Oriol Bohigas
*20. 12. 1925 – Barcelona, Spain
†30. 11. 2021 – Barcelona, Spain
Biography
Oriol Bohigas i Guardiola was a Spanish architect and urban planner. He came from a wealthy Catalan family. His father was the philosopher Pere Bohigas i Balaguer. During the Civil War, the family moved to Olot in the province of Girona, where he continued his secondary schooling. He obtained his architectural diploma in 1951 from ETSAB in Barcelona, where he also received his doctorate in 1963.
He was a great critic of architecture in his hometown and an advocate of modernism. In 1950, a group of young Catalan architects (Grup d'Arquitectes i Tècnics Catalans per al Progrés de l'Arquitectura Contemporània) was condemned because modern architecture was considered "leftist-separatist." In January 1951, he founded a group of modernist architects called “Grupo R,” which sharply criticized Francoist architecture. In the early 1960s, he, along with David Mackay and Josep Martorell, established the firm MBM Arquitectes. In 1964, he began teaching at ETSAB, which he headed during the period of 1977-80. Subsequently, in the first democratic mandate of the Barcelona City Council in 1980, he was appointed as the city planning delegate under Mayor Narcís Serra and held this position until 1984. He advocated for the urban transformation of the city according to his principle of “monumentalizing the periphery and functionalizing the center.” In 1991, he joined the electoral list of the Catalan Socialist Party as an independent in local elections. After being elected, Mayor Pasqual Maragall appointed him as the head of the Ministry of Culture with a mandate to provide the city with significant cultural infrastructure, a position he held until 1994. His most important work as an urban planner was the modernization of Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics. His architectural style transitioned from modernism to rationalism. He drew inspiration from both Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as well as from Josep Lluís Sert and Republican Catalonia, which led him to be regarded as the father of modern and Olympic Barcelona.
Oriol Bohigas i Guardiola was a Spanish architect and urban planner. He came from a wealthy Catalan family. His father was the philosopher Pere Bohigas i Balaguer. During the Civil War, the family moved to Olot in the province of Girona, where he continued his secondary schooling. He obtained his architectural diploma in 1951 from ETSAB in Barcelona, where he also received his doctorate in 1963.
He was a great critic of architecture in his hometown and an advocate of modernism. In 1950, a group of young Catalan architects (Grup d'Arquitectes i Tècnics Catalans per al Progrés de l'Arquitectura Contemporània) was condemned because modern architecture was considered "leftist-separatist." In January 1951, he founded a group of modernist architects called “Grupo R,” which sharply criticized Francoist architecture. In the early 1960s, he, along with David Mackay and Josep Martorell, established the firm MBM Arquitectes. In 1964, he began teaching at ETSAB, which he headed during the period of 1977-80. Subsequently, in the first democratic mandate of the Barcelona City Council in 1980, he was appointed as the city planning delegate under Mayor Narcís Serra and held this position until 1984. He advocated for the urban transformation of the city according to his principle of “monumentalizing the periphery and functionalizing the center.” In 1991, he joined the electoral list of the Catalan Socialist Party as an independent in local elections. After being elected, Mayor Pasqual Maragall appointed him as the head of the Ministry of Culture with a mandate to provide the city with significant cultural infrastructure, a position he held until 1994. His most important work as an urban planner was the modernization of Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics. His architectural style transitioned from modernism to rationalism. He drew inspiration from both Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as well as from Josep Lluís Sert and Republican Catalonia, which led him to be regarded as the father of modern and Olympic Barcelona.
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