What the work is
Benedetta Tagliabue is a body of architectural work defined by posthumous project completion and international exposition participation.
Tagliabue was born in Milan on 23 June 1963 and began architectural studies at the Università Iuav di Venezia in 1981, graduating in 1989. She is an Italian architect based in Barcelona, and today she is the principal and director of the studio she co-founded.
How it was made
Tagliabue co-founded EMBT Architects with Enric Miralles and led the completion of major projects after his death in 2000.
The firm began in 1994 as Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcelona-based, and was later renamed Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT. Before it existed, in 1991, she had won first prize with her thesis in the Biennal Joves de Barcelona, and in 1988 she had worked with the New York firms Transbuilding and Agrest-Gandelsonas. The record lists the Scottish Parliament Building as dated 1999 to 2004, the Santa Caterina Market as 1996 to 2005 and the Gas Natural Building as 1999 to 2006, so each ran for years after Miralles died.
What works
The firm completed the Scottish Parliament Building, the Gas Natural Building, and the Santa Caterina market renovation — all initiated before Miralles’ death — and delivered the Spanish Pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
Several of these won prizes. The Scottish Parliament Building won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2005, awarded to EMBT and RMJM. The Santa Caterina rehabilitation won the Premi Nacional de Patrimoni Cultural in 2001, shared posthumously with Miralles, and the Premio de Arquitectura Española in 2006. The Spanish Pavilion won the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in 2009 and the RIBA International Award in 2010–2011. Her later list of works includes the Clichy-Montfermeil metro station in Paris (2014) and the Church and Parish Complex San Giacomo Apóstolo in Ferrara (2022), which received a special commendation from the Dedalo Minosse International Prize.
What does not
The material does not establish Tagliabue’s individual design decisions within the Scottish Parliament Building, Gas Natural Building, or Santa Caterina Market.
What it influenced
The material does not state what these works influenced.
It does record Tagliabue’s standing in the profession: she is president of the Enric Miralles Foundation, an architectural research center in his honor, teaches at ETSAB in Barcelona, and has served as a juror for the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize.
Is it worth your time
Yes — it shows how architectural authorship shifts under constraint, not consensus.
