It’s 1972, and the dim lights of Barcelona’s legendary Boccaccio club are buzzing with laughter and clinking glasses. A gang of young architects—Pep Bonet, Cristian Cirici, Lluís Clotet, and Oscar Tusquets, fresh out of architecture school and full of big ideas—are deep into the night. They’re not just chatting about buildings; they’re dreaming up a whole new world of design. Why not rope in their artist and designer pals to create furniture and objects that scream personality? From that boozy brainstorm came Boccaccio Design, soon shortened to BD Barcelona—a brand that’s been shaking up the design scene ever since with its bold, playful spirit.
The founders weren’t starting from scratch in a vacuum. These guys, part of the architecture collective Studio Per (with interior designer Mireia Riera jumping on board early), were hooked on the Milan vibe. Tusquets, who’d spent time in Italy rubbing elbows with architects Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá, would sneak off to the Triennale exhibitions with Vittorio Gregotti and even philosopher Umberto Eco.
“We saw how Milanese architects were designing everything from lamps to loungers,” Tusquets recalls. “Spain had no one to make our stuff, so we said, screw it—let’s do it ourselves.” Their early pieces? “Humble but showy,” he laughs. “Totally crazy!”
What set BD apart was its knack for blending the wild with the wonderful. They kicked off with fresh talents like Ettore Sottsass and Gregotti—then up-and-comers whose Memphis-style flair would soon explode onto the global stage. But they didn’t stop at the new; they dove into history, reissuing surrealist gems from Antoni Gaudí and Salvador Dalí. Imagine Gaudí’s twisting, organic forms or Dalí’s melting clocks reborn as functional furniture—pure magic that turned everyday objects into art. Over the decades, the catalogue ballooned with icons: Álvaro Siza Vieira’s minimalist elegance, Alessandro Mendini’s colorful whimsy, and later, Konstantin Grcic’s sleek precision, Doshi Levien’s cultural fusions, and Jaime Hayon’s fantastical touches. They even revived Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s intricate patterns and crafted extruded aluminum seating that echoed airport benches but with a artistic twist. Functionality? Sure. But always laced with expression, humor, and a nod to the absurd.
Fast-forward to 2022, and BD’s story gets a fresh chapter. The original crew, now in their 80s, handed the reins to a new squad of friends: Nacho Alegre (co-founder of Apartamento magazine), Omar Sosa, Marco Velardi, architects Pablo Bofill (son of the late Ricardo Bofill) and Hernán Cortés from Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, and Igor Urdampilleta of Arquitectura G. These aren’t suits chasing profits—”We’re not bankers,” Bofill insists. It’s a love letter to the brand, born from personal ties. Bofill grew up in his dad’s converted cement factory, La Fábrica, surrounded by BD pieces: “It was the only furniture in our world—my design education from day one.” Urdampilleta, arriving in Barcelona in the 2000s, fell hard for BD’s output and befriended Tusquets, who shaped his own architectural eye.
This handover isn’t a corporate shuffle; it’s friends uniting to keep the flame alive. “It’s an excuse to hang out and build something fun at a stage when new friendships are rare,” Bofill says. Their debut? Milan Design Week this year, with a slick new identity from Apartamento Studios and a show of archival treasures in a set by Urdampilleta at Peres Projects gallery. The future’s buzzing with secrets—reissues of Tusquets’ hits in 2024, plus fresh blood like Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Max Lamb, Philippe Malouin, and Sam Chermayeff. “We’re chasing that 70s-80s golden era vibe,” Urdampilleta says, “not rebranding, but redefining with excellence
At its heart, BD Barcelona is about that spark—the late-night ideas, the respect between creator and maker, the joy in mixing eras and styles. As Alegre puts it: “Now it’s about finding our shared taste and having a blast.” In a world of bland minimalism, BD reminds us design should be legendary, a little crazy, and utterly alive.
Find out more about BD Barcelona here.
