Richard Rogers, the ‘nobel’ of architecture and author of Madrid’s T4, passes away

The Italian-British architect Richard Rogers died this saturday night at the age of 88 years according to several international media that cite that the death was confirmed by his son Roo Rogers, without having more details about the cause of death have been disclosed. Rogers of Riverside had been a member of the House of Lords since 1997 and in 2007 received the Pritzker Prize, considered the “nobel of architecture”. It was the author in collaboration with the study by the Spanish Antonio Lamela from the new terminal T4 of the Adolfo Suárez de Madrid-Barajas airport.

Born in the Italian city of Florence on July 23, 1933 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 later expanded his training at Yale University (USA). Defender of potential of the city as a catalyst for change social, the British architect, author of the T-4 terminal at Barajas airport, considered architecture both a problem urban planning as 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. His advocacy for energy efficiency and sustainability has left its mark on the profession. The thread that binds Rogers’ work, with studies 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 the 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 for which it is intended. It was one of the most representative of modern functional architecture. Its prestige grew first with the Team 4 group, which formed the couples Norman and Wendy Foster and he and his first wife, Sue Rogers. With Team 4 he released his first work, the Swindon Reliance Controls Factory (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 National Center of Art and Culture Georges Pompidou (1972-1977) in Paris, later restored between 1998 and 1999, and where pipes and ventilation outlets they fit artistically into the ensemble with their bright colors. With this building revolutionized the concept of museum, “transforming what was once an elite monument into a popular place of cultural exchange, located in the heart of the city.”

In 1977 he founded his own studio in the British capital, the architectural society that bears his name, the 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 Barajas Terminal T-4 demonstrate, in addition to his category as a master of urban architecture, a unique interpretation of architectural expression, of his fascination for the modern movement through a conception of the building as a machine and a special interest for the 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 the London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 (1989-2008); building TV Channel 4 gala in the British capital (1990-1994); the new financial district of Shanghai (1992-1994), in China; the Dome of the New Millennium (1996-1999), in London; the headquarters of Cardiff Welsh National Assembly (1998-2005); or the london grand union building (2001).

In Spain it built the new terminal of the Madrid Barajas Airport -T 4- (1997-2005), together with the Spanish Antonio Lamela, inaugurated in February 2006. For this work he 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 Bodegas Protos de Peñafiel building (1993-1999), in Valladolid; the Balearic Park for Technological Innovation “ParcBIT” (1995-2001), active in Mallorca since 2002; the Hesperia Hotel and Convention Center in Barcelona (1999-2006); Y the remodeling of the old plaza de Las Arenas de Barcelona bullfighting in a leisure center (2000-2006). Sir Richard George Rogers, since 1991, he possessed the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, 1986 and in addition to Pritzer, he also had the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal (1985). It was 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).