Public Catalyst

This work -- which understands that the city, now and always, has had and must have public spaces of intensity -- proposes urban catalysts as agents that are capable of activating a place that was previously indifferent.

The comparative work of historical and recent cases, developed by research and drawings, has allowed us to discover that the vivid public spaces of identity and reference have been formed due to the urban effect caused by these agents that we call "catalysts." Manuel Bailo's work includes a wide range of projects, ranging from urban scale to interiorism. It has been widely published and presented with awards.

Co-published with University of Virginia: School of Architecture.
Manuel Bailo founded BAILORULL ADD] in Barcelona in 1995 with Rosa Rull. Their work includes a wide range of projects, moving from urban scale to interiorism. It has been fully published and awarded. Some examples are: GardenHouse 0.96; Hotel Ciutat d'Igualada, and Façade-Steps Landscape of Manresa Town Hall, shown at On Site: New Spanish Architecture, MoMA Museum of New York in 2006, and won in 2010 the prestigious international Contracworld Award. They have also received the First "Annual Commercial Space Award" in China 2011. And they have received the prestigious Spanish Award FAD twice.
"Based on its contents, and the fact it's really two books in one - Public Catalyst and Catalysts Drawn - Esteve's interest in the city is wide-ranging, focused broadly on life and what can be done to catalyze it. The first book within a book is more academic, delving, for instance, into Werner Hegemann, Camillo Sitte, Edmund Bacon, and others that came before the author. Here we see the big picture, while the second "book" takes aim at the details, doing so through twenty beautifully illustrated case studies. Most of the examples are real (e.g. a shade structure designed by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós), but the inclusion of a scene from Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle illustrates that inspiration can come from fiction as well as reality." --A Daily Dose of Architecture
"This book profiles the work of architect Manuel Bailo, founder of Bailo+Rull Architecture. His projects in Europe and America offer inspiration for the design and creation of urban public spaces, looking at the possibilities of spontaneous public spaces in addition to designed public space. The art program features color and b&w photos, drawings, illustrations, and images." --ProtoView