BOOK CLUB vol. 4: Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill and his lofty bookshelves in Barcelona

What interests me almost as much as the design philosophies of an architect are the kind of objects that he or she keeps as company within their own home. Primarily: the books! A book collection will tell me so much more about an architect or designer’s vision than the color choice of their front door or what kind of sink they installed in the kitchen. How does this person use books (or not) to shape their world view, and especially their theories of design?

Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill refused to consider himself a modernist. Taller de Arquitectura, his architecture workshop, was founded in 1960. Thirteen years later, his studio operated inside La Fábrica—a converted cement factory—and was devoted to philosophy, poetry, sociology, construction, and his personal living space (this video is a must-watch). This is still the operating architectural office of Bofill’s firm, although the treasured architect passed away in January 2022.

Ricardo Bofill is absolutely someone whose home instantly captivated me. I remember seeing the photograph below during my Tumblr days (circa 2008) and finally put a name to the space when my friend Cecilia told me about La Fábrica. YellowTrace summed it up nicely: “There are houses, and then there’s Ricardo Bofill’s house.” To see Bofill’s libraries and various stacks throughout his loft spiraled me into a heap of curious questions about what kinds of books he collected.

Apartamento released a publication about Bofill’s La Fábrica/the Taller de Arquitectura in Barcelona:

La Fábrica is one of Ricardo Bofill’s most iconoclastic creations. A former cement factory on the outskirts of Barcelona, serendipitously discovered while driving, the building became the centre of the late Catalan architect’s life, serving both as his home and as the headquarters of his practice since 1973. Here, Ricardo created a world of his own, exposing the concrete forms from beneath years of dust and smoke, encouraging nature back onto the structure, and fine-tuning the balance between its monumental scale and a delicate, human sensibility, in one of the earliest examples of the reuse of an industrial building—and it’s still changing.

In a previous installment of BOOK CLUB, architect and furniture designer Finn Juhl surprisingly had very few architecture books in his home. You’ll find the opposite here (in the small selection that were legible with a good zoom): most of the book titles I was able to scribble down were related to architecture.

A small sample of Ricardo’s book collection:

• La Fenice 1792-1996: Theatre, Music, and History by Anna Laura Bellina and Michele Girardi

• l’Architecture d’Aujourdhi magazine

• Nuns and Reform Art in Early Modern Venice by Giovanni Buonconsiglio

• Ville Venete: The Villa Civilzation in the Mainland Dominion by Francesco Monicelli and Cesare Gerolimetto

• Touaregs Un Peuple du Désert by Edmond Bernus and Jean-Marc Durou

• Global Architecture “GA” Houses magazine. You can see details about the magazine’s archive here.

• El Románico: Arquitectura, Escultura, y Pintura by Rolf Toman

• Arquitectura en BBVA: Edificios Singulares

• Trento: Interpretazione Delta Citta by Bennato Bocchi

• Mercats de la Mediterrània / Markets of the Mediterranean

Six readings I would add to Bofill’s collection:

1. Josep Lluís Sert: Joan Miró Foundation: Museum Buliding Guides

2. Brutalist Italy: Concrete Architecture from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea (not pictured above)

3. Photography & Modern Architecture in Spain, 1925-1965

4. Evoking the New City: Milan from Post-World War II Reconstruction through the Economic Miracle

5. Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in the Public Eye

6. Lineage and Legacy: A Certain Modernism in Cadaques

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Happy reading! I’m headed to Barcelona this weekend and hope to innocently sneak around Bofill’s sidewalk.

Kelsey

PS - A number of these books above are linked to Bookshop.org, which is my absolute favorite place to buy books online. Bookshop.org works to connect readers with independent booksellers and stores all over the world. Since 2020, they’ve raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores—which is 28 million times better than supporting Amazon. You can see/shop my Bookshop here! I do get a teeny, tiny commission off of every book sale purchased directly from these links or from my Bookshop store front. I’ll only link books if I honestly believe in their goodness.

PSS - I’m sorry for the Amazon links! Amazon makes me the saddest, but these Catalan/Italian titles were very tough to find elsewhere.

PSS - A few years ago, I created a Modernism Not-Trespassing Tour of the Mediterranean, including some spots in Barcelona like La Fábrica. It’s primarily a driving tour, but you can manage the Barcelona segment by foot, bus, scooter, and/or bike.