Death of Spaniard Ricardo Bofill, great architect

Architectural superstar, adored or criticized, Ricardo Bofill died Friday of complications linked to Covid-19, at the age of 82. Born in Barcelona to a Catalan architect father and a Venetian mother, Ricardo Bofill Levi entered the city's School of Architecture in 1957, from which he was expelled for anti-Franco activism, before continuing his studies in Geneva. Back in his hometown, in a Spain still under the thumb of the dictator Francisco Franco, he joined with other young intellectuals (architects, engineers, writers, filmmakers, sociologists and philosophers) a group called the "Divine Left " and in 1963 created his architectural studio, the "Taller de Arquitectura".

This workshop, located in an old cement factory on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​with branches in Paris, Montpellier, New York, Tokyo, Chicago or Beijing, has signed more than 1000 projects all over the world. We owe in particular to his studio the airport of Barcelona, ​​the W hotel on the beach of Barceloneta, the National Theater of Catalonia, the Palace of Congresses in Madrid or the Donnelley and Dearborn skyscrapers in Chicago. In France, where he is particularly appreciated, Bofill has designed several large complexes: in Paris, the Place de Catalunya (14th) and the Saint-Honoré market (1st); the Antigone district in Montpellier; but especially the Espaces d'Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand (where scenes from "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam in 1985, and "Hunger Games 2" were shot)

Made a doctor honoris causa by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia last September, Bofill then underlined that "faced with the dormitory town model", he had made "the bet to create neighborhoods with mixed functions, but always in defending urban continuity, the street and the square" as a place of social life. At a time when, in the United States in particular, city centers were disappearing to make way for cars and shopping malls.

In 1988, Ricardo Bofill spoke to our magazine about his work. Here is the interview as published in Paris Match at the time.

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ERRATUM:An early version of this article wrongly attributed Picasso's Arènes de Noisy-le-Grand to Ricardo Bofill. The set is actually the work of the architect Manuel Nuñez Yanowsky, co-founder with Ricardo Bofill of "Taller de Arquitectura", before his departure in 1978. The text has been corrected. Our apologies to our readers and those affected.

Ricardo Bofill, the conquistador of architecture

By Philippe Trétiack

From Montpellier to Houston, this Catalan dandy is transformed into a planetary builder, but his neo-classical style and his media savvy often irritate his colleagues. He counter-attacks in Paris Match.

His name is one of the symbols of today's architecture. And, even if the general public knows him less well, Ricardo Bofill is indeed a star, just like Herbert von Karajan or Alain Prost. It's that there is a conductor and a solitary champion in this Catalan in love with France, who cultivates the gift of command, the sense of teamwork, the ardor of the sprinter and the relentlessness of the runner background. So many qualities that earned him a number of orders but also a lot of enmity. With his eternal white shirt, this twirling builder often annoys gloomy colleagues who, hit hard by the crisis, do not always appreciate his media sense.

Be that as it may, the Bofill style exists, we have all encountered it. Pale replicas of the past, false Versailles for some, grandiose palaces for the people according to others, the achievements of Taller de Arquitectura, Ricardo Bofill's agency, are essential. And we imitate it, which is the hallmark of great architects. Thus, from the colonnade of the Cergy-Pontoise lake, to the H.l.m. from Gare Montparnasse to the famous building of the Théâtre de Marne-la-Vallée, Bofill built a neo-classical reputation in France, before setting out to conquer the world.

Today, Ricardo Bofill, conquistador and ringleader, runs a veritable multinational architecture company. His buildings stand in Montpellier, Bordeaux, but also in Stockholm, Brussels, and soon in Moscow, New York, Houston, Buenos Aires, Toronto... Everywhere, the "modern classicism" he calls himself is gaining ground. Yes, we are definitely very far from the mythical bohemian architect, wrapped in his scarf. In the premises of the Taller, several floors of sumptuous offices with moldings and pastries, located in the heart of Paris, rue de l'Université, Ricardo reigns supreme, strapped in a strict banker's suit with blue stripes which he wears a little too tight. Like a toreador.

Paris Match. You build around the world. You do a lot of business. Do you still have time to be an architect?Ricardo Bofill. I take care of all my projects. It forces me to move around a lot. I spend ten days a month in Paris, ten more in Barcelona, ​​and the rest by plane or in New York. Initially, we accept orders, we win contests or even we create achievements. Then, and this is the first phase, I go to Barcelona to determine the "party" (the concept) of the project. I do it either in writing or with the help of drawings of ideas that are always geometric, never detailed. Afterwards, I entrust the file to my collaborators, and I rework it with them every month. They call me, they tell me: “There, Ricardo, you are wrong. We should do this or that..." We discuss.

Let's talk about your style. You have been criticized a lot for your retro, “Mussolinian” side. What do you think ? I think fashion is way too important in this country. This "fashion" side is terrible. I prefer the English attitude of dressing in grandparents' clothes and finding that very good. The people for whom a column is fascism are the same people for whom all works of classical music are alike. In truth, I have been criticized for things without knowing, because no architect has produced as many different styles as I have. I am the most eclectic of them all.

That's not the image we have of you here. For us, you are the man of the classic colonnades. And yet! For ten years, I imposed myself a crazy job, making dignified social housing, proving that the poor could live in buildings as beautiful as those of the rich. But, in France, we don't know. What is terrible anyway is this notion of France and the rest of the world. But, the planet is not structured like that. There is no France and the rest of the world; there is the United States, England, Morocco…

So how are you considered elsewhere? In the United States, as the European architect stylish designer. In Russia, as a builder of prefabrication plants. In Belgium, as a visionary and a philosopher: and in Spain, as a strange and penetrating character... But, in France, I am the architect of neoclassical social housing. It's like that. People are quick to rank me. However, I do not like classifications. But, I have, in any case, an immense gratitude towards France. I would never have been able to do abroad what I am going to do for example in Montpellier. Even in Spain it is impossible. Over there, 30% of construction is black!

What are your sources of inspiration?For me, creation is a disease. I draw a project every two weeks. For this, I am inspired by empty spaces, desert rocks, Greek temples in Sicily, popular Spanish architecture. Some architects too, Alvar Aalto, Gaudi, Ledoux, Palladio. Slowly, I moved from a subjective architecture, which I liked, to an architecture for others, from Dostoyevsky to Tolstoy. And then the music. For years, I listened to "Norma" twelve hours a day. Currently, I have a passion for a Yugoslav pianist called Ivo Pogorelich.

What do you hate, love in life? I hate anything that's fake. False luxury, folklore, copies, lack of invention. The paternalism of giving people what you think they expect. Petit bourgeois comfort. I like quality, performance, talent, genius, those that make you vibrate, that create emotions. I like Alain Prost when he wins the World Championship because he stole a tenth of a second. That little extra that makes all the difference, like in bullfighting. I like Bertolucci when he makes a mainstream but quality film. I like Placido Domingo when he sings in front of 300,000 people in Madrid, I don't like Julio Iglesias when he sings in front of 300,000 people in Madrid.

What is an architect today? What I know is that to succeed, I had to fight this notion of the architect of the prince, eternal "employee" of power. I had to fight to explain that a modern architect must know how to combine technology and management. The architect is no longer a guy who makes plans in a cafe! In Spain, there are plenty of city mayors who are architects. Why not in France? In our profession, we have to be interested in everything: in town planning, in politics and in the cost of things. You have to understand the workings of a society in order to establish yourself there. We do not work in the same way in France and in the U.S.S.R. However, and despite all these aspects, architecture remains for me an Art with a capital A. The major art, that of anticipation, that which, by dealing with space, influences all the others, painting , the sculpture...

And how will this art with a capital A evolve?At Taller, we have two objectives. The first for 1992 is an East-West development. Until recent years, we had worked along a North-South axis, from the Sahara to Sweden. We will redeploy from the U.S.S.R. to California. The other objective, for the year 2000, is a bet on architecture. Today, in the world, there remain, in fact, only two real tendencies. There is the one that I represent and that we can call modern classicism: it is the reuse of structural elements of traditional architecture (columns, pediments, etc.) in programs that take into account technological innovations and social... And then the high-tech architecture whose leaders are Piano and Rogers, the architects of Beaubourg or even Norman Foster, the man from the Hong Kong bank. At Taller, we will try to combine these two trends. For this, we will work with the best English engineers to manage to link the questions of proportions, sociability but also profitability with the highest cutting-edge technology. We are already doing this for the Communication tower in Barcelona, ​​where we called on the French engineers who manufacture offshore drilling platforms.

Do you have a big plan for Paris?Of course, because it's the most beautiful city in the world, at least from an urban point of view. In recent years, all the major operations that have been carried out there have been museums. I believe that if France wants to maintain an important place in the world, Paris must acquire, like London or Frankfurt, the financial center it lacks. Otherwise, it will be nothing more than a beautiful city of collections, like Florence, without real economic and political weight. Precisely, I have a project of this type. A financial city should be built along the Seine. I can't say exactly where, but I already have an idea of ​​the ideal location. But, for now, I'm concentrating on Barcelona: the Taller is building a hotel there, the Teatro de Catalunya, the sports university, the new airport and we're rethinking the city center...

Are you rich?In New York, they say you're rich when you have $100 million in the bank. So no, I'm not rich. Besides, I don't collect anything, I don't have any paintings, I want to own as few personal things as possible. All I want is to have the financial potential to do bigger and bigger things. This means that I want to establish myself in networks everywhere. The only thing I dream of owning is a private jet. Because I waste too much time in airports. The English architect Norman Foster has a plane and a personal helicopter. Now, I'm a little jealous. - Always faster...

Are you a workaholic?Certainly. I thought all my life that I wasn't doing enough for my abilities. Today, I estimate to work at 60/70% of my means. But, it's true that I'm more of a "speeder". What I appreciate more and more is having to change gears when going from one country or project to another. other. And then, I take better advantage of sudden stops. I like contradictions, the tensions of ruptures, the frenetic rhythm and, all of a sudden, the dolce idleness. Sometimes, I go into the desert on the Niger border and I can only see a line around me. That's where I feel the best.

Do you always wear white shirts? Yes and more and more. I dress like the Spanish peasants of old who worked in ocher and wore white on Sundays. For me, every day is Sunday.

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