To the Eighties of Ricardo Bofill

As the year draws to a close, we commemorate the anniversary of the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill. Although his professional career spans over half a century and his portfolio includes all conceivable typologies, a large part of the public remains associated with the nickname “postmodern sorcerer,” who built extensive residential complexes in European metropolises.
Bofill was born into a construction family and established his own studio, The Taller de Arquitectura, at the age of 24 after graduating in architecture from universities in Barcelona and Geneva. Since the mid-1970s, an international team of architects, engineers, sociologists, writers, directors, and philosophers has been based in an industrial setting of an abandoned cement factory on the outskirts of Barcelona, where Bofill still lives and works today. The enchanting environment of concrete ruins romantically overtaken by wild vegetation must appeal to everyone. Other projects from Bofill’s studio evoke greater controversy. His distinctive resorts satisfy thousands of tourists heading to the Mediterranean for vacations. The residential building Kafka's Castle (Kafkův zámek) from the groundbreaking year of 1968, towering over the beaches in Sitges, might be closest to the Czech audience, where Bofill was influenced by the ideas of Plug-in City from the British Archigram. Originally a black object, it provocatively rose above the neighboring monotonous resorts. In the late 1960s, Bofill sought to break free from the (then-popular) functionalist thinking. Later, Kafka's Castle was painted a light color, and Bofill's design language shifted to classical forms. With the rise of postmodernism in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bofill seized numerous opportunities to realize megalomaniacal complexes of social housing based on the footprints of historical palaces. While the interwar modernism proposed accommodations in functioning machines amid greenery, the following generation sought to return to the cities but without all the negative aspects associated with dark inner courtyards. Ricardo Bofill found his own path by drawing inspiration from Renaissance châteaux and baroque palaces, which he transformed into social housing. Impressive urban compositions offer residential units in Doric columns or triumphal arches. While the prototypes were intended for the upper class, Bofill's postmodern interpretation serves practically the entire society, which, from today's perspective, may sound idealistic and formally naive.
With Ricardo Bofill's later work, we can also see examples in our country: such as the office complex in the industrial area of Prague's Karlín or exclusive housing in the very heart of the Old Town. Today, three architectural generations of Bofills are working from the Barcelona office on global projects in Asia, America, and Africa.