Espinàs i Tarrasó

Espinàs i Tarrasó was set up as a design, architecture and landscaping studio in 1991, as a collaboration between architect Olga Tarrasó Climent and designer Julià Espinàs Casas.

Olga Tarrasó Climent, graduated in architecture from ETSAB in Barcelona in 1982 and received her master’s in Landscape Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1985. She teaches Agricultural Engineering, Design, Architecture and Landscape Architecture at different universities in Spain and abroad. She has formed part of numerous different jury panels, such as for the Barcelona City Award and the FAD Award, among others. Olga worked with the Barcelona City Council’s Urban Projects Office since it was founded in 1981 until 2000, developing, among other projects, the urban transformation of the surroundings of the Port of Barcelona, the Seafront Promenade in the Barceloneta (winner of the 1996 FAD Award) and the coverage of the Ronda del Mig ring road (winner of the 2006 Decade Award). Throughout this period, she also designed urban furniture for the city of Barcelona.

Julià Espinàs Casas graduated as an interior designer from the Barcelona Arts and Crafts School and as a Graphic Designer from the Eina School of Design and Art. Her career has focused on the field of museography, design, architecture and landscape design.
Julià, from 1980 to 1989, together with Carles Crespo, Anna Albín and Albert Hernando, undertook public space and building projects, later specialising in museography, design, architecture and landscaping. During this period, she combined her profession with graphic design. In 1986, she was commissioned to design the A30 architecture magazine. She also collaborated in publications for the Architects’ Association of Catalonia and designed the first exhibitions for the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB). She oversaw the image and signage project for the Centre Pompidou in Paris between 1993 and 1996 and, with Olga Tarrasó, was commissioned with the graphic communication and design of the ephemeral installations for the 1996 Congress of the International Union of Architects in Barcelona.

In 1991, Julià Espinàs Casas and Olga Tarrasó Climent joined forces professionally to create the Espinàs i Tarrasó SCP studio. Thanks to its partners’ experience, the studio was able to undertake projects in the field of landscaping, architecture and design, for which they used the studio’s own resources or collaborated with other multidisciplinary teams. Joaquim Tarrasó, a regular collaborator with the studio since 2000, joined as a partner in 2011 opening the firm to the countries of Scandinavia.

In 2018, they won the ADI-FAD Silver Delta Award for the Rai bench, edited by Urbidermis, and were FAD Award finalists for the Seafront Promenade in Badalona. In 2006, they won the Badalona City Award in the outdoor spaces category for the Badalona Waterfront. In 2000, they won the Decade Award for the large-scale Ronda de Mig-Rambla Brasil project in Barcelona. In 1996, they won the FAD Award for the Barceloneta Seafront Promenade, and in 1993 were finalists in the 3rd Spanish Architecture Biennale for the Passeig de Joan de Borbó, Pla de Palau and Pla de Correos, in Barcelona, among others.

Olga Tarrasó and Julià Espinàs are the creators of Bancal (2000), a modular, simple and versatile bench, and the more ergonomic and gently curved Bilateral bench (2005). Eleven years later they designed the Rai bench (2016), a dynamic seat and table system with a rational aesthetic.