© Silvia Conde
© Silvia Conde

Benedetta Tagliabue is an internationally renowned architect, with works and direct commissions all over the world, founder with Enric Miralles of the international studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT in 1994, now Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT, with offices in Barcelona, Shanghai and Paris.

Her most notable works include the Scottish Parliament in Edinburg, the Santa Caterina Market, the headquarters of Gas Natural Fenosa and the Diagonal Mar Park in Barcelona, and the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, winner of the prestigious RIBA Best International Building 2011 Award.

Current studio projects include the Fudan University Business School in Shanghai (China), office towers in Taichung (Taiwan), HafenCity public spaces in Hamburg (Germany), the Clichy-Montfermeil metro station in Paris (France) (1st prize in competition) and the central metro station in Naples (Italy), among others. In 2019, she inaugurated the Kálida Sant Pau Centre in Barcelona, part of the international network of Maggie’s Centres, within the grounds of the modernist Hospital Sant Pau.

The studio has several projects under construction in China, Italy, and Germany, and participates in largest international competitions. It recently won the urban plan for Century Square in Shanghai and the Shenzhen Conservatory of Music, one of the ten cultural buildings of the city’s new era.

She currently combines her professional work with teaching at international schools and universities, being a visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia University and ETSAB in Barcelona, lecturing regularly at architecture forums and universities. In 2004 she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland.

Her work received the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2005, the Spanish National Prize in 2006, the National Prize of Catalonia in 2002, the City of Barcelona Prize in 2005 and 2009, the FAD awards in 2000, 2003 and 2007.

She received the RIBA Jencks Award in 2013, the Sant Jordi Cross awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2019, for the excellence of her professional practice in the field of architecture worldwide. And recently this year at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, she received ex-aequo with Carlos Moreno, the Leadership Award, introduced this year at the World Smart City Award 2021, for their important contributions to globally disseminate sustainable and humane city models.

Benedetta participates as a juror in the most prestigious international awards, such as the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Princesa de Asturias de las Artes, the Loewe Craft Prize, RIBA Jencks Awards, RIBA Stirling Prize.

She is the founder and director of the Enric Miralles Foundation, whose aim is to promote experimental architecture in the spirit of her late husband and partner Enric Miralles.

During 2021 together with Joan Roig, she curated the Homage to Miralles, exhibiting his work in Barcelona’s most iconic venues: the Saló del Tinell, the Santa Mónica Cultural Centre, the Disseny Hub, the ETSAB and the Fundació Enric Miralles itself, as well as organising lectures at the COAC.

November 2021

© Silvia Conde
© Silvia Conde

Founder and CEO of Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT (formerly Miralles Tagliabue EMBT)
Founder and President of Enric Miralles Foundation
RIBA Stirling Prize
RIBA Honorary Member
RIAS Honorary Member
Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury Member (since 2015)
Princesa de Asturias de las Artes Jury Member (since 2011)
Homage to Miralles 2021 Curator