RCR Arquitectes is a Spanish

architecture firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensure, licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and ot ...

consisting of principals and co-founders Rafael Aranda,

Carme Pigem Carme Pigem Barceló (born Olot, 8 April 1962) is a Spanish architect, a member of the Pritzker Prize-winning architectural firm RCR Arquitectes, together with Ramón Vilalta and Rafael Aranda. Biography Aranda, Pigem, and Vilalta grew up in ...

and Ramon Vilalta. The trio were the 2017 recipients of the

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consisten ...

for Architecture. While the firm had won many awards before the Pritzker, they were relatively unknown compared to other finalists.

History

The firm was founded in Olot, Spain in 1988.

Style

The firm is known for its frequent use of

weathering steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...

in its projects.

Selected projects

The firm designed the imposing in

Rodez Rodez (, , ; , ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of the communau ...

, France, after winning a 2007 competition. *

De Krook De Krook is a library and media center in Ghent (Dutch: Gent), East Flanders, Belgium. It is an initiative of the city of Ghent, Ghent University and IMEC, and describes itself as "a place of inspiration for knowledge, culture and innovation" in ...

, the central public library and media center in

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, designed in collaboration with local firm Coussée & Goris and opened in 2017. *

Celler Peralada Celler Perelada is a winery building in Peralada. Building and design The Celler Perelada project was undertaken by family Suqué Mateu at a price of 40 million €. with standards aimed at achieving the improvement of the quality of its wines, ...

, the first winery in Europe to receive the golden

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

certificate for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

References

Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Companies based in Catalonia Architecture firms of Spain {{Spain-architect-stub