The death of the architect and urban planner Oriol Bohigas forces us to look back and recapitulate practically everything that has happened in the city of Barcelona in the last 70 years. Nothing was alien to him – as a protagonist, ideologue, manager, traveling companion or incisive commentator – in reconnecting with the modernity of Catalan architecture; in the definition of the urban planning of the capital, in the ideological evolution of the left-wing bourgeoisie of this country, from the insubordinate anti-Francoism to, in cases like his, the journey towards sovereignty; in the continuity of the cultural and civic legacy of Catalanism of the first third of the 20th century, overcoming the morass of Francoism; in opening up to international modernity; in the consolidation of key institutions, such as the UPC school of architecture, the Miró Foundation or the Ateneu Barcelonès. And in the field of urban planning, his contribution to the Barcelona model from his responsibilities in the first democratic consistories (dignification of the periphery, swelling of the center, recovery of the spirit of Cerdà in the planning of the Olympic Village) is capital, both in its great successes and in the bets that over the years have shown the need for a reformulation. A contribution that has sometimes overshadowed the strictly architectural work of his MBM study.
In Bohigas’s biography the word ‘school‘. In his academic and family origins of republican inspiration, in his work as a promoter of the Barcelona school of architecture that inherited the modern tradition of the GATPAC and the Grup R, and in his central role in the consolidation of the ETSAB as a faculty of architecture with international prestige. And it is not by chance. In the history of Catalanism, there have been not a few architects with political and cultural projection whose work made sense of the expression “build” applied to the foundations of the country and who have exercised an enduring teaching profession. Bohigas has been the last of them.
Beyond the personal merits accumulated during his long career, the figure of Bohigas is inseparable from the city to which he dedicated his entire life and in which he left his mark. The architect who passed away on Tuesday is the personification of the best that Barcelona can give. The polemicist Bohigas, without mincing words, without fear (rather the opposite) of scandal and controversy – the «terrorist noucentista» so well defined by Juli Capella in the exhibition about his figure that he curated 20 years ago-, he is the model of critical and self-critical Barcelona, thoughtful but daring, not that of lamentation, short-term complaint or, even less, complacency. A role model to follow even for those who reach opposite conclusions to theirs. The Bohigas in which thought led to action was a sample of the best Barcelona that promotes, projects, ideas and undertakes, not the one that is debated in paralysis. As professor Maria Rubert writes today, glossing over the figure of Bohigas is also “a recognition of what Barcelona is today. A city that we would like socially more balanced and also more joyful and plural, like the one that contributed to shake, draw and build.
editor
The best tribute that can be done is to aspire that the Barcelona of tomorrow continues to be creative, open to the world, faithful to its history and courageous when it comes to undertaking new projects and reinvent yourself by understanding what your new needs, possibilities and aspirations are.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com