Miguel Mil\u00e1, an interior designer, inventor and bricoleur, and a pioneer in his field in Spain, began working in the 1950s. With objects, resources and raw materials hard to come by at that time, Mil\u00e1 started designing his own furniture and lamps and soon set up his own company, Tramo (from the Spanish Tra-bajos Mo-lestos, \u2018Annoying Jobs\u2019). Many of his pieces have become true contemporary classics. In 2016, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture in Spain awarded him the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. He has won numerous ADI awards (Barcelona), the first Spanish National Design Award (tied with Andr\u00e9 Ricard), and the ADI Compasso d\u2019Oro for Lifetime Achievements. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona in \r\nrecognition of his career and his unparalleled contribution to the world\r\n of design.<\/p>","texto_biografico":"
Born in Barcelona into an aristocratic family linked to the artistic world (his uncle Pedro Mil\u00e1 Camps commissioned Gaud\u00ed to build the famous Casa Mil\u00e1, known as La Pedrera), Miguel Mil\u00e1 began working as an interior designer in the family studio shared by his brother\u00a0Alfonso Mil\u00e1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Federico Correa<\/a>. It was the 1950s, a time of autocracy and constant crisis, when hardly anyone knew what industrial design was.<\/p>\r\n Miguel\u2019s youthful curiosity introduced him to the world of material experimentation, leaving aside his architectural studies in favor of more useful craftsmanship. Three years later, together with his two architect friends, Francisco Ribas Barang\u00e9 and Eduardo P\u00e9rez Ulibarri, he founded Trabajos Molestos, or Tramo, a company focused on the design and production of interior furniture. This led to the first versions of the\u00a0TMC lamp<\/a>\u00a0(1958) and the\u00a0TMM lamp<\/a>(1961), two timeless classics that continue to captivate current generations. At the beginning of the 21st century, Miguel founded his own interior design studio, safeguarding his processes and perfecting his technique:\u00a0\"I'm actually a pre-industrial designer. I feel more comfortable with those technical procedures that allow me to correct mistakes, experiment during the process and control it as much as possible. Hence my preference for noble materials, which know how to age well.\"<\/em><\/p>\r\n Beyond the workshop, Miguel Mil\u00e1 participated in meetings with architects and designers where he discussed the aesthetics and architectural modernity of Barcelona. As a result of these discussions, the first industrial design association in Spain, the ADI-FAD, was founded together with\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Ricard<\/a>,\u00a0Antoni de Moragas<\/a>, Oriol Bohigas and Rafael Marquina, among others. Since its creation, the association has been dedicated to promoting Spanish design abroad, and Miguel Mil\u00e1 was its president between 1974 and 1984.<\/p>\r\n Miguel Mil\u00e1 defines his style of creation as a process of craftsmanship, based on\u00a0\"having an idea and paring off what is superfluous\".\u00a0<\/em>This is what happened with the\u00a0Cesta table lamp<\/a> (1964) and his subsequent family of table lamps, such as\u00a0Cestita<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alubat<\/a>, as well as various pendant lamps such as\u00a0Globo Cesta<\/a>. \"A lamp spends more time off than on, so you have to take great care to ensure that its shape contributes to the space in the most exciting way possible,\"\u00a0<\/em>says Miguel Mil\u00e1. The Barcelona native was also a teacher for 14 years, working at the city s prestigious ELISAVA and EINA design schools.<\/p>\r\n