Miralles Tagliabue EMBT is an international architectural office, founded in 1991 by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue in Barcelona. Coincidently this partnership began just before the start of the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona’92, an apogee period of the city and its architecture.
During their cooperation Enric and Benedetta started projects like the New Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the Utrecht City Hall in Holland, the Headquartes of Gas Natural, the Market and neighborhood of Santa Caterina, their own house in the old city in Barcelona and so on.
Their poetic architecture, always attentive to context, can be seen as a melting pot of ideas, a meeting point of traditions and innovations; where each project presents a challenge and at the same time a new learning opportunity.
Their philosophy reflects the belief of changing the environment by observing and respecting the site, its history and culture.
After the premature death of Enric Miralles in 2000, husband and partner of Benedetta, she continued leading their office, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT as a sole partner, finishing over ten uncompleted works of Enric and starting many new ones.
Benedetta’s work includes a number of high profile buildings completed in Spain and abroad, such as: the Market and neighborhood of Santa Caterina, (1996-2005), the Diagonal Mar Park (1997-2002), the Headquartes of Gas Natural (1999-2006) in Barcelona, the new University Campus in Vigo, as well as projects across Europe and Asia: including the New Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (1998-2004), the School of Music (1997-2000) and Hafencity public spaces in Hamburg (2002-2013), the City Hall in Utrecht (1996-2000), the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010, Barajas Social Housing Blocks in Madrid (2013) and many
more.
Today Miralles Tagliabue EMBT has offices in Barcelona and Shanghai, is operating all over the world with a number of new projects in Europe, China, Taiwan, etc. Continuously growing and developing, the working environment is multicultural and full of young aspiring architects working hand in hand with the project directors to produce new innovative ideas and designs.
Nonetheless the office has kept its fundamental core: an open approach, full of exploration and experiments together with a high level of conceptual thought. EMBT office received the Catalan National Prize in 2002, RIBA Stirling Prize in 2005, the National Spanish Prize in 2006, City of Barcelona Prize in 2005 and 2009, FAD prizes in 2000, 2003 and 2007, and WAF prizes in 2010 y 2011.
