THOUGHTS ON ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM: In memoriam of Enric Miralles.

Cementerio de Igualada

It´s been 10 years, -exactly in July 3^rd-, since the great Catalán architect Enric Miralles died, at the age of 45 as the result of a brain tumor.

I remember a weird comment from a colleague ¨he died of a brain tumor because he was so bright!¨. We admired him, and we had the opportunity to discuss project ideas with him at a course in Buenos Aires. Here is a brief excerpt from his biography at Wikipedia.org:

In 1978 he completed his examinations at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura(ETSAB) in Barcelona. From 1973 to 1978 he worked in the architect's office of Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón and whilst there — among other things — he was involved in the construction of the Plaça dels Països Catalans, the forecourt for the Estació de Sants. In 1984 after several architectural competition wins, he formed his own office in Barcelona with his first wife Carme Pinós, which they led together until 1991. Within the rising Spanish architecture scene of the late 1980s following the death of Francisco Franco, their unusual buildings attracted international attention. As a result, they received numerous commissions from Spain and overseas. After their separation, Miralles and Pinós continued to work in separate offices. In 1993 Enric Miralles formed a new practice with his second wife, the Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue, under the name "EMBT Architects". She resumed the practice under his name after his death. The most important projects; the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh and the multistoried building for the Spanish gas company Gas Natural in Barcelona, were only finished after his death .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enric_Miralles

In memoriam, I post some pictures of his works, all of them downloaded from Google Images.