Urban comfort

‘One day on the street, I saw an elderly man having problems getting up from a bench that was too low. I made a mental note and designed one so that senior citizens can stand up with dignity.’

The Neoromántico bench is an essential piece of Spanish urban furniture design that is found not only in the streets and squares of many cities in this country but also in urban spaces around Europe and North America that were redesigned based on this piece. Its success is not a coincidence but reflects Milá's attentive reflection ‘on the use, function, need and habits’ of people in their interactions with street furniture, and this furniture as a vehicle of communal life: ‘I believe strongly in benches as elements of communication. When you sit on a bench, you have to say “hello”.’ As is common in Milá's pieces, this is a later version of the Romántico bench that he had designed in the 1980s. In turn, the synthesis that came about with the first Neoromántico (1995) was subjected to subsequent streamlining in the Neoromántico Liviano, which replaced wood with aluminium to lower the weight and costs.

Beyond his prolific work designing urban furniture, the renovation of Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic (1980) is one of the public facilities he designed that has garnered the most praise. The redesign focused on basic actions aimed at functional improvements for both the medical staff and especially the patients. However, the redesign of the interior of the Barcelona Metro cars (1986) is Milá's project that has benefited society the most. Whoever remembers the cars from the 1970s and 1980s, with their dull, yellowish tones and the coldness of their design, knows that they felt a bit hostile. A very specific project focused on the colour white, better placement of the vertical poles, ‘seients de misericòrdia’ [mercy seats] —that allowed people standing to lean on backrests— and basic yet ergonomic seats made commutes much more comfortable and pleasant