Ignasi de sola morales biography
Ignasi de Solà-Morales
Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubió (Barcelona - Amsterdam ) was an architect, historian and philosopher from Catalonia, Spain.
He was professor of composition at the Barcelona School of Architecture, and also taught at the universities of Princeton, Columbia, Turin, and Cambridge.
Among his most notable architectural works are the reconstruction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, and the reconstruction and expansion of the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona.
Ignasi de Solà-Morales coined the term "terrain vague", applied to “free, available, unengaged” parts of the city that are, as urban scholar Stefano Bloch puts it, "left over as underutilized remnants of capitalist development."
Publications
- Rubió i Bellver y la fortuna del Gaudinismo
- L'arquitectura del expresionismo
- Centenari de l'Escola d'Arquitectura de Barcelona. Un assaig d'interpretació
- Eclecticismo y vanguardia
- Gaudí
- Arquitectura teatral en España
- L'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona
- Arquitectura Minimale a Barcelona
- Contemporary Spanish Architecture
- Arquitectura balneària a Catalunya
- Diferencias: topografía de l'arquitectura contemporánea
References
Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubió(Barcelona, August 24, – Amsterdam, March 12, ) was a Spanish architect, historian, and philosopher recognized for his significant contributions to the theory and practice of contemporary architecture.
Born into a family of architects, his father, Manuel de Solà-Morales i de Rosselló, served as dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia between and His grandfather, Joan Rubió i Bellver, and his brother, Manuel de Solà-Morales i Rubió, were also prominent figures in the architecture field.
Ignasi earned degrees in Philosophy and Architecture from the University of Barcelona and obtained his doctorate in Architecture in That same year, he became a Theory and History of Architecture professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He also taught at Columbia University in New York and was a member of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in the same city. Additionally, he directed the Historical Archive of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism at the Official College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC).
In , he established his professional studio, where he developed various municipal projects that gained him international recognition. In , he led the reconstruction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion in Barcelona, originally dismantled after the International Exposition. Later, he gained expertise in theater restoration, such as those in Valls and Torelló between and , and conducted specialized courses in scenic architecture. These credentials led him to direct the Gran Teatre del Liceu expansion in Barcelona and, following its fire, its reconstruction, completed in This project, a collaboration with Xavier Fabré, Lluís Dilmé, and Eulàlia Serra, was awarded the National Prize for Cultural Heritage by the Government of Catalonia.
The reconstruction of the Liceu not only restored the city’s emblematic opera house but also transformed it into a mo () On 12 March in Amsterdam, a heart attack cut short the life of Ignasi de Solà-Morales. The Catalan architect and historian was in the Dutch capital to participate in the announcement of the winner of the Mies van der Rohe Award: the Kursaal of his colleague Rafael Moneo. This prestigious trophy is linked to the Barcelona pavilion designed by the German master for the Exhibition, and its reconstruction in was one of the most mediatically far-reaching incursions of Solà-Morales into the professional practice. Grandson, son, brother, and father of architects, Solà-Morales was outstanding above all as a theorist and historian of architecture, discipline which he taught as chair professor of the School of Barcelona and on which he wrote essays like Eclecticism and Avant-Garde: The Case of Modern Architecture in Catalonia () and Differences: Topography of Contemporary Architecture (). His typological studies, heirs of Italian historiographic tradition, led him to take part in the restoration and enlargement of several Catalan theaters before undertaking reconstruction of Barcelona’s Liceo opera house.
Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubió
Ignasi Solà-Morales Rubió was professor of Architectural Composition at the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona. He also taught at the universities of Princeton, Columbia, Turin, and Cambridge, among others. His double training as an architect and a philosopher allowed him to approach history and architectural criticism from assumptions of great theoretical and aesthetic solidity. His reflections on Catalan architecture (Rubió i Bellver, Noucentisme, the International Exhibition of , etc.) were complemented towards the end of his life by his interest in contemporary urban phenomena. In this sense his role as director of the master "Metropolis," organized by the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, was essential for the introduction into Spain of the most advanced lines of reflection on the subject.
Among his works the following stand out: the reconstruction of the German Pavilion of the International Barcelona Exhibition of , and the reconstruction and expansion of the Liceo Theatre, also in Barcelona. Ignasi de Solà-Morales died in Amsterdam in
Bibliography
- SOLÀ-MORALES RUBIÓ, Ignasi de. Presente y futuros. La arquitectura en las ciudades. En AA. VV., Presente y futuros. Arquitectura en las grandes ciudades, Barcelona: Collegi Oficial d’Arquitectes de Catalunya / Centre de Cultura Contemporània, ,