Goodbye to the ARCHITECT FEDERICO CORREA, the MASTER of modernity

Known as one of the architects of the Olympic Games from 92 and as one of the teachers legendary of the modernity of the ETSAB (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona) and the design school Eina, The architect Federico Correa (1924-2020), marked a generation of students and left an extensive legacy of projects “at the service of society”, a function that for him was the essence of architecture. Correa, who died yesterday at his home in Barcelona in front of The stoneAt the age of 96, he developed and tested different phases throughout his career with his partner for more than forty years Alfons Milá: from a glamorous aesthetic in legendary restaurants such as Flas-Flash and the Giardinetto (with which he won two FAD awards in 19734 and 2013), even houses that crossed the limits of modernity and the project of the Olympic Ring.

A childhood in the Philippines, a few years in the United Kingdom during the Civil War and, later, a lifetime in Barcelona, ​​where Correa helped transform the city with cosmopolitan and modern spaces. After studying at the ETSAB, together with Alfons Milà, began to work in the studio of Coderch of Sentmenat. His first projects with Milà already set a clear guideline aimed at introducing modern criteria, such as Villavecchia House in Cadaqués (1955). In the following decades they worked on interior design projects: offices for Olivetti and the aforementioned restaurants. The Watchtower Tower (1972) was the first large-scale building and in 1981 they undertook the reform of the Reial Square.

In 1984, together with Margarit and Buxadé, Correa and Milà won the competition for the management of the Montjuic Olympic Ring, and also participated in the reform of the Olympic Stadium. The new headquarters of the headquarters of the Barcelona Provincial Council, he Episcopal Museum of Vic and the factory Montesa in Esplugues de Llobregat, are other of the great milestones of this architect who was a teacher of names as recognized today as Oscar Tusquets or Lluís Clotet.

Correa also made some contribution to object design, although it wasn’t something he spent a lot of time on. Among them, the Diana lamp that he created with Milá for the office of Pasqual Maragall in his time as mayor of Barcelona, ​​edited by Santa & Cole.