He graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 1978. After establishing his reputation with a number of collaborations with his first wife Carme Pinós, the couple separated in 1991. He later married fellow architect Benedetta Tagliabue, and the two practiced together as EMBT Architects. Miralles’ magnum opus and his largest project, the new Scottish Parliament Building was unfinished at the time of his death.
He graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 1978. After establishing his reputation with a number of collaborations with his first wife Carme Pinós, the couple separated in 1991. He later married fellow architect Benedetta Tagliabue, and the two practiced together as EMBT Architects. Miralles’ magnum opus and his largest project, the new Scottish Parliament Building was unfinished at the time of his death.
The independent architectural language of Enric Miralles can be difficult to classify in terms of contemporary architecture. It is influenced by Spanish architects, such as Alejandro de la Sota, José Antonio Coderch and Josep Maria Jujol, and also from international greats such as Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Alvar Aalto and the Russian Constructivist movement of the early 20th century. The freely formed buildings utilising massive building materials and steel, develop from their relationship with the environment and connect themselves to it. The form is constructed using often unusual materials which are generally left with natural surfaces. Form and material interpret the place, traditions and history in a personal and poetic art, as his critics attest. From the starting point of the townscape or landscape he would design a building in its totality, down to the details of the furnishing and the exterior installations. Therefore the execution of the details was just as important to the communication of meaning as the main form. Both were developed over a large number of designs and with numerous models as the main tool of the design process.
Charles Jencks writing on the problems surrounding the construction of the Scottish Parliament Building and the controversial reception of its design for the Architecture Today summed up Miralles’ architectural style:
Miralles, like many other postmodern architects, has a preference for piling on the motifs and ideas: upturned boats, keel shapes, deep window reveals like a castle, crow-steps, prow shapes, diagonal gutters, ‘bamboo bundles’ and above all the dark granite gun-shape that repeats as an ornamental motif at a huge scale. Everywhere broken silhouettes compete for attention, just like the alleyways next door. That’s fine, and contextual, but it’s quite a meal. As a result of the complexity, the parliament is really a kind of small city, with much too much to digest in one short three-hour sitting. The Scottish parliament will take time to judge: maybe not 50 years but three or four visits, long enough to absorb all the richness and get used to those jumpy black granite guns, the most arbitrary of several questionable ornaments.
Selected Project:
1984 to 1986 La Llauna School, Badalona, Barcelona
1985 to 1994 Igualada Cemetery, Igualada, Barcelona
1986 to 1993 Boarding school in Morella, Castelló (province)
1987 to 1993 La Mina Civic Centre, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona
1988 to 1992 House, Bellaterra, Barcelona
1989/91 Olympic archery range for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Vall d’Hebrón, Barcelona.
1988 to 1992 Sportcentre in Huesca, Huesca
1990/91 Centre for rhythmic gymnastics, Alicante, Alicante (province)
1991 to 2001 Park Santa Rosa, Mollet del Vallés, Barcelona (province)
1995 House conversion in Barcelona
1996 to 2000 Six houses, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1997 to 2000 Park Diagonal Mar, Barcelona
1997 to 2001 Library in Palafolls, Barcelona
1997 to 2001 Market hall conversion, Santa Caterina, Barcelona
1998 to 2002 Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, Scotland
1999 Maretas Museum, Lanzarote
2002 Public space design Western Hafencity Hamburg
2000 to 2005 New building of the architecture faculty, Venice, Italy
1995 Chemnitz Stadium
1995 Dresden Stadium
1995 Laboratory building for the University of Dresden
2001 Competition for the head office of the California Department of Transportation, Los Angeles,