Ricardo Bofill keynote speaker

Ricardo Bofill was born into a family of builders in 1939 in Barcelona, Spain. He studied at the Barcelona University School of Architecture and graduated from the School of Geneva. At the age of seventeen Ricardo Bofill designed his first project, a summer home in Ibiza, and by twenty-three became lead architect of el Taller.

He continues to lead the international architectural and urban design practice Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. Over fifty years later, Bofill still leads Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, with over 1000 projects to date in over 50 countries.

After accomplishing a series of world class buildings such as Shiseido, in Ginza, Tokyo, Christian Dior Headquarters, Cartier Headquarters, Rochas Headquarters, Axa Headquarters, Paribas Bank Marché Saint Honoré, all in Paris, The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, The Metz Auditorium, Metz, France, the Barcelona Airport, The National Theatre of Catalonia, in Barcelona, The New Palacio de Congresos, Madrid, SWIFT Headquarters, near Brussels, Bofill has demonstrated his expertise and know-how to carry out class A buildings all over the world.

Outstanding amongst the most recent projects designed by the architect is The Donnelley Building, a 55 story granite and glass office tower. Other relevant projects, such as The Grand (the tallest residential building in the world), Project 2000 (the tallest office building in the world), and Dearborn Center (Dearborn and Adams) are presently under construction or development in Chicago. Famous residential buildings by Bofill are Abraxas, The Arcades du Lac, Belvedere St. Christophe, Les Echelles du Baroque in Paris, Pa Söder Crescent in Stockholm and Monchyplein in The Hague.

His vision of urban design has resulted in many examples such as The City of Antigone (4 million square feet built) in south France, Plateau Kirchberg in Luxembourg, Port Praski in Warsaw and The New Castellana in Madrid. Bofill Arquitectura has offices in Barcelona and Paris, and is currently collaborating with prestigious architectural firms in Chicago.

He has a multifaceted, international design team that undertakes projects in collaboration with local architects and engineers for a wide variety of projects, from city planning to interior design.