Known as the masterplanner of the successful 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the architect Oriol Bohigas, who has died aged 95, was a fierce defender of urban planning as a political and social act. He played a critical role in the cultural and political life of his city, influencing generations of urban theorists and practitioners.
As leader of Barcelona’s urban planning department in the mid-1980s, Bohigas conceptualised and implemented the “Barcelona model” that formed the urban backbone to the city’s Olympics. This event and its lasting legacy put the grey, debilitated but fiercely independent city, punished by decades of Francoism, firmly on the international map. Twenty years later, the Barcelona model informed London’s approach of using the Olympic Games as an opportunity to create an integrated piece of city with housing and amenities for the capital’s more deprived neighbourhoods.
+INFO: The Guardian
\IMAGE: The Guardian
