Rafael Moneo

Architect and professor from Spain, Rafael Moneo began his cooperation with Tecno in 2003, with the project of the Hospital Materno-Infantil in Madrid, with tailor-made furniture pieces.

Rafael Moneo was born in Tudela in the province of Navarra in 1937. He obtained his architectural degree in 1961 from the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid. In 1970 he won a teaching chair in architectural theory at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Barcelona where he taught until 1980, when he became chaired professor of composition at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid. In 1985 he was appointed Chairman of the Architecture Department of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a position he held until 1990. In 1991 he was named Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Rafael Moneo combines his professional activity as an architect with that as lecturer, critic and theoretician. His writings have been published in numerous professional magazines and the presentation of his work through lectures and exhibitions has taken him to institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2005 his book Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects was published in English by MIT Press and in Spanish by ACTAR.

Rafael Moneo has been awarded numerous distinctions among them the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 1996 and the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2003.

Notable among Rafael Moneo’s works in Spain are:

1985 - National Museum of Roman Art

1992 - Atocha Railway Station

1993 - Illa on the Diagonal avenue in Barcelona in collaboration with Manuel de Solà-Morales

1993 - Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca

1999 - Kursaal Auditorium and Congress Center in San Sebastián

1999 - Annex for the Town Hall of Murcia (1999)

2003 - The new Mothers and Children’s Hospital in Madrid

Outside of Spain notable works include:

1993 - Davis Museum and Cultural Center for Wellesley College

1998 - Museums of Modern Art and Architecture in Stockholm

2000 - Audrey Jones Beck Building for the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas

2002 - Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles (2002).

Works currently under construction include the Extension to the Prado Museum in Madrid (inauguration in 2006), the Souks in Beirut and the Laboratory for Interface and Engineering for Harvard University.

A student center for Rhode Island School of Design and the Northwest Science Building for Columbia University are among his projects currently in the design phase.