Antonio Bonet Castellana, (Barcelona, August 13, 1913 - Ibídem, September 12, 1989) was a Catalan architect, urban planner and designer, who lived in the Río de la Plata for most of his life.
Bonet received training from two different sources: on the one hand, the education received at the University and on the other, that linked to the activity of J. Ll. Sert, fully involved in the Modern Movement, which in 1930 formed the GATPAC.
In 1935, he became a collaborator in the studio that Sert had with Torres Clavé, also a member of GATPAC, until 1935. During this time and in this studio, Bonet worked on projects for the Roca jewelry store, the houses in Garraf, the nursery school and the MIDVA stand, which was awarded first prize at the Barcelona Decorators' Show. In 1933, he attended the historic cruise aboard the Patris II, having the opportunity to experience the drafting of the Athens charter, fundamental to the architectural culture of the 20th century. In it, the functions of living, working, resting and circulating are enunciated as the fundamental elements to be considered in urban development. On this trip he meets Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. In 1936, just after finishing his architecture studies, he traveled to Paris where he joined Le Corbusier's studio. In Le Corbusier's studio he designed the house made by Bonet freely, at the request of the master: the Maison Jaoul. He was also in charge of designing the main building for the Liège International Exhibition, which was the Water Pavilion. For this work he incorporates the surrealist ideas to the functionalist architecture of the moment. This is one of the aspects that later characterized his work.
In 1937 at the International Exhibition in Paris, in which Le Corbusier presented the Des Temps Nouveaux Pavilion, Bonet collaborated with Sert in the realization of the Spanish Pavilion, whose symbolic character was fundamental, taking into account the concept of unity sought at that historical moment. This construction acted as a link between the different works of Spanish artists that were exhibited (Miró, Calder and Picasso) integrating them into the architecture.
Antonio Bonet was, without a doubt, one of the definitive links between European avant-garde architecture and Latin American architects.
In Barcelona he designed La Ricarda (1949-1963) and the Meridiana Dog Track, for which he received a FAD architecture award in 1963. And the Urquinaona Tower, (1970-1973) together with Benito Miró Llort. In 1962, together with Dominguín and Picasso, he designed a covered bullring, whose facades incorporate large ceramics designed by the painter from Malaga.
