Benedetta Tagliabue studied architecture at the Istituto di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) and currently acts as director of the international architecture firm Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, founded in 1994 in collaboration with Enric Miralles, based in Barcelona, Shanghai and Paris.
Among her most notable projects built are the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Diagonal Mar Park, the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona, Campus Universitario de Vigo, and the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo which was awarded the prestigious RIBA International “Best International Building of 2011” award.
Current studio projects include the Business School of Fudan University in Shanghai, office towers in Xiamen and Taichung, public spaces of HafenCity in Hamburg Germany, the metro station Clichy-Montfermeil in Paris, France (1st prize in competition), the Naples Underground Central Station in Italy, among others.
Her studio works in the fields of architecture, design of public spaces, rehabilitation, interior and industrial design. Her poetic architecture, always attentive to its context, has won international awards in the fields of public space and design.
In the teaching field, she has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia University and Barcelona ETSAB, lecturing regularly at architecture forums and universities, and is part of jurors around the world, e.g. the Princesa de Asturias awards and since 2014 she is part of the jury of the Pritzker Prize. In 2004 she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland.
Her work received the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2005, the National Spanish Prize in 2006, the Catalan National prize in 2002, City of Barcelona prize in 2005 and 2009, FAD prizes in 2000, 2003 and 2007.
She received the 2013 RIBA Jencks Award, which is given annually to an individual or practice that has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture. And in May 2019, she received the Cross of Sant Jordi granted by the Generalitat of Catalonia for the excellence of her professional practice in the field of architecture worldwide.
She is also the director of the Enric Miralles Foundation, whose goal is to promote experimental architecture in the spirit of her late husband and partner Enric Miralles.
Miralles Tagliabue EMBT is an international acknowledged architecture studio founded in 1994 by the association of Enric Miralles (1955-2000) 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 Headquarters of Gas Natural, the Market and neighbourhood of Santa Caterina, their own house in the old city in Barcelona and so on.
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.
EMBT’s mature approach to architecture, interior design, facility planning includes experience with educational, commercial, industrial and residential buildings, restoration of buildings as well as special purpose landscape architecture.
The studio has experience in public spaces and buildings in both Europe and China working for State and Local Governments as well as Corporate and private clients.
Current studio projects include the Business School of Fudan University in Shanghai, office towers in Xiamen and Taichung, public spaces of HafenCity in Hamburg Germany, the metro station Clichy-Montfermeil in Paris, France (1st prize in competition) and the metro central station inNaples, Italy, among others.
Today EMBT has offices in Barcelona and Shanghai, and 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.
As an acknowledgment of the work done over the years, EMBT has 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 and 2011.
