Richard Rogers, one of the greats of modern architecture, dies
The Italian-British architect Richard Rogers died this Saturday night at the age of 88. According to several international media that cite that the death was confirmed by his son Roo Rogers, no further details about the cause of death have been disclosed.
Rogers of Riverside was Member of the House of Lords since 1997 and in 2007 he received the Pritzker Prize, considered the "nobel of architecture". It was the author in collaboration with the study of the Spanish Antonio Lamela de la new terminal T4 of Adolfo Suárez airport in Madrid - Barajas.
Born in the Italian city of Florence on July 23, 1933 in Florence into an English family, spent in Italy only five years of his childhood, until the family moved to London.
He studied Architecture at the London Architectural Association and then he expanded his training at Yale University (USA).
Defender of the potential of the city as a catalyst for social change, the British architect, author of the T-4 terminal at Barajas airport, considered the architecture both an urban problem and a political issue.
He defended as the only formula for a sustainable city the compact city, which has marked milestones in the history of contemporary architecture. Your defense of energy efficiency and sustainable has left its mark on the profession.
The thread that unites Rogers' work, with studios in London, Barcelona, Madrid and Tokyo, is a formal rigor that includes a deep knowledge of materials and construction techniques in combination with his passion for aesthetic value of architecture.
Even so, his fascination for technology does not have a merely artistic purpose but is directed towards a construction focused on greater productivity.
It was one of the most representative of modern functional architecture. His prestige grew first with the group Team 4, that the couples formed Norman and Wendy Foster and him and his first wife, Sue Rogers. With Team 4 he released his first job, the Reliance Controls Factory in Swindon (1966-1967), in England.
In 1967, after the dissolution of the quartet, Richard G. Rogers began to mature projects in his avant-garde or high-tech line after partnering with the Italian Renzo Piano in the design of one of his most emblematic works: the Georges Pompidou National Center for Art and Culture (1972-1977) from Paris, restored later, between 1998 and 1999, and where pipes and vents fit in artistically with their brilliant colors.
With this building they revolutionized the concept of the museum, "transforming what was once an elite monument into a popular place for cultural exchange, located in the heart of the city ".
In 1977 he founded his own studio in the British capital, the architecture society that bears his name, Richard Rogers Partnership.
Other more outstanding works of the architect are the London headquarters of the Lloyds firm (1978-1986) and the Lloyd's Register building (1993-2000).
The Lloyds building in London together with the Terminal T-4 in Barajas demonstrate, in addition to its category as a master of urban architecture, a unique interpretation of architectural expression, from his fascination for the modern movement through a conception of the building as a machine and a special interest in transparent architecture, integrating spaces.
It is the author European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (1989-1994) and the Palais de Justice de Bordeaux (1992-1998), both in France.
Also Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport (1989-2008); the Channel 4 building of the Gala TV in the British capital (1990-1994); the shanghai new financial district (1992-1994), in China; the Dome of the New Millennium (1996-1999), in London; the headquarters of the Welsh National Assembly in Cardiff (1998-2005); or the London Grand Union building (2001).
In Spain, he built the new terminal at Madrid's Barajas airport -T 4- (1997-2005), together with the Spanish Antonio Lamela, inaugurated in February 2006. For this work received the "Stirling" award for architecture, the most important in the United Kingdom, awarded each year by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Other examples of its architectural modernity in Spain are the building of the Bodegas Protos de Peñafiel (1993-1999), in Valladolid; the Balearic Park of Technological Innovation "ParcBIT" (1995-2001), active in Mallorca since 2002; the Hesperia Hotel and Convention Center in Barcelona (1999-2006); and the remodeling of the old Las Arenas de Barcelona bullring into a leisure center (2000-2006).
Sir Richard George Rogers, since 1991, possessed the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, 1986 and in addition to Pritzer, it also had the Gold Medal Royal Institute of British Architects (1985).
He was a Friend of Honor of Barcelona (1997), for his collaboration in changing the city, in addition to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Medal (1999) and the Praemium Imperiale (2000).
Madrid's T-4 at Barajas airport, the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, the Lloyds building in London or the Court of Antwerp were some of the protagonists of "Richard Rogers + Architects.
