French Architect Jean-Michel Ruols, Designer of Andorra's Caldea Resort, Dies at 80

Jean-Michel Ruols, the French architect behind Andorra's landmark Caldea thermal resort in Escaldes-Engordany, died on 17 February at the age of 80 following a prolonged illness.

Caldea has expressed deep sorrow over his passing and announced plans to honour him with a commemorative plaque at the complex's entrance. Staff there described learning of his death indirectly and hailed him as the true creative force behind its design.

Born in 1945 and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts with an office on a central Paris avenue, Ruols earned the nickname "architect of water" through his focus on aquatic leisure centres. He shunned digital design software like AutoCAD, preferring hand-drawn pencil sketches sent via fax—a process that frequently frustrated his Andorran team during Caldea's late-1980s construction. Collaborators reportedly pinned his faxes to walls, bracing for last-minute changes from Paris that upended prior efforts.

Commissioned around 1985 by Escaldes-Engordany's council under consul Jacint Casal—or tendered in 1987—the project sought to repurpose local hot springs for mass tourism, shifting from elite spas to accessible leisure. Ruols upended early plans for stone-and-wood Romanesque styling, opting instead for sharp glass facades, total transparency, and an 80-metre tower—once Andorra's tallest—that echoed nearby peaks and recalled medieval bell towers. The resort opened on 26 March 1994, reshaping the central valley skyline and igniting debate for defying local norms, akin to the Meritxell sanctuary or Encamp's 1991 glass-walled town hall by Roberto Suso.

Architect Enric Dilmé praised it as an immediate icon, conceived from the outset as a skyline dominant with rationalist influences of openness and light, outshining peers. Ruols later guided expansions, including the adults-only Inúu in 2012 or 2013 with softer contours, a 2015 overhaul, and the 2016 Likids children's area. The site has drawn over nine million visitors, anchoring thermal tourism.

Casal remembered Ruols as an enthusiastic yet demanding figure—part architect, part artist—full of empathy, who helped define modern Andorra amid early backlash. Reserved personally with an intense private life, he once contemplated relocating during Inúu but instead pursued projects in Luxembourg and Eastern Europe, such as eco-villages in Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova. His credits also include water features at France's Parc Astérix in Plailly, Oise, and a similar venue in Mumbai four years post-Caldea.

Funeral arrangements remain undisclosed.