Project description by EMBT
Enric Miralles, Barcelona, july 1999.
Perhaps this is the right time to ask what the character of the Campus should be...
Perhaps this is the right time to prepare the way that the University community can identify with a specific form of organization...
The vitality of each faculty makes it necessary to redefine what the qualities of this place must be and how they are to be projected in the future.
We propose to work in two apparently opposing directions, because they will permit an appreciation of the two qualities that already exist in this place.
Firstly, emphasise the natural features of this place: a magnificent location, the small inland valleys, the topography...
The task requires co-ordination between the different operations already under way: a new access ring road, car parks, extensions to each faculty, integrated services, reforestation, a global proposal for the waste water collector, etc...
This is a medium-term task that should return the features of the natural landscape to the site...
Students should be able to make use of the landscape: silence, concentration, and intensepersonal work in an ideal place for it to take place. At the same time, on a more short-time scale, the new constructions insist on defining the community nature of university life.
Vigo University Campus by EMBT. Photograph by Alex Gaultier.
In the short term, densify, almost urban.
In the medium term, redefinition of the landscape.
Transformation of the large sports area into a forest zone, defined by a big lake, which lets us blur the entrance infrastructure, until we transform the entrance road into a passageway between trees, then making the new series of buildings (Student services, shopping areas,
swimming pool, gymnasiums, etc…).
They constitute a series of community places (squares) supported by some of the existing buildings...
Slight modifications to the topography allow the building to be located in public places.
Three squares: the Rector's Square, the commercial area, and the access to the services for students, connect the new entrance area with the new student residence...
Thus, the upper level of the campus is redefined.
An almost horizontal level that will allow the necessary concentration of activities where it is easy to think that the necessary intensity of community life and exchange will take place...
From this first cooperation, the regeneration of the natural landscape of the area must be decisively started. Which in a not very long time must reconstruct the ideal character of this place.
Miralles Tagliabue EMBT is an international acknowledged architecture studio formed by Enric Miralles (1955-2000) and Benedetta Tagliabue in 1994.
The studio has experience in public spaces and buildings in both Europe and China working for State and Local Governments as well as Corporate and private clients.
EMBT’s mature approach to architecture, interior design, facility planning includes experience with educational, commercial, industrial and residential buildings, restoration of buildings as well as special purpose landscape architecture.
Each project evolves from the specific client requirements and innovation emerges through the design process. This approach is combined with strong technical and management skills to provide cost effective and personal service.
The studio maintains a highly personal level of service throughout the design process and offer strong technical and structural solutions through close collaboration with engineering offices.
The majority of the EMBT projects are commissioned by public clients with special emphasis on urban space and the coherence between the built environment and the public space. Each project brings with it a new client and special cost constraints. To achieve the desired solution, EMBT believe that the design process must be a collaborative effort between the client and the designer.
EMBT ensures that clients take an active role in defining their needs, bringing client and solution together, and is backed by a support team with a capability of responding rapidly to projects demands.
The studio put great emphasis on each individual projects context, history and culture and aims to enhance these aspects through their unique design process.
Enric Miralles Moya (Barcelona 1955 - Sant Feliu de Codines 2000) studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture, ETSAB, graduating in 1978. From 1973 to 1983 he collaborated with Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón, and in 1984 he founded the Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós studio, from this stage one of his most poetic works stands out, such as the Igualada Cemetery. In 1993 he began the EMBT study with his wife and partner Benedetta Tagliabue.
Considered an architect of great inventiveness, he defined himself as the enfant terrible of Spanish architecture. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Columbia University for the 1980-81 academic year. Two years later, he presented his doctoral thesis "Things seen to the left and the right, (without glasses)."
Since 1985 he was professor at ETSAB (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona), holding the Chair of Architecture since 1996. In 1990 he began as Director and Professor of the Master Class at Städelschule of Frankfurt and beginning in 1992 served as the "Kenzo Tange Chair” professor at the GSD of Harvard University. Moreover, he was visiting professor and lecturer at several universities in the United States (Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Yale), Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
As an architect of many works, his projects include, the Igualada Cemetery in Spain (1995) and the rehabilitation of Utrecht City Hall in Holland (2000). He was also active as an interior designer, with projects including The Hipostila shelving system(1989) in collaboration with Lluis Clotet and Oscar Tusquets Blanca for Bd Ediciones de Diseño, Lungomare Bench for Escofet,(2000), Vacante bench for Sellex (1991), and many other furnishing designs which were not put in production.
He has received numerous awards, including the National Prize of Spanish Architecture 1995, FAD Prize (Fomento Artes Decorativas) 1985 and 2000, The European ITALSTAD (Italy) 1991. Leone d’Oro Prize at the Biennale di Venezia 1996. His work has been published internationally in the most distinguished reviews, El Croquis N.100 101, Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue 1996-2000. GG. Miralles Tagliabue Time Architecture 1999. Electa, Documenti di Architettutra. Benedetta Tagliabue. Enric Miralles: Opere e Progetti. 1996. In 1999 he was named an Honorary member of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In 2002 he received posthumously the Gold Medal from the Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya.
