Ricardo Bofill tribute: La Muralla Roja by Sebastian Weiss

View from above of La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain - the rooftop of the building featuring red and pink walls of varying heights beside the sea

All images: ’The Red Wall’, a photo series on Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja. © Sebastian Weiss, 2020

(Image credit: Sebastian Weiss)

last updated 24 August 2022

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For Sebastian Weiss, it’s not the popularity of a building or the architect’s name that lures him in. ‘It could also be a completely trivial building, like a supermarket or parking garage that has a charisma.’ In November 2019, spurred on by the release of ‘Ricardo Bofill: Visions of Architecture’, Weiss visited one of the architect's most notable feats, ‘La Muralla Roja’ designed in 1968 and located in Calp, Spain.

Lodging in the fully-functioning apartment complex for a week, he documented the strict, alternating geometry, surreal colour schemes and sci-fi-esque shadow plays. Here, Weiss offers a window into the otherworldly realm of ‘The Red Wall’. As a tribute to the legendary Spanish architect, who passed away on 14 January 2022, we revisit Weiss’ experience of creating the iconic series.

Sebastian Weiss on photographing Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja

The sun was already low in the sky, casting the entire series in a warm autumnal tone. Long shadows intensified the impression of the strict architecture and add more plasticity to the images

View from above of blue, optical illusion style walls and stairs running across multiple levels at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain

View from above of pink and purple, optical illusion style walls and stairs running across multiple levels at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain

The photographic encounter with a building feels to me like a meeting with a strange or unknown person, there is curiosity and tension, but also respect and restraint

Close up view of the pink exterior walls at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain. There is a tree outside the building and the sky is clear and blue

View from below of the tall pink exterior walls at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain. The sky is blue and cloudy

This architectural utopia was really a major event for me as a photographer because it is such an absurdly beautiful and surreal location, which appears sometimes like a film set or a staging

View of the pink, blue and white geometric wall arrangement at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain. The sea can partially be seen and the sky is clear and blue

View from below of pink exterior walls and stairs at La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill in Calp, Spain

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Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.

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Sebastian Weiss - Photography

Sebastian Weiss on photographing Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja

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