Miralles Moya, Enric

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Miralles Moya, Enric (1955–2000). Spanish (Catalan) architect, he established his practice in Barcelona in 1984, collaborating (1983–92) with Carme Piños (1954– ). Their works included the Igualada Cemetery, near Barcelona (1985–92—with monumental banks of concrete loculi); the Olympic Archery Range, Barcelona (1992); Els Hostalets de Balenyá Civic Centre, near Barcelona (1988–94—which some commentators have seen as linked to Deconstructivism); and the National Training Centre for Rhythmic Gymnastics, Alicante (1989–93). In 1998 Miralles won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament Building, sited at the foot of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, in partnership with RMJM Scotland (successors of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall, & Partners), the building and costs of which have not been without controversy. Claims that the applied decorative cladding draws its inspiration from the painting, The Reverend Robert Walker Skating, by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823), might appear tenuous, and the building (opened 2004), with its pointless, almost unreadable allusions to upturned boats, seems profoundly alien in its context, having no connection whatsoever to Scottish vernacular architecture, nor any link with the great tradition of Neo-Classicism that was such an integral part of Edinburgh. But the tabula rasa could well be what it is all about: the obliteration of history.

Bibliography

Curtis (1996);
Jodidio (1995a);
Meyhöfer (1995);
E. Miralles (1996);
B. Miralles (ed.) (1996)