If there was anyone who could understand the significance of the new Scottish parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, it was its architect, Enric Miralles, who died on July 3rd aged 45, from a brain tumour. As a Catalan, he could empathise with the sense of identity that the new political situation had created in Scotland. The design is based on boats, a reflection of Scotland's maritime history, and perhaps a poetic way of expressing his concept of democratic government as a gathering of diverse ideas.
Enric Miralles was the Barcelona architect who most embodied the spirit of that city. By combining the characteristics of Catalan architecture - once described by the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, as being anarchic and, at the same time, filled with the serenity of economic structure - he broke every established rule of his calling, rearranging concepts to allow a fresh breeze to carry his imagination along new routes. This, however, was always tempered by a profound understanding of the capacity of the site to inform the process of the design.
Physically large, with untidy hair and beard, he reminded one of G.K. Chesterton or Hilaire Belloc, and, with his mischievous sense of humour, of Lutyens. It would not be inappropriate - considering his projects and buildings - to suggest that he was on his way to becoming another legendary figure, like Antoni Gaudi.
Like Gaudi, he had an enormous capacity to communicate, especially with his office team and collaborators, but also with clients and builders. His gentle charm, combined with an almost encyclopaedic cultural memory, won him the admiration of countless students where he taught, whether it was Harvard, the Architectural Association, Frankfurt or in Barcelona.
Enric Miralles studied at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona, going on to complete his doctoral thesis on William Adam, Edinburgh's great 18th-century architect, at Columbia University, New York. But students only really listen to people who go beyond the academic and can actually manage to get an idea built successfully. In this, for all his youth, he could cut the mustard. Between 1974 and 1989, he was a rising star within the office of the Barcelona architects Helio Pinon and Albert Viaplana. There, he was involved in the design of the Placa dels Paisos Catalans, the square in front of the main railway station, which drew the attention of the world's architects to the new approach to the design of public spaces in this city.
He qualified in 1978 and, in 1983, set up his own office with Carme Pinos, his first wife, with whom he designed the cemetery for the town of Igualada. Completed in 1991, this project launched him into international fame. It was there that he was buried.
Stimulated by competition successes (he won the bid for the Scottish parliament against four other teams), his later works showed an increasingly masterly control of his almost casual compositions. He was in the process of marrying his lyrical and poetic imagination to the representational character of institutional buildings, such as the Scottish parliament, the extension to the town hall in Utrecht, the school of architecture in Venice and the headquarters for the gas company in Barcelona.
However, it is easy to understand that his heart was particularly set on a project just round the corner from where he lived in the old medieval quarter of Barcelona. It was a project that the mayor had asked him to undertake - to replace the old market of Santa Caterina and its immediate surroundings. It was a challenge to find within the culture of our time an answer to the medieval street structure of the city. Fortunately, like the Scottish parliament, the design is far advanced, and his office will be able to finish the details. Yet, there will inevitably be something missing - the humour perhaps, which was an integral part of Miralles himself.
He is survived by his second wife - and partner since 1993 - Benedetta Tagliabue, and their children, Caterina, aged six, and Domenec, aged three.
Enric Miralles: born 1955; died, July 2000