Emili Donato Folch was born in Figueres in 1934 to a family from Reus. His father, a professor of philosophy and a writer (Emili Donato Prunera), and his mother, a painter (Magda Folch), moved to Barcelona in 1940. Having finished secondary school in 1952 at the Lycée Français in Barcelona, he began studying painting at the School of Fine Arts, but dropped out in 1954, after having exhibited oil paintings and drawings at the Cercle Maillol. In 1957, he entered the School of Architecture and obtained his degree in 1961, graduating first in his class. During those years, he organized the Torres Clavé Seminars, which brought together university students from Barcelona and Madrid, focusing on three subjects that were emergent at the time: public housing, urban planning and agrarian reform.

Between 1959 and 1961, he travelled to Geneva, Ulm and Paris for internships and study trips. He lived in Paris for six months on a grant from the CSTB, where he took a course on industrialized construction. He opened his own studio in Ibiza in 1961, which he moved to Barcelona in 1963, where he has lived and worked since. From 1965 to 1969, he was a professor of Architectural Design at the Barcelona School of Architecture, although he was ejected for political reasons. In 1964, with a number of other specialists, he founded the Centre for Technical Studies of Hospitals (CETH), through which he developed an extensive series of studies and designs in the area of hospital architecture through 1971. Those years were marked by political engagement and participation in various projects and competitions centred on urban planning, but few and limited architectural projects – although, his designs were rapidly published, such as the houses in the Calafat residential development in Ametlla de Mar, Tarragona.

From 1967 to 1972, he actively participated in the Architects’ Association of Catalonia as head of the Culture Commission (1967-1969), member of the Governing Board (1969-1971) and editor-in-chief of the magazine Quaderns (1969-1972). He earned his PhD in 1972. From 1973 to 1975 he developed, planned and built the cooperative neighbourhood of Les Arcades in collaboration with the Montblanc City Council – his first project on an urban scale.

In 1976, he led a professional team that completed the designs – awarded via competition – for six colonial towns in Algeria. From 1976 to 1980, after 14 years without a passport, he was able to make a series of trips through southern and central Europe, which allowed him to reconnect with classical and contemporary architecture. He left politics behind for good and rediscovered painting and drawing, which he had neglected since 1961. He struck up a friendship with the 2C group, with ties to La Tendenza.

In 1978, he began a close friendship with José Antonio Coderch, until the latter’s death in 1984. In 1988, he developed and curated the tributes dedicated to Coderch in Catalonia.

From 1964 to 1974, his main collaborator was Uwe Geest and, from 1981 until the end of his professional career, his partner and collaborator was the architect Miguel Jiménez Eroles.

Beginning in 1986, he was a professor of Architectural Design at the UPC, where he spearheaded the course dedicated to the Final Degree Project. From 1994 to 1997 he was president of the juries for evaluating Final Degree Projects.

Starting in 1986, and after winning an international competition organized by the city of Nimes, he rekindled his relationship with French architecture. He was invited to participate in various competitions in France: Nîmes-86 and 92, Melun-Senart-87, Toulon-89, Nantes-89, M.I.Q.C.P. Paris-90, Toulouse-91, Marseille-96 and Perpignan-98.

Beginning in 1993, he was invited to the International Architecture Biennials in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile and exhibited his work in various capital cities in Latin American as well as in Los Angeles, as a guest of the International Committee of Architecture Critics. In 1994, the Barcelona School of Architecture and the Architects’ Association organized an exhibition and catalogue of his architectural drawings from the period 1976-1993: Autografías Emili Donato.

Throughout his career he has given numerous lectures on Catalan and Spanish architecture and presented his work in major cities in Europe and Latin America. A monographic exhibition of his work won the First International Prize at the VI Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennial (October 1995). The exhibition travelled to Madrid, Toulouse and Bilbao.

Several anthological exhibitions of his architecture and urban planning work have been held (La Salle School of Architecture Barcelona-2004 and Barcelona School of Architecture UPC-2023).

In his later years, he has combined his professional practice with the production of private pictorial work, which is ongoing.

Donato has tended to remain on the margins of the ordinary professional circles. And so has his work.

Biography by Jacqueline Pacheco Rodríguez

Bibliography

• Emili Donato: fotografies de paisatge i ciutat [fotografías: Emili Donato, comisario de la exposición: Miquel Pérez], H. Associació per a les Arts Contemporànies, Eumo, Vic, 2008.
• PARICIO, Ignacio, “Los pequeños de los grandes: arquitectos reconocidos”, in Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme 256, 2007.
• ROVIRA, Josep M., “Emili Donato a l’escola d’arquitectura de La Salle: tot comença en el territori mental de la memòria … i de la imaginació”, in Informació i Debat, December 2004, pp. 42-45.
• “Nova col.lecció de dibuixos pel Museu d’arquitectura”, in Informació i Debat, March 2002, pp. 34-35.
• Emili Donato: dibujos de arquitectura = dessins d’architecture / [texts: Stéphane Gruet, Carles Martí Arís, Armando Oyarzun], Serbal/Poïesis, Barcelona/Toulouse, 2001.
• Emili Donato [exhibition design and installation: Armando Oyarzun Kong], Bienal de Arquitectura de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 1995.
• “Emili Donato: cuando el racionalismo se hace materia / Jorge Iribarne”, in Sca: Revista de Arquitectura 178, November-December 1995, pp. 54-69.
• “Creació i tècnica = Creation and technique / con Jaume Avellaneda, Robert Brufau, Marcià Codinachs, Emili Donato, Manuel Gausa, Josep M. Gil, Josep Llinàs, Enric Miralles; moderadors Xavier Ballarín, Xavier Llobet”, in Quaderns d’arquitectura i Urbanisme 207-208-209, 1995, pp. 330-341.
• Emili Donato: exposición de dibujos de arquitectura [comisarios exposición: Willy Müller, Armando Oyarzun Kong], ETSAB, Barcelona, 1994.
• “Quaderns al llarg de la seva història. Etapes i evolució = Quaderns throughout its history. Periods and evolution”, in Quaderns d’arquitectura i Urbanisme 205-206, 1994, pp. 25-183.
• “Emilio Donato: o sentido da permanência”, in Au: Arquitetura Urbanismo 45, Año 8, December 1992-January 1993, pp. 54-70.
• “Emilio Donato: entre rationalisme et plasticisme”, in Techniques et Architecture 356, October-November 1984, pp. 98-113.
• “Textos breus de L. Peña Ganchegui, O Bohigas, J. Martorell, D. Mackay, E. Donato”, in Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme 156, January-March 1983, pp. 18-19.
• DONATO, Emili, “La Barcellona di Solans: la politica degli interventi del comune di Barcellona = Solans’s Barcelona: policy of the municipality of Barcelona”, in Lotus 23, 1979.
• DONATO, Emili, LORENZO, Pedro, SABARTÉS, Xavier, SOLANAS, Antoni, VALLS, Xavier, “Los arquitectos catalanes y el Congreso de Cultura Catalana”, in Jano 50, September 1977, pp. 18-23.
• DONATO, Emili, “Ha estat constituida la Cooperativa la Ciutat de Repòs i de Vacances”, in Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 94, January-February 1973, pp. 7-20.
• DONATO, Emili, FREIXA, Jaume, “Sert: obras y proyectos 1929-1973”, in Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 93, November-December 1972, pp. 2-46.
• DONATO, Emili, “El GATEPAC entre el olvido y la desmitificación”, in Ciudad y Territorio 1, January-March 1971, pp. 45-59.
• DONATO, Emili, SUÑOL, Arnald, “Posiciones del diseñador respecto a la producción industrial”, in Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 82, May-June 1971, pp. 55-57.
• DONATO, Emili, “Arquitectura eivissenca”, in Serra d’or 100, 15/01/1968, pp. 23-27.

Audiovisual materials

• A. Coderch i de Sentmenat [Direction, script writing and recording: Emili Donato with the collaboration of Núria Cusell; production: Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, Demarcació de Barcelona; execution: VCB Video; coordinator: Pedro Puertas], Centre de Documentació d’Imatges de l’Àrea de Cultura, Formació i Publicacions del Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2005.
• A. Coderch i de Sentmenat [grabación de video: 25.XI.1913-6.XI.88, script and direction: Emili Donato with the collaboration of Núria Cusell; execution: VCB Video; production: Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya. Demarcació de Barcelona], COAC, Barcelona, 1988.
• Emili Donato , TVE, Barcelona, 1984.