MBM (architecture firm)
Encyclopedia
MBM is an urban design
and architecture
firm founded in 1951, and named from the initials of the last names of partners Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas
and David Mackay
. Martorell and Bohigas are Spanish-Catalan, and Mackay is English-Irish.
under Francisco Franco
and served as a launching pad for many Spanish architects. The team also wrote, edited, published and lectured, promoting a modernist take on regionalism and designed many schools, libraries, housing projects, and churches.
MBM did "pioneering" work in transforming Barcelona’s public spaces during the 1980s and earned a worldwide reputation the firm.
that helped achieve an "urban renaissance".
MBM partner David Mackay oversaw a masterplan for the "Arc of Opportunity" at the Lower Lea Valley
, part of 2 billion pound regeneration scheme for London in 2002. In 2008 the firm's so-called Stapler museum design for Barcelona was rejected. The museum is to hold a collection furniture, lamps and utensils in Barcelona and the contents of the city's former textile museum, "which was controversially closed" in 2006.
Urban design
Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has...
and architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
firm founded in 1951, and named from the initials of the last names of partners Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas
Oriol Bohigas
Oriol Bohigas i Guardiola is a Catalan Spanish architect and urban planner. He is partner in the architecture office MBM.From 1980 until 1984 he has been the Director of Planning of the City of Barcelona....
and David Mackay
David Mackay (architect)
David Mackay is a British architect and partner in MBM . He was active in Catalonia, where he worked on the design for the renovation of the port area of Barcelona and the construction of the Olympic Village there in 1992....
. Martorell and Bohigas are Spanish-Catalan, and Mackay is English-Irish.
History
The firm was one of the only exponent of modernismModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
under Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
and served as a launching pad for many Spanish architects. The team also wrote, edited, published and lectured, promoting a modernist take on regionalism and designed many schools, libraries, housing projects, and churches.
MBM did "pioneering" work in transforming Barcelona’s public spaces during the 1980s and earned a worldwide reputation the firm.
Barcelona Olympics
MBM did design work for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 including on the city's masterplan. The firm designed the Vila Olímpica and the Olympic Port. Their urban plan expanded the number of public spaces and cultural buildings and integrated the works of other major architects including Norman Foster and Richard MeierRichard Meier
Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...
that helped achieve an "urban renaissance".
Recent work
The firm showed 32 design projects that were never built at their 2003 Lost Architectures exhibit at the RIAI’s architecture centre in Dublin. The exhibit offered "a rare opportunity to reflect on the reasons, the trends, and the architectural culture of the time." In a comparison to Le Corbusier's speech when he received the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in London in 1953 and "spoke of his failures", Mackay said, "Now, after 50 years of architecture, we are guilty of the crime of being on the scene too long. This has given us, too, the opportunity to accumulate many failures."MBM partner David Mackay oversaw a masterplan for the "Arc of Opportunity" at the Lower Lea Valley
Lower Lea Valley
The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley, surrounding the River Lea , which runs along the boundary of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on its western bank and the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest and Newham on its eastern bank, into the River Thames. The river forms the...
, part of 2 billion pound regeneration scheme for London in 2002. In 2008 the firm's so-called Stapler museum design for Barcelona was rejected. The museum is to hold a collection furniture, lamps and utensils in Barcelona and the contents of the city's former textile museum, "which was controversially closed" in 2006.
Works
- Guardiola House, Argentona (1955)
- Europalma Apartments, Majorca (1964)
- Parc de la Creueta del Coll, Barcelona (1987)
- Harbormaster's House, Olympic Port in Barcelona (1991)
- Vila Olimpica (Olympic Village), Barcelona (1992)
- Gothic stone and tensile pavilion, Seville Expo(1992)