Pere Cortacans was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1967. He studied Architecture from 1985 to 1992 at the E.T.S.A.Barcelona. From 1988 to 1992 he worked at JOSEP LLINAS studio. In 1993 he took a Master course in Industrial Design at Domus Academy Milan (Italy), and in the following year he worked for Ettore Sottsass and Sottsass Associati. In his quest to better understand the entrails of highly prestigious restaurants, in 2014 he obtained the title of Sommelier and the following year, became Sake Sommelier by WSET London. He is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English, Italian, and French, and has some basic notions of Turkish, as well as a basic Japanese vocabulary. His professional and life motto is “Problems do not have to be resolved, they have to be dissolved”. He describes himself as a designer of emotive spaces.
In 1995 he returned to Barcelona and partnered with his father to found CORTACANSarquitectos. In the following years they designed approximately 30 new residential buildings (totaling around 600 apartments), 4 hotels of different categories, and refurbished a dozen buildings. The company was dissolved in 2005, on the occasion of his father's retirement. In 2008 he designed the Japanese restaurant Koy Shunka for Barcelona-based Japanese chef Hideki Matsuhisa. From 2013 to 2015 he designed four more restaurants for the same chef: Kak Koy, Majide, the renovated Shunka and co-designed Koy Hermitage at the 5-star Grand Luxury Hotel Hermitage in Soldeu (Andorra). He was also involved in the design of its corporate identity, graphics and websites. Between 2010 and 2012, he designed the second generation of Happy Pills candy stores. The assignment included Space Branding, the development of the new “Happy Headquarters” and “Happy Lab” sub-spaces, as well as new concepts of wall-free stores for shopping centers and airports. Between 2015 and 2024, he designed the restaurants Can Bosch in Cambrils (Tarragona), Lluerna and Verat, Granja Elena, Soluna, Artesana del Poblenou and Artesana de Santa Eulàlia, all of them in Barcelona. In 2024 he remodeled the first restaurant he had designed: Koy Shunka. Between 2025 and 2026 he remodeled the restaurants Casa de Comidas 5 Hermanos, Gastro-Garatxe and Imprevisto. In 2017 he designed two motorcycle dealerships for Motos Bordoy in Barcelona. The first (1,600 sqm) houses the flagship store-in-a-store for Indian Motorcycles, MV Agusta, Sym, Niu and Macbor. The second store (420 sqm) houses the Husqvarna flagship store. In 2021 he designed a third 480 sqm store for the same brands.
