ObituaryEnric Miralles
Inspiring and original architect who brought a Catalan's sense of freedom to Scotland and its new parliament buildingIf there was anyone who could understand the significance of the new Scottish parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, it was its architect, Enric Miralles, who has died from a brain tumour aged 45. As a Catalan, he could empathise with the sense of identity that the new political situation had created in Scotland. The design is based on boats, a reflection of Scotland's maritime history, and perhaps a poetic way of expressing his belief of a democratic government as a gathering of diverse ideas.
Miralles was the Barcelona architect who most embodied the spirit of that city. By combining the characteristics of Catalan architecture - once described by Nikolaus Pevsner as being anarchic and, at the same time, filled with the serenity of economic structure - he broke every established rule of his calling, rearranging concepts to allow a fresh breeze to carry his imagination along new routes. This, however, was always tempered by a profound understanding of the capacity of the site to inform the process of the design.
Physically large, with untidy hair and beard, Miralles reminded one of GK Chesterton or Hilaire Belloc, and, with his mischievous sense of humour, of Lutyens. It would not be inappropriate - considering his projects and buildings - to suggest that he was on his way to becoming another legendary figure, like Antoni Gaudí.
Like Gaudí, he had an enormous capacity to communicate, especially with his office team and collaborators, but also with his clients and constructors. His gentle charm, combined with an almost encyclopaedic cultural memory, won him the admiration of countless students where he taught, whether it was Harvard, the Architectural Association, Frankfurt or in Barcelona.
Miralles had studied at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona, going on to complete his doctoral thesis on William Adam, Edinburgh's great 18th-century architect, at Columbia University, New York. He had earlier visited Edinburgh as a teenager, to learn English.
But students only really listen to people who go beyond the academic and can actually manage to get an idea built successfully. In this, Miralles, for all his youth, could cut the mustard. Between 1974 and 1989, he was a rising star within the office of the Barcelona architects Helio Piñon and Albert Viaplana. There, he was involved in the design of the Plaça dels Països Catalans, the square in front of the main railway station, which drew the attention of the world's architects to the new approach to the design of public spaces in this city.
He qualified in 1978 and, in 1983, set up his own office with Carme Pinós, his first wife, with whom he designed the cemetery for the town of Igualada. Completed in 1991, this project launched him into international fame. It was there that he was buried yesterday.
These early works were more on the edge of architecture - as well as the Igualada cemetery, for example, there had been Barcelona's Olympic archery area and the pergola in the Olympic village - before he moved on to design his first buildings in 1990. These were a sports hall in Huesca and a gymnasium in Alicante. Although they both fitted beautifully into the landscape, they were somewhat chaotic, and wilfully aggressive in the abuse of structure. For a time, it might have seemed that Miralles was becoming trapped by his own ingenious and mysterious drawings.
Fortunately, stimulated by competition successes (he won the bid for the Scottish parliament against four other teams), his later works showed an increasingly masterly control of his almost casual compositions. He was in the process of marrying his lyrical and poetic imagination to the representational character of institutional buildings, such as the Scottish parliament, the extension to the town hall in Utrecht, the school of architecture in Venice and the headquarters for the gas company in Barcelona.
However, it is easy to understand that Miralles's heart was particularly in a project just round the corner from where he lived in the old medieval quarter of Barcelona. This was a project that the mayor had asked him to undertake - to replace the old market of Santa Caterina and its immediate surroundings. It was a challenge to find within the culture of our time an answer to the medieval street structure of the city. Fortunately, like the Scottish parliament, the design is far advanced, and his office will be able to finish the details. Yet, there will inevitably be something missing - the humour perhaps, which was an integral part of Miralles himself.
Personally, I shall miss our casual encounters in the early morning, when we met cycling to work - our offices were almost next door to each other. We used to exchange brief comments on our respective projects. He was sometimes accompanied by his second wife and partner since 1993, Benedetta Tagliabue, and their children, Caterina, aged six, and a boy, Domènec, aged three.
He was extremely fond of his family and had many friends, and, as a natural master, many pupils, who will continue to be inspired by his free approach to his art.
Professor Andrew Macmillan writes: Enric Miralles and I first met in the early 1990s, when he came to talk about his work to us at the Mackintosh school of architecture in Glasgow. He stayed on to look at the students' work, and to inspire them - and he came again and again.
He enjoyed architecture, he lived at his most intense through it. He reminded me of Pavarotti, who stops and smiles radiantly when he knows he has done well, pleased with himself and sharing his pleasure.
With Enric, you were with a mind that was never at rest, a man with poetic insight into the stimuli that produce form and meaning in architecture. I remember walking in the rain along the Crinan canal during one of his visits, when we came across a fish-shaped puddle. Look, he said, in my next cemetery I will make one, a permanent puddle. At that time, he had just completed two brilliant cemeteries near Barcelona - the Spaniards still take death seriously.
In discussion, his deep interest in art, in the depiction of light and space, his readings in philosophy, his encyclopedic knowledge of architectural sources, historical and contemporary, revealed how profoundly his own work was based.
His presentation to the selection panel seeking an architect for the new Scottish parliament building was always stimulating, challenging and, above all, poetic, with unexpected twists and yet astonishingly practical at the same time.
As a Catalan, he had a sympathy with Scotland - he liked the land and its people. He wanted to give of his best to make its forum, its first significant public building, special - to the place, to the people, to its enlightened traditions. He wanted to make it a building of today, looking forward not back.
His sudden death is shocking, a cutting-off of a unique talent. Fortunately, architects work in teams, buildings are complex, and the personal involvement which is implicit in an atelier like that Enric operated and inspired - and that includes the new Scottish partners - means that dedicated, involved people can and will finish the parliament building. I hope Enric will be remembered for it.
Enric Miralles Moya, architect, born February 12 1955; died July 3 2000
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