Barcelona Airport ahead of the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the National Theatre of Catalonia which is also in Barcelona. 

Bofill restarted the activities of the Taller at its head office near Barcelona in 2000 and his designs in the latest years have steadily shed his classical attractive vocabulary of the 1980s and 1990s while maintaining a highly formal sense of geometry. The beautiful building of this period includes the W Barcelona Hotel on the Barcelona seafront and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Ben Guerir, Morocco.

Ricardo Bofill didn’t limit himself to the Building Architectural Designing only but as most of the businessman does he did the same. He worked in multi streams and in his life up till now he has done a lot of work in the fields of Urban Designing, Building Designing and Film Industry. Moreover, he has also written some books which are worthy to read. So one by one we will now discuss his all works.

 

Urban Designing

Bofill has done impressive work in the Urban Designing of the projects and his renowned projects are as follows:

• Large Scale Master Plan for Boston Central Artery 1987.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Kobe Waterfront 1991.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Nansha District in Guangdong 1992.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Barcelona Diagonal Mar 1992.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Paseo de la Castellana extension in Madrid 1996-1999.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Trinity Riverfront in Dallas 2013.
• Large Scale Master Plan for Greater Moscow 2013.
• Antigone district in Montpellier developed in 1979 with many buildings also designed by Bofill and his Taller.
• Master plan for the redevelopment of the Kirchberg District in Luxembourg City 1998.
• Urban neighborhoods in Rues 1970, Marne la Vallee 1982, Saint Quentin en Yvelines 1982, Sergy Pontoise 1985, Stockholm 1992, and The Hague 2004.
• Mohammed VI Polytechnic University campus in Ben Guerir Morocco 2011-2016.

The extensive work in the field of Buildings Designing is as under:

• La Fabrica headquarters of Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and residence of Bofill and family 1975.
• Early Housing complexes in Sapin based on geometrical pattern combinations, El Castillo de Kafka 1968, Xanadu 1971, La Muralla Roja 1973, Waiden-7 1975, 
• Les Echelles du Baroque apartment building in Paris 1985.
• 77 West Wacker Drive office tower in Chicago 1992.
• Madrid Congress Center 1993.
• National Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona 1997.
• Casabalanca Twin Center in Casabalanca Morocco 1999.
• Miguel Delibes Cultural Center in Valladolid, Spain 2007.
• W Hotel on the Barcelona waterfront 2009.
• Terminal 2 1992 and Terminal 1 2009 of Joseph Tarradellas Barcelona EI Prat Airport.

 

As it is already discussed that Ricardo Bofill has done a variety of works in a different fields, so it will be not astonishing to know that he written a number of books and the names of the books he has written are below:

• Ricardo Bofill, Hacia una Formalizacion de la Ciudad en el Espacio, Barcellona: Blume Editorial, 1968.
• Ricardo Bofill,  L’Architecture d’un Homme, Paris: Arthaud, 1978.
• Ricardo Bofill and Jean-Louis Andre, Espaces d’une vie, Paris: Odile Jacob. 1989 which was translated into Spanish as Espacio y Vida. 1990, and in Italian as Spazi di una viata 1996.
• Ricardo Bofill and Nicolas Veron, L’Architecture des villes, Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995.

Ricardo Bofill is the Director of Two Films and the titles of the films are as follows:

• Circles 1968. Color, 35 mm, 17 minutes. Directed by Ricardo Bofill and Carles Duran. Actors: Serena Vergano, Salavdor Clotas, Photography: Juan Amoros and presented at Festival de Tours, France, 1968.
• Schizo, 1970. Color, 35 mm, 60 minutes. Directed by Ricardo Bofill, Carles Duran and manolo Nunez Yanosvski. Actors: Serana Vergano, Modesto Bertran. Photography: Juan Amoros. Choregraphy: Antonio Miralles. Presented at 48 Mostra Cinematografica Internazionale di Venezia, Sala Volpi, 1991.

 Now we will discuss the top-of-the-line projects of Ricardo Bofill which were well recognized by the world.

LA MURALLA ROJA:

La Muralla Roja is a postmodern apartment complex in Manzanera, Calpe, Spain. It was fully constructed in 1973 and it is ranked among Ricardo Bofill’s 10 most iconic works. For this building, Bofill combined the Architectural Ideas of the Arab Mediterranean and North African Casbahs. It is a combination of Courtyards, staircases, and bridges that connects all the apartments with one another.

 

WALDEN 7:

 Walden 7 is an apartment building which is located in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona in Catalonia Spain. The name of the building depicts a utopian community. It is well-known for its use of modules to create apartments and many public community spaces. Walden 7 was designed with small uniform windows with no central heating and there was a bath in the middle of the room which was removed by most of the residents. The façade of the building covered with red ceramic tiles. 

 

LA FABRICA:

La Fabrica is a former Cement Factory which is now converted into offices and habitation spaces in 1970 by Ricardo Bofill. It is located in Sant Just Devern near Barcelona and this building is described as the Heart and Brain of Bofill’s professional and personal life.  The entire complex was planted with lush gardens, including some on rooftops, to create the feeling of an oasis within the surrounding industrial area. It is not open to public use.

 

LES ARCADES DU LAC:

It was built in 1981 and it is an ensemble of Apartment Buildings in outer Paris, France, near Versailles. It is a combination of suburban housing and HLM complex and it was designed by Bofill as a centerpiece of urban composition with the central portion extending into an artificial lake from the shore. 

 

LA PETITE CATHEDRALE:

La Petite Cathedrale is the key project of Ricardo Bofill's architectural works. It is the project from when the interests of Bofill changed towards more ornate architecture. It is a project inspired by Gothic Architecture.