Annabelle d'Huart & Ricardo Bofill
Desk
France, 1993.
Manufactured by Ricardo Bofill
Veneer.
Measurements
180 x 80 x 76h cm
70,9 x 31,5 x 29,9h in
Provenance
Private Collection.
Biography
Ricardo Bofill (b. Barcelona, 5 December 1939 - d. Barcelona, 14 January 2022) was a prominent Spanish architect. He studied at the Escola Virtèlia and later at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura of Barcelona. When he was expelled in 1957 for political reasons, he finished his studies as an architect in Switzerland, at the Geneva School of Architecture.
His recognition as an architect is reflected in numerous awards, of which the most important at the national level is la Cruz de San Jordi (Catalonia, 1973). Internationally, and at an early stage in his career, his work would be recognised with various notable positions in schools of architecture; he would become a member of the American Institute of Architects (1985), already qualified in France, and previously held the position of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Metz (1955).
In 1963 he founded the architectural studio that is known today as "Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura". At that time, it was a group made up of professionals from different sectors, bringing together engineering, architecture, sociology and philosophy in the realisation of each project. In 1978 his studio opened a second office in Paris.
Today the studio has more than forty years of experience in urban design, with projects such as Place de l'Europe (Luxembourg), Nova Karlin (Prague), Port Praski (Warsaw), Nueva Castellana (Madrid); parks and gardens, where we can see the design of the banks of the river Lez in Montpellier or the Manzanares park in Madrid.
The architecture and the design of interior spaces carried out by the studio have a great national and international impact. We can highlight, among many others, the Red Wall, Calpe, Spain, (1973), Arsenal, Metz, France, (1985-1989), the Shepherd School of Music, Houston, USA, (1988), 77 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, USA, (1992), the Torre Suecia building, Madrid, Spain, (1993), the Shiseido Building, Tokyo, Japan, (2001) or the iconic W Barcelona building (colloquially known as "Hotel Vela"), Barcelona, Spain, (2009).
