Les Espaces d'Abraxas: Le Palacio, Le Théâtre, L'Arc, Marne-la-Vallée, France, Le Theatre and L'Arc: facade detail

Ricardo Bofill

1979

An ink and colored-pencil drawing on tracing paper by Ricardo Bofill that sketches a façade elevation for Les Espaces d'Abraxas, proposing a theatrical, classically inflected housing-and-theatre block where modern structural logic meets monumental ornament.

Layered tracing lines and colored washes make a stage-like façade: repeated vertical windows and cornices, a bold pink pilaster, and cypress-like plant silhouettes on the roof combine precision with theatrical flourish.

As a working drawing for Les Espaces d'Abraxas (1979), it crystallizes Bofill’s postmodern move to resurrect classical gestures and monumentality in housing, treating collective dwellings as image-driven, civic theatre.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Elevation drawing Architecture Postmodernism Classicism Ink Colored pencil

Exhibitions

Transformations in Modern Architecture

1979

Ricardo Bofill and Leon Krier: Architecture, Urbanism, and History

1985

The Architecture of Luis Barragán

1976

Arp on Paper

1977