LA MANZANERA
1965-1982. Calpe, province of Alicante.
Housing estate in the bay of Ifach opposite the Rock of the same name. An example of the Taller's thinking over three decades: Plexus (1965), Xanadú (1968), La Muralla Roja (1970) and El Anfiteatro(1982). Las Villas, a complex of 17 single-family dwellings (1971).
Ricardo Bofill, born in 1939 in Barcelona, graduated from the Barcelona University of Architecture and the School of Geneva.
In 1963 he gathered a group of architects, engineers, planners, sociologist, writers, movie makers and philosophers: The Taller de Arquitectura was founded, an international team which for more than 40 years, has gathered great experience in urban planning, architecture, landscaping, interior, furniture and product design.
Today, hundreds of projects around the world validate our capacity to design in harmony with specific, different local cultures.
Our international experience has allowed us to approach projects from the large scale of urban design, large infrastructures for public transport, sports, cultural, and retail facilities, residential and office buildings, to interior design. We provide total solutions that provide solutions for the design of the city but also the design of the spoon.
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura is responsible for headquarters such as Christian Dior, Cartier, Decaux, Axa, Shiseido, Bank One and the Donnelley building, our first skyscraper in Chicago, followed by Dearborn Centre.
The studio has established an international reputation with urban planning for cities such as Paris, Luxembourg, Warsaw, Prague, Madrid, Barcelona… Europe, the US, Asia, Africa, Japan, projects in China, as the new city of Nan Sha, near Guangzhou, and in Beijing, the bioengineer and pharmaceutical industry base, upper-east residential, garden hotel complex, yuyuantan, etc…
Antigone’s quarter in the French city of Montpellier, a sequence of streets and plazas, from residential to public buildings, is the example of a large scale urban project undertaken by the Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura during 20 years. Other outstanding residential projects in France, Spain, Sweden, Holland, etc., have contributed to reaffirm our position in the urban design scene. Projects undertaken in Parisian New Cities, such as Les Espaces d’Abraxas, at Marne la Vallée, les Arcades du Lac, close to Versailles, le Belvedere Saint Christophe in Cergy Pontoise and Les Echelles du Baroque in Montparnasse district are worth a special mention for their architecture and social impact.
As regards large infrastructures, we highlight Madrid’s Congress Centre at the Campo de las Naciones, Barcelona’s International Airport, completed in 1991 and its new terminal started in 2004.
Some others prestigious cultural facilities undertaken by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura are: The Arsenal of Metz, France, Shepherd Music School at Rice University in Houston, Catalonia National Theatre in Barcelona, Centro Cultural de Prado in Valladolid.