Chapter 1 of 25
Left To Right: Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas, David Mackay, 1985
My partners Josep Martorell and Oriol Bohigas and myself began working together I think it was in 62. They'd been in practice ten years before. They'd met when they were at secondary school together. I first met them in 56 one summer holidays that I was in Barcelona. I liked them very much; saw the work they were doing. So as soon as I qualified, I went to Barcelona for a year's experience away from England, the English scene, and worked with them and other architects. When I was leaving after about a year they asked me to stay on, I stayed on, and then I was going to leave again and they asked me to stay on and join them in a partnership. And I must say work in Barcelona is extremely stimulating though frustrating at times: stimulating in the fact that you can really get things done because of the small industry in Barcelona. You're able to get to the point of design with the manufacturer or the little workshop round the corner who's doing the metalwork, or the carpenter, and things like that. It was really quite a fresh approach to design instead of a sort of catalogue design I'd been in contact with, or used to, in London.