15 Famous Spanish Architects

Santiago Calatrava photo By Wilson Center Wikimedia

15 Famous Spanish Architects

Spain is popularly known for its amazing building and the fascinating architecture in Europe. It is interesting to know that Spain is home to unique and recognizable building monuments. Nowadays, modern architects in Spain integrate traditional materials such as slate, granite, clay, limestone and wood with modern materials like concrete, glass, and steel, this combination creates an elegant hybrid style that is astonishing and sits within the historical monuments in the cities.

There are many Spanish architects behind the successful and amazing architectural history of Spain. They have served a main role in the popularity of Spanish architecture by designing admirable buildings and the glorious style of Spain. The following are some of the famous Spanish architectures:

1. Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudi By Pau Audouard Deglaire Wikimedia

Antoni Gaudí was one of the most famous architects in Spain. He was born in Rues, Spain on June 25, 1852, and died in Barcelona, Spain on June 10, 1926. He had an interest in architecture since childhood. In 1869 he went to study architecture in Barcelona, however, he did not graduate until 8 years later, because his studies were cut in by military service and other intermittent activities.

The architectural work of Antoni was unique for its range of forms, textures, and polychromy not forgetting the revealing way in which these elements of his art seem to be collected. He was dedicated to architecture and he did his work with passion.

2. Ricardo Bofill

Richardo Bofill was born in 1939 after the end of the Spanish Civil War. It is interesting to know that his father (Emilio Bofill) was an architect, developer and builder, and he studied in Catalonia’s oldest professional architecture school the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona.

Ricardo spent most of his youth time travelling mostly with his father and sometimes by himself. This made him develop a desire for vernacular architecture (building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance). He joined Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona school of architecture in 1957, the same school his father studied, he involved himself in student activism with the unauthorized Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia and was arrested and expelled from the university and Spain.

He then moved to Switzerland and joined Haute École d’art et de design Genève in 1958 and left in 1960 to return to Spain. The first architecture he designed was a summer home in Ibiza which was completed in 1960. He also founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, which he developed and became a leading international architectural and urban design practice.

3.  Alonso Cano

Alonso Cano was a famous Spanish architect, who learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano. His father was a Spanish baroque architect and sculptor in Almodovar del Campo. It is amazing to see Alonso Cano following his father’s footsteps and learning from him.

He has done several notable works and he was made the first royal architect. In 1652, the king gave him the church’s preferment of a canon of the Granada Cathedral, so he takes care of the position as the chief architect of the cathedral.

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4. Andrés Jaque

Andres Jaque photo By Jusin Liu, Columbia GSAPP Wikimedia

Andrés Jaque was born in Madrid, Spain and is one of the most famous architects in Spain. He has been doing remarkable work in the field of architecture and has received several awards over the years in this field. In 2014, he won the Silver Lion to the Best Project at the 14th Venice Biennale, he was also awarded the 10th Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts, and the 2007 Dionisio Hernández Gil Award.

He is behind several award-winning architectural projects, such as the Reggio School, the Ocean Space for Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art, the Museo Postal de Bogotá, Rolling House for the Rolling Society, Hänsel and Gretel’s Arenas, COSMO PS1 in New York, and the House in Never Never Land.

5. Felix Candela

Felix was a Spanish and Mexican architect, however, when he was 26, he emigrated to Mexico hence acquiring double nationality. He is famously known for developing Mexican architecture and structural engineering. Developing thin cells mostly known as cascarones is the major contribution Candela did to the architecture field.

He did remarkable work throughout his architectural journey and was awarded the Golden Medal, Augusto Perret prize of the Architects International Union. Some of his projects include the Palacio de los Deportes and Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències.

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6. Rafael Aranda 

Rafael Aranda is a Spanish architect born in 1962, in Olot, Spain. He is the founder of the firm known as RCR Arquitectes together with Pigem and Vilalta which they founded after graduating from the Vallès School of Architecture in 1988. He was known for designing a range of public and private projects together with his partners.

In 1988, Rafael together with his partners won first prize for their unusual cantilevered proposal to a competition to design a lighthouse in Punta Aldea, Canary Islands. In 2017, they were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the most important award in the field of architecture and they were given at the same time.

7. Alberto Campo Baezo

Alberto Campo Baeza was born in 1946 and he is a Spanish architect. From 1986 to 2017 he was a Full-time Design Professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid. He has built several buildings which have been given awards. Some of the buildings he has built include Offices in Zamora, De Blas House, Turégano House and Caja de Granada.

Alberto’s work has won several awards, in 2000 he won the first prize for the Spanish Pavilion, the COAM Award for the Blas House in 2002, the COAAO Award for the Centre BIT in Mallorca in 2003, the Eduardo Torroja Award in 2005 and The Award of Architecture in Stone for the Almería Offices in 2003 among others.

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8. Enric Miralles

He joined a school of architecture in Barcelona known as Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and graduated in 1978. He was married to architect Carme Pino of Spanish; they established a lot together before they divorced in 1991. In 1984, after having a breakthrough and winning several architectural competition awards, Enric formed his own office in Barcelona with his wife Carme which they led together till they divorced. He later remarried architect Benedetta Tagliabue an Italian architect.

Miralles founded the studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT together with his wife Benedetta Tagliabue and did lot of collaboration together. Their work mostly includes public spaces and iconic buildings in Barcelona such as the Gas Natural tower, Diagonal Mar Park and Santa Caterina market.

9. Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava photo By Wilson Center Wikimedia

Santiago Calatrava is a famous architect, structural engineer, painter, and sculptor. He is famously known for his dynamic skeleton-like structures and is a modern architect. Santiago is commonly known for building railways stations, museums and stadiums, whose sculptural forms mostly look like living organisms.

His notable works include the Milwaukee Art Museum, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City, the Turning Torso tower in Malmö, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, Texas, the City of Arts and Sciences and the Opera House in his birthplace, Valencia.

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10. Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas

Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas is one of the most famous architects in Spanish. He joined a school of architecture in Madrid and graduated in 1873. He was lucky to get a job after finishing his studies, in 1874, he became a teacher at the Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona, and he taught there for the rest of his life.

Some of his notable works include the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, Casa Vilaseca, Plaça Urquinaona, Institucions Provincials de Cultura, jointly with Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Casa Pia Batlló, in Rambla de Catalunya, and Casa Cabot, in Carrer de Lloria.

11. Antonio Palacios

Antonio Palacios in O Porriño, province of Pontevedra on January 8, 1874. He later moved to Madrid to pursue a degree in Engineering, however, he switched to Architecture and attained a degree in 1903.

Throughout his career, he did notable projects such as the Palacio de Comunicaciones, Hospital de Maudes, The Río de La Plata Bank, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Banco del Comercio y de la Industria, Casa de Antonio Palacios, in El Plantío, Madrid and Banco Mercantil e Industrial.

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12. Juan de Álava

Juan de Álava was a famous Spanish architect born in 1480, in Larrinoa, Zigoitia, Álava, Spain and died in 1537 in Salamanca, Spain. He was born into a family of stonemasons and he is best known for his stonework produced in the Plateresque style.

He accomplished many projects before he died such as the New Cathedral of Plasencia (1513), Convento de San Esteban, Salamanca (1524), Colegio Mayor de Santiago el Zebedeo (completed 1578), Salamanca, Casa de las Muertes (1500), Salamanca, and Chapel of the University of Salamanca, Salamanca (demolished), Salamanca.

13. Vicente Guallart

Vicente Guallart is a famous Spanish architect born in 1963. He is an expert in Ecological Urban Development and Digital Cities. From 2011-2015, Guallart was the chief architect of Barcelona City Council and his duty was to develop the strategic vision for the transformation of the city and its major development projects.

He founded one of the best Architectural Master Schools in the world the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), where he led projects such as the Fab Lab House, Media House Project (with MIT’s CBA), and Hyper Catalunya. Today he is the present director at Valldaura Labs of IAAC.

14. Emilio Tuñón

Emilio Tuñón By UFVedu (youtube) Wikimedia

He is one of the famous Spanish architects born on January 1, 1959. He attended the ETSAM School of Architecture and graduated in 1981. He established the architecture firm known as Mansilla + Tuñón Architects together with Luis Moreno Mansilla. Back in 2014, his firm Mansilla + Tuñón Architects won the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Tuñón is recently a professor of ETSAM’s architectural design department and has as well-being visiting professor at other universities such as Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Navarra Architecture School, New Puerto Rico Architecture School, Barcelona Architecture School, Frankfurt Städelschule, and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne among others.

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15. Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Alejandro Zaera By deArchitectNL (youtube) Wikimedia

Alejandro Zaera-Polo has been successful in the journey of architecture and has achieved a lot in this field. He is the founder of Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Maider Llaguno Architecture (AZPML). Alejandro was also the former dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and the Princeton University School of Architecture.

He graduated from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University with a Master’s in Architecture in 1991. He got a job in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and worked from 1991 to 1993. He then co-founded an architectural design studio together with Farshid Moussavi known as Foreign Office Architects (FOA), in 1993, which produced architectural projects in Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

Under the FAO design studio, Alejandro Zaera-Polo accomplished a lot of projects such as Coastal park with outdoor auditoriums, in Barcelona, Spain, La Rioja Technology Transfer Centre, Logrono, Villa in Pedralbes, Barcelona, Spain, Trinity EC3 office complex, City of London, The Palace Residential Towers in Busan, South Korea and KL Central Plot D Residential Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia among others.