Ricardo Bofill: Visions of Architecture

by Gestalten (Editor), Ricardo Bofill (Editor), Pablo Bofill (Editor)

Poetic spaces, surreal structures and dramatic visions. The extraordinary career of Ricardo Bofill is collected in this monograph, which reveals his inspiring approach to architecture, and to life. Ricardo Bofill is one of the 20th century’s most unique architects and radical visionaries. His visions for urban and communal life challenged preconceived notions of shared space and proposed alternative styles of living. This monograph explores his revolutionary approach by profiling his greatest projects like La Fábrica, Walden 7, La Muralla Roja or Abraxas. Spectacular new photography by Salva López, texts by experts like Nacho Alegre and Douglas Murphy as well as by Bofill himself are complemented with sketches and floor plans. Bofill’s fantastic creations satisfy a longing for originality, personality and progressive ideals.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Nonfiction

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2019

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A theme that runs through Bofill's oeuvre (say that five times fast) is how his works react to the International style and Modernism as envisioned by Le Corbusier, who was inclined to meddle in the ways that cities work, and at the movement's worst created structures that worked best without people inside them.

And truthfully Visions of Architecture is missing the other half of its conversation with the reader. There are discussions of the earlier works--some in rather hyperbolic language expressing the effects of the construction on the viewer--but little about how that architecture has aged since the sixties and seventies and how the ideas that it was meant to express have done in the larger sweep of social history.

I suppose that expecting a book of this type to talk about the failures would be too much of a stretch.

[Nessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for everyone interested in architecture!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good insight into the thinking of the architect and many of his projects are presented clearly through multiple photographic spreads. Preferred that it didn't bother strictly with the description of the architect's life, but had as introduction 4 chapters of personal commentary by 4 different authors.

[Servabo · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Radical” architecture is never a good thing (ーー;)