Ricardo Bofill Leví (5 December 1939 – 14 January 2022)
Ricardo Bofill founded studio RBTA in 1963. Its best-known projects include Walden 7 and the brightly coloured La muralla Roja housing estate in Manzanera.
Other key projects from Bofill’s six-decade-long career include the Les Espaces d'Abraxas housing complex near Paris and, in Spain, the Castell de Kafka and La Fábrica – a repurposed cement factory containing the RBTA headquarters and Bofill’s family home.
More recently, his studio completed the sail-shaped W Barcelona Hotel in Spain and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco.
Bofill received a number of awards for his work, including the Ciudad de Barcelona Prize of Architecture for La Fábrica and The Israelí Building Center’s Life Time Achievement Award.
He was also an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Association of German Architects.
In tribute to his immense body of work, we revisit La Fábrica, an abandoned cement factory outside Barcelona.
The colossal (and ever ongoing) project saw the architect transform the existing property into a pioneering studio, with his family’s living space nestled inside.
Photo Salva López / Kristina Avdeeva / Courtesy Of Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura, Ricardo Bofill, Gestalten 2019
Lazzarini Design Studio, “Avanguardia”. Avanguardia is replete with flowing lines and subtle curves that give her the elegant silhouette of a real-life swan. The gargantuan vessel is split into five separate decks and can fit up to 60 seafarers. Just like the animal, the “head” (a.k.a. the control tower) acts as a brain to maneuver the vessel. But it also doubles as a separate 50-foot cruiser that can carry out requisite day-time jaunts.
