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CAFÉ GOURMET: ENRIC MIRALLES about |
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The cab stops in Plaça de Sant Jaume, Barcelona, where the Town Hall and the Autonomous Government Palace stand facing each other. I walk fifty metres to Enric Miralles studio along a narrow, lively street. I find a big wooden door with two small bells. There is nothing there to hint that behind the door architectural projects are being cooked up. In the studio, the loudspeakers pour out Beethoven. Miralles is showing around a team from a TV channel which has just interviewed him, and now want some general shots of the architect's studio. About thirty collaborators are scattered in a big room, among scale models, plans and computers. One needs three or four languages to make oneself understood in the small Babel Miralles has built in Barcelona's old city. He says good-bye to the TV team and greets me. He introduces me to his wife, Benedetta Tagliabue, who is also an architect. It's lunch time, and they've decided that we three should go to their home. On our way out we are interrupted several times by his collaborators, so I start browsing and find a small note pinned to a cupboard door. It goes on more or less like this: "we have won the Leone d'Oro in the Biennale di Venezia". Before, on the tables, I had seen some congratulatory faxes written in several languages. We leave the studio and head to his home. Miralles walks fast. We come to another building in the old city. The architect is proud of his finding, a huge house looking to an inner courtyard, where historical elements are conjugated with furniture closer to Miralles's universe. We see rows of neatly-ordered books. On the table, a meal like any other family's meal, served with an Italian wine--this has something to do with Benedetta. A cute little girl is amusing herself with a story book. Then, she joins us for the meal, and her presence will drive the conversation to subjects not at all related to architecture. Later we leave this homely setting, and Miralles lights a cigar in a splendid room, while waiting for coffee. (English translation by Rosa Roig) |
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