Oriol Bohigas, the Catalan architect behind the modernisation of Barcelona, has died at the age of 95.
Bohigas, who had Parkinson's disease for a number of years before his death, passed away on 30 November 2021.
An architect and urban planner who co-founded the firm MBM Arquitectes, he was best known for his work transforming the city of Barcelona ahead of the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Barcelona had grown haphazardly in the aftermath of the second world war and was cut off from its beaches by industrial buildings, but interventions made by Bohigas in the 1980s and 1990s reconnected the city to its waterfront and turned it into a thriving modern city and tourism capital.
Oriol Bohias was awarded the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia in 2013. Photo is by Discasto via Wikimedia Commons With MBM Arquitectes, Bohigas designed the Villa Olímpica athletes' village, replacing the industrial site on Barcelona's beachfront with what would later become market housing, and Port Olímpic, a new port for the influx of tourists.
Rather than focusing on a few key sports buildings, the Olympic project saw investment spread across the city, adding green spaces, major road arteries and neighbourhood improvements that would outlast the Summer Games.
A lifelong advocate for modernity
The project continued work that Bohigas had begun in 1980 as urban planning delegate on the Barcelona City Council, from where he pushed for the transformation of the city.
He had been a lifelong advocate fo...