Benedetta Tagliabue

Benedetta Tagliabue (born 23 June 1963) is an Italian architect, who lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. Tagliabue was born in Milan, Italy. She graduated from the Istituto Universitaria di Architettura di Venezia in 1989. She is an internationally renowned architect founder with Enric Miralles (1955–2000) of the international studio EMBT Architects, with offices in Barcelona (HQ), Shanghai, and Paris. She is renowned for her attentiveness to context, yet experimental, approach to forms and materials in her creations. Her Barcelona-based company EMBT has become one of the most renowned Spanish practices of the 21st century as a result of her varied and intricate works.

Biography
Source:

In 1963, she was born in Milan and started her architectural study at the University of Venice in 1981. In 1988, she began to collaborate professionally with the architectural firm Transbuilding and Gandelsonas-Agrest in New York.

In 1989, she graduated in Venice, and won first prize with her thesis in the "Biennal Joves de Barcelona" after two years. Then she moved to a flat in Plaça Reial, in Barcelona. ITALSTAD prize for Europe.

In 1995, she won the First National Architectural Price, Spain, for the Boarding School in Morella. In the same year, Caterina Miralles Tagliabue was born.

In 2000, after her husband died, she took over the Santa Caterina market project and completed it.

In recent years, the firm's most striking work has perhaps been the Spanish Pavilion completed for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, a design which epitomizes their philosophy of continuing curiosity and material experimentation.

In 2022, Tagliabue's home is featured in Apple TV's Home in season 2, where she detailed the construction and renovation of her and her late husband's Barcelona gothic villa.

Education
In 1989, Tagliabue graduated in Venice from the "Università Iuav di Venezia" in Italy.

Presently, Benedetta Tagliabue teaches at the University of Architecture ETSAB (Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona) in Barcelona and lectures regularly in architectural forums. In 2004, Tagliabue received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Napier University and she is a member of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

Career
Benedetta is involved in teaching at various international schools and universities. She is a visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia University, and ETSAB in Barcelona. She regularly lectures at renowned architecture forums and universities. In 2004, she received an honorary doctorate from Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland.

Benedetta serves as a juror in prestigious international awards such as the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Princesa de Asturias de las Artes, Loewe Craft Prize, RIBA Jencks Awards, and RIBA Stirling Prize.

In 2023, she won the prize Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, and she claimed in her works, whenever she thinks about ancient structures, she realizes the difficulty, time, and strength that went into their construction. No matter how many sources and materials were available at the time, in most cases she always noticed their existence was still relevant. This idea is shown in some of her renovation designs, such as Santa Caterina Market.

EMBT career
Tagliabue and Enric Miralles (1955–2000) collaborated to form the renowned architecture firm Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT in Barcelona in 1994. Coincidentally, their relationship started right before the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, which marked the apex of the city's development and architectural style. The studio has offices in Barcelona (HQ), Shanghai, and Paris.

The studio is one of the most renowned Spanish architectural firms in the world. Its primary philosophy is carefully responding to each project's context and site conditions. It employs sensitive integration practices and creates a dialogue between design and its surroundings. Mainly undertaking public projects, the office emphasizes the urban, cultural and material values of its design, resulting in unorthodox, subtle organic forms that echo the context's history, landscape and material presence.

Today, under the direction of Tagliabue, the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works on architectural projects, open spaces, urbanization, restoration and exhibitions, trying to preserve the spirit of the tradition of Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studios, whose aim is not specialization. Their architectural philosophy pays particular attention to the environment.

Work (selected)
1999 The Scottish Parliament By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

1999 House at La Clota, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

2000 Six houses, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2000 Utrecht City Hall extension, Netherlands.

2000 Extension of the Music School Hamburg, Germany.

2000 Set design for the opera "Don Quijote", Liceu Theatre, Barcelona, Spain.

2000 Utrecht Town Hall Rehabilitation By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Utrecht, Netherlands.

2002 Hafen City public spaces in Hamburg, Germany.

2002 Parc de Diagonal Mar, Barcelona, Spain.

2003 Vigo University Campus By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Vigo, Spain.

2002 Diagonal Mar Park By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcelona, Spain.

2004 Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, Scotland

2005 Santa Caterina Market By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcelona, Spain.

2005 Hafencity Hamburg, Magellan-Terrassen, Germany

2006 Principal Building University Campus at Vigo

2007 Gas Natural Fenosa Office Building.

2007 Hafencity Hamburg Public Space, Marco Polo Platz, Germany

2007 Palafolls Public Library By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Palafolls, Spain.

2007 Torre Mare Nostrum, new headquarters of Gas Natural, Barcelona

2007 Acoustic Panels for Gran Via traffic way renovation in Barcelona

2007 Social Housing in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain

2007 Public Library at Palafolls, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

2009 Scenery for Merce Cunningham Dance Company

2010 Spanish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 (RIBA Best International Building 2011 Award.)

2010 Plaza Ricard Viñes By Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Lleida, Spain.

2011 CURRENT PROJECTS: Fudan University Business School in Shanghai, China.

2014 Clichy-Montfermeil metro station in Paris, France.

2019 Office towers in Taichung, Taiwan.

2022 The Church and Parish Complex San Giacomo Apóstolo in Ferrara, awarded the Dedalo Minosse International Prize.

Awards
EMBT's architecture, attentively aware of context, has earned them multiple international awards:

Principal and director of EMBT Architects

President of Fundació Enric Miralles

2002 National Architectural Prize of Catalonia

2004 Honorary doctorate from Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland

2005 RIBA Stirling Prize

2009 Prize Ciutat de Barcelona

2010 Category International projection The Spanish Pavilion Exhibition Shanghai

2001 RIBA Stirling Best Building Award for The Scottish Parliament

2001 Rietveld Prize for the Utrecht town Council, The Netherlands

2001 Premi Nacional de Catalunya for Santa Caterina Market in Barcelona

2002 BDA Hamburg Architektur Preis for the Music School of Hamburg

2004 Premio FAD de Arquitectura in for the University Campus in Vigo

2005 Honour Award of the American Society of Landscape Architects for the Diagonal Mar Park in Barcelona

2005 Premio de la Bienal de Arquitectura Española for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

2006 Prize Leone d'Oro at the Biennale di Venezia for the Pavilion dedicated to the Sports Hall of Huesca, Aragon, (Spain) for the Biennal of Venice 1996, VI International Exhibition of Architecture. "Sensori del Futuro: l'Architetto come Sismografo". Director Hans Hollein.

2006 Spanish National Architectural Prize

2011 RIBA Best International Building Award

2011-2022 Princesa de Asturias de las Artes Jury Member 2011–2022

2013 RIBA Charles Jencks Award

RIBA & RIAS Honorary Member

2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury Member

2019 Sant Jordi Cross from the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2019

2020 The Leadership Award at Piranesi Prix de Rome 2020

2021 The Leadership Award at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2021

2022 Member of Pontificia Accademia dei Virtuosi al Pantheon Rome 2022

2022 Dedalo Minosse International Prize 2022.

2022 Prix Le Soufaché l’Académie d’Architecture Paris 2022

2023 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture

Publications

 * 2009 EL CROQUIS, N. 144. EMBT 2000 2009 ENRIC MIRALLES BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE After-life in progress.
 * 2008 AA. Arquitecturas de Author 2006. EMBT Miralles-Tagliabue. (Edición T6 Ediciones 2006, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura. Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarre, Spain).
 * 2007 Benedetta Tagliabue "Eating the City" Workshop Printemps 2007. ESA Productions (École Spéciale d’Architecture Paris).
 * 2006 ACTAR, Catalan College of Architects, Ministry of Housing, Barcelona City Hall, Works in Progress, revised and extended edition
 * 2004 Architecture drawn. The project of Miralles Tagliabue for Diagonal Mar. (Salvat + EMBT MirallesTagliabue, Barcelona, España 2004)
 * 2003 Loft / teNeues, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Arquitectes
 * 2000 El Croquis N.100 101, Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue 1996–2000
 * 1999 GG. Miralles Tagliabue time architecture. Architecture Monograph, Editorial Gustavo Gili
 * 1995 Mixed Talks, a book about the latest projects of the Miralles Office was published by Academy Editions.
 * 1996 Monographic issue of their work KA Korean Architects. Edited Enric Miralles: opere e Progetti, published by Electa