Miguel Milá

Miguel Milà will receive the Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona

Miquel Milà Sagnier, an industrial designer closely linked to Eina since its beginnings, will be awarded the Barcelona Gold Medal in recognition of a professional career that has contributed to the international projection of the city and the country.

The designer and former Eina professor has played a fundamental role in the contemporary history of Catalan and Spanish design, also as a member of a generation of design pioneers that began in the 1950s.

In 1987, Miquel Milá was named a Friend of Eina for his involvement in the early days of the school. Since then, he has been awarded the ADI-FAD Gold Delta Award six times, the first time in 1961 for the TMC light. Other recognitions include the National Design Award (1987), the Creu de San Jorge (1993), the CONCA National Culture Award (2010), and now the Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona (2024).

From the creation of his company, Tramo, from which he began to design his own furniture and lamps, Miguel Milá went on to achieve great international repercussions, for example with the TMC and TMM lights, which have become design icons, or the Cesta lamp, the A14 fireplace or the metal spiral staircase. In the 1960s, he participated in the creation of the Asociación de Diseño Industrial del Fomento de las Artes y del Diseño (ADI-FAD), in collaboration with André Ricard, Antonio de Moragas, Oriol Bohigas, Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, Manel Cases and Rafael Marquina, among others.

Later, during post-modernism, he focused on interior design, on projects for private homes, on exhibition works and on the design of urban furniture. From this period are the Neoromantic bench (1995), the Estadi light and the Tram bench for the 1992 Olympics and the design of the interior of metro carriages. His legacy in the city can also be found in the gardens of the Rambla de Sants or in the incorporation of street furniture in the city's green axes, elements that favour social interaction.

Cover image: Isist Atelier