Ricardo Bofill
| Ricardo Bofill Leví | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
5 December 1939 Barcelona, Spain |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | Vittorio de Sica Architecture Prize, Life Time Achievement Award. The Israelí Building Center, Chicago Architecture Award, Illinois Council/American Institute of Architects/Architectural Record, Awarded Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Degree, Ministry of Culture France |
| Practice | Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura |
| Projects | Terminal 1 at Barcelona Airport, Sunshine Upper East (Beijing, China), Paribas Marché Saint Honoré (Paris), Antigone Quarter(Montpellier), Swift Headquarters. La Hulpe (Belgium), United Airlines Tower (Chicago), Ginza Shiseido Building (Tokio), La Paix Residentiel (Dakar, Senegal), Port of Savona (Italy), Walden 7 (Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona) |
Ricardo Bofill Leví (Catalan: [riˈkardo buˈfiʎ ɫəˈβi]) (born 5 December 1939) is a Spanish architect, who, since 1963, continues to lead the international architectural and urban design practice Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. Ricardo Bofill was born into a family of builders in 1939 in Barcelona. He studied at the Barcelona University School of Architecture and graduated from the School of Geneva. At the age of 17, Ricardo Bofill designed his first project, a summer home in Ibiza, and by 23, became lead architect of el Taller. Over fifty years later, Bofill still leads Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, with over 1000 projects to date in over 50 countries.
Bofill was raised in a Catalan bourgeois family. His father, named Emilio Bofill, was a builder and developer, Bando Republican, and liberal and a progressive who was vehemently against Francisco Franco’s regime. Ricardo’s mother, Maria Levi, was an Italian Jew who functioned as the matriarchal pillar of the family.
During his adolescence, Ricardo Bofill studied at the Lycée Français de Barcelone. He spent much of his youth traveling throughout Spain, spending a significant amount of time in Andalusia where he discovered Spanish vernacular architecture. In 1957, he attended the Barcelona School of Architecture. While there, like many students of the time, he began developing strong Marxist ideals. During a demonstration, he was arrested and expelled from the university and Spain. Ricardo Bofill fled Barcelona in 1958 for Geneva, where he attended the to complete his education.
In 1963, Ricardo Bofill joined his family business, forming a multidisciplinary, multitalented team consisting of architects, engineers, planners, sociologist, writers, movie makers and philosophers. Bofill revived the characteristic craftsmanship of traditional Catalan architecture. Later on, he began to deal with local urban-planning problems within the Spanish political and social level. The necessity to approach large- scale projects led Bofill’s team to conceive a ridged yet organic methodology based on the geometric formation of elements in space. Such was developed in a theoretical manner with the project The City in Space, and realized with the construction of Walden 7.
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