Josep Lluís Sert
Sert i López (1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Catalan architect and city planner who lived and worked in the United States after 1939.
Also recorded as Josep Lluís Sert i López · José Luis Sert i López · José Lluís Sert i López · Josep Lluis Sert
Josep Lluís Sert

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- Name
- Josep Lluís Sert
- Birth Name
- Josep Lluís Sert i López
- Born
- 1 July 1902
- Birthplace
- Barcelona, Spain
- Died
- 15 March 1983 (aged 80)
- Occupation
- Architect
- Nationality
- Spain
- Fields
- spatial planning
- Education
- Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona
- Known for
- Fundació Joan Miró · Fondation Maeght · Pavelló de la República Española
- Honours
- Twenty-five Year Award · AIA Gold Medal · Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia · honorary doctor of the University Polytechnic of Catalonia · Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts · Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit
- Languages
- Spanish · Catalan
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Documentary summary
Sert i López (1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Catalan architect and city planner who lived and worked in the United States after 1939.
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Authority files
gnd · 109118075X · wikidata · Q467712 · wikipedia · Josep Lluís Sert
In this article
Biography
Biography
Josep Lluís Sert studied at Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona. The recorded working language is Spanish and Catalan. The field of work recorded is spatial planning. Employment is recorded with Yale University and Harvard University. Works named in the authority record are Fundació Joan Miró, Fondation Maeght and Pavelló de la República Española. Work by Josep Lluís Sert is recorded in the collections of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Vanderbilt Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Twenty-five Year Award, AIA Gold Medal, Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia and honorary doctor of the University Polytechnic of Catalonia.

Barcelona - Montjuïc - Avinguda de Miramar - View NW on Fundació Joan Miró 1975 by Josep Lluís Sert
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Barcelona - Montjuïc - Passeig de Santa Madrona - View North on Fundació Joan Miró 1975 by Josep Lluís Sert
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Josep Lluís Sert • Birth Name — Josep Lluís Sert i López • Born — 1 July 1902 • Birthplace — Barcelona, Spain • Died — 15 March 1983 (aged 80) • Place of death — Barcelona, Spain • Occupation — Architect • Illustration — Boston University Library and Law Tower, Boston, Massachusetts Josep Lluís Sert i López (1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Catalan architect and city planner who lived and worked in the United States after 1939.
Biography
Biography
Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Antoni Gaudí. He studied architecture at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and set up his own studio in 1929. That same year Sert moved to Paris, in response to an invitation from Le Corbusier to work for him (without payment). Returning to Barcelona in 1930, he continued his practice there until 1937. During the 1930s, Sert co-founded the group GATCPAC (Grup d'Artistes i Tècnics Catalans per al Progrés de l'Arquitectura Contemporània, i.e. Group of Catalan Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture), which later was the prominent association, with the addition of the western and north groups, of the GATEPAC (Grupo de Artistas y Técnicos Españoles para el Progreso de l'Arquitectura Contemporánea), which was in turn the Spanish branch of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). Sometime later, Sert became President of CIAM (1947–1956). He created several outstanding pieces of modern architecture during this period, such as the week-end house in El Garraf, Catalonia (1935), the Central Dispensary of Barcelona (1935) and the Master Plan for the City of Barcelona (1933–1935). From 1937 through 1939, Sert lived in Paris, where he designed the Spanish Republic's pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1937. For the artistic content of the building, Sert called on his artist friends Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Alexander Calder. Picasso's contribution was Guernica, which became the focal attraction of Sert's design.
Career in the United States
Career in the United States
• Illustration — Rear view of the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Harvard Divinity School After the fascist forces of Francisco Franco won the Spanish Civil War in 1939, Sert, like most members of GATCPAC, was disqualified from practicing as an architect in Spain, and went into exile in the United States, where he lived until Franco's death, when he returned to Barcelona. In his first years in New York City he worked with the Town Planning Associates, carrying out numerous urban plans for cities in South America. • Illustration — Pavilion of the Spanish Republic in París (1937). Reproduction of 1992 in Barcelona • Illustration — Joan Miró's Studio Sert in Palma de Mallorca • Illustration — Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona with sculptural roof forms designed to bring natural light into the galleries In 1952, Sert held a one-year Visiting Professorship at Yale University. The following year he became Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1953–1969). There, Sert initiated the world's first degree program in urban design; integrated the programs of architecture, planning, landscape and urban design, and taught many of today's leading architects. During this period, he served on the advisory board of the newly created Graham Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. In 1955, Sert founded a studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts which in 1958 became a partnership with Huson Jackson and Ronald Gourley. Joseph Zalewski was the Associate and continued to be in the firm Sert, Jackson and Associates founded in 1963. The studio designed many well-known projects including the Maeght Foundation (1959–1964) in southern France, the Fundació Miró (museum) in Barcelona (1975) and quite a few buildings for Harvard University, including Holyoke Center (1958–1965), the Harvard Science Center (1969–1972), Peabody Terrace (apartments, 1962–1964), and the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Harvard Divinity School. Among other notable buildings in the vicinity are a complex at Boston University including its law school, student union, and main library (1960–1965), Sert's home in Cambridge, as well as the Martin Luther King elementary school (1968–1971), located across from Peabody Terrace. In New York, he completed the Eastwood and Westview apartments on Roosevelt Island, NYC (1976). In 1961, Sert brought Le Corbusier to the United States to design the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard, and a gallery in the Carpenter Center is now named in Sert's honor. In 1981, he received the AIA Gold Medal.
The art world
The art world
Josep Lluis Sert counted amongst his close friends the likes of Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Georges Braque, and Marc Chagall, for whom he designed studios and homes. He brought art into the Harvard curriculum through his commissioning of the Carpenter Center and his subsequent avid support for it. His design for the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona and the Museum School were more than an architect-client relationship, they were partnerships in the discovery of modern art. Among Sert's students and colleagues in his studio were leading and past master architects from the United States, Spain, France, Bolivia and Brazil, Venezuela, as well as Dolf Schnebli of Switzerland, Fumihiko Maki of Japan, and Christopher Charles Benninger of India.
Major buildings and projects
Major buildings and projects
• 1930–1931: Apartment Building at 342 Muntaner Street, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1933–1934: Joieria J. Roca (currently, Boutique Rolex) at 18, Passeig de Gràcia, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1934: Ciutat de Repòs i de Vacances, project, along the Garraf coast south of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1933–1935: Dispensari Antituberculós, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1932–1936: Casa Bloc, apartment building, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1937: Pavilion of the Spanish Republic, Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, Paris Rebuilt in 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain • 1955: Joan Miró studio (Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró), Palma, Majorca, Spain • 1955-1958: Havana Plan Piloto, Havana Cuba. • 1955–1961: Embassy of the United States, Baghdad, Iraq (abandoned 1990) • 1957: Sert's home at 64 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1958–1960: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1958–1965: Holyoke Center (Now) Smith Campus Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1965: Peabody Terrace, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1959–1964: Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul de Vence, France • 1964: The Can Pep Simó Estate in Jesús, Ibiza. • 1969: Hotel at Cala d'en Serra, Ibiza, Spain (abandoned) • 1969: Eastwood and Westview apartment complexes, Roosevelt Island, New York • 1971: Carmel de la Paix in Mazille (Saône-et-Loire), France • 1973: Harvard Science Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1975: Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Career and activity
Career and activity
Josep Lluís Sert worked in spatial planning. He was employed by Yale University and Harvard University. He belonged to Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Royal Academy of Arts, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and GATCPAC.
Identity
Identity
Josep Lluís Sert is established in Bibliothèque nationale de France under 14602503n. Recorded as architect, urban planner and university teacher. Established in Library of Congress under n79056383. Established in RKDartists under 258508. Established in FAST under 35864.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1902–1983
The full dated record · 14 entries
1902
Josep Lluís Sert was born on 1 July 1902.
1929
Casa Genara López is dated 1929.
1930
Dispensari Antituberculós is dated 1930.
1933
Joieria J. Roca is dated 1933.
1935
Antiga Escola Montserrat is dated 1935.
1937
Pabellón de la República Española is dated 1937.
1964
Fondation Maeght is dated 1964.
1966
Smith Campus Center is dated 1966.
1967
Les Escales Park is dated 1967.
1970
Obra de Josep Lluís Sert a can Pep Simó is dated 1970.
1981
Josep Lluís Sert received honorary doctor of the University Polytechnic of Catalonia in 1981.
1982
Josep Lluís Sert received Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1982.
1983
Josep Lluís Sert died on 15 March 1983.
1983
Josep Lluís Sert received Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit in 1983.
Reception
How Josep Lluís Sert was received and recognised. Recorded as having received Twenty-five Year Award, AIA Gold Medal and Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Sert received honorary doctor of the University Polytechnic of Catalonia in 1981. Sert received Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit in 1983. Sert received Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1982.
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Josep Lluís Sert received Twenty-five Year Award, AIA Gold Medal, Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, honorary doctor of the University Polytechnic of Catalonia, Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit.
Context
Primary material
Context
The circumstances in which Josep Lluís Sert stands.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 109118075X, Josep Lluís Sert (1979 : Barcelona).
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q467712: Josep Lluís Sert
General reference · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Josep Lluís Sert”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 109118075X, Josep Lluís Sert (1979 : Barcelona).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q467712: Josep Lluís SertWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
The authorities additionally record the headings Josep Lluís Sert i López, José Luis Sert i López, José Lluís Sert i López, Josep Lluis Sert and José Luis Sert. His recorded languages were Spanish and Catalan. Work and production. Works recorded as notable number 3: Fundació Joan Miró, Fondation Maeght and Pavelló de la República Española.
Identity and origins
Josep Lluís Sert was born on 1 July 1902.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Design
11,558 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Josefa Saisó SempereDesigner
- Josep AcebilloDesigner
- Josep Domènech i EstapàDesigner
- Josep Lluis MateoDesigner
- Josep Maria JujolDesigner
- Josep Massanès i MestresDesigner
- Josep Plantada i ArtigasDesigner
- Josep Vilaseca i CasanovasDesigner
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