MBM ARQUITECTES is an

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes based on geographical location. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, city, ...

Spanish firm founded in 1951, and named from the initials of the last names of the three founders partners Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas and David Mackay. Since 2000 the firm incorporates two young architects: Oriol Capdevila and Francesc Gual, who join the firm. All of them are Spanish and Mackay, who died in November 2014, was English-Irish.

History

The firm was one of the only exponents of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

under

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

and served as a launching pad for many Spanish architects. The team also wrote, edited, published and lectured, promoting a modernist take on regionalism and designed many schools, libraries, housing projects, offices buildings and churches. MBM did "pioneering" work in transforming Barcelona’s public spaces during the 1980s and earned a worldwide reputation the firm. Shane O'Toole Architecture: Site for sore eyes The designers of a square in Dublin hope to learn from past mistakes in attempting to create something memorable February 9, 2003 The Sunday Time

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Barcelona Olympics

MBM did design work for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 including on the city's masterplan. The firm designed the Vila Olímpica, the Olympic Park (Parc del Litoral) and the Olympic Port. Their urban plan expanded the number of public spaces and cultural buildings and integrated the works of other major architects including

Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...

and

Richard Meier Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...

that helped achieve an " urban renaissance".

Recent work

The firm showed 32 design projects that were never built at their 2003 ''Lost Architectures'' exhibit at the RIAI’s architecture centre in Dublin. The exhibit offered "a rare opportunity to reflect on the reasons, the trends, and the architectural culture of the time." In a comparison to Le Corbusier's speech when he received the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in London in 1953 and "spoke of his failures", Mackay said, "Now, after 50 years of architecture, we are guilty of the crime of being on the scene too long. This has given us, too, the opportunity to accumulate many failures." MBM partner David Mackay oversaw a masterplan for the "Arc of Opportunity" at the

Lower Lea Valley The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea in eastern Greater London. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Geography The Lower Lea V ...

, part of 2 billion pound regeneration scheme for London in 2002.Booth, Robert MBM is back on East-End scene. November 22, 2002 Building Design(previe

/ref> In 2008 the firm's so-called Stapler museum design for Barcelona was initially rejectedElizabeth Nash 'Stapler' museum 7 October 2008 The Independen

/ref> The museum is to hold a collection furniture, lamps and utensils in Barcelona and the contents of the city's former textile museum, "which was controversially closed" in 2006. but now under construction.

Works

* Guardiola House, Argentona (1955) *Europalma Apartments, Majorca (1964) * Parc de la Creueta del Coll, Barcelona (1987) * Quartier Sextius Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence, France ( 1990) ) *Harbormaster's House, Olympic Port in Barcelona (1991) * Vila Olimpica (Olympic Village), Barcelona (1992) *Gothic stone and tensile pavilion, Seville Expo(1992) *'Small Circus' Apartments,

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

(1994-98) * Disseny Hub Barcelona

References

{{Authority control Architecture firms of Spain Urban design