Architect by profession, designer by adaptation, painter by vocation and writer out of the need to make friends, Oscar Tusquets Blanca is the prototype of the all-round artist that the specialization of the modern world has brought to the verge of extinction.

Born in Barcelona in 1941, he attended primary school at the Deutsche Schule and he graduated as an architect, in 1965, from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona. At the same time, he attended the School of Arts and Crafts (Llotja) where he won the First Prize for Statue Drawing in 1955 and for Life Drawing in 1959.

In 1960, he attended a summer course at the Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vanucci in Perugia. This experience reaffirmed his fascination with the Fine Arts and with Italy, a sentiment that would remain with him for the rest of his life.

He worked alongside Lluís Clotet in the studio of Federico Correa and Alfonso Milà from 1961 to 1964. This practice, along with Correa's teachings— which were not strictly architectural— would be fundamental in his education.

From 1960 onwards, he collaborated with his family to save the religious publishing house founded by his paternal uncle, Monsignor Joan Tusquets, which his father, Magín, had acquired. Lumen was reborn under the direction of his younger sister, Esther. Together, they commissioned books from important photographers and authors of the time, particularly those in the Palabra e Imagen collection, Leone d'Oro from the Festival di Venezia.

In 1964, he founded Studio Per together with Lluís Clotet, Pep Bonet, and Cristian Cirici. With Clotet, he carried out the vast majority of his projects until 1984, including the Belvedere Georgina, the conversion of an old damuso on the island of Pantelleria into Casa Victoria, and the first extension of the Palau de la Música. His collaboration with Clotet would remain very close for 20 years and would continue even after the dissolution of Studio Per in 1985.

During 1966/67 and 1976/78, he was a member of the Culture Department of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Barcelona.

In 1969, he founded Tusquets Editor with Beatriz de Moura, his first wife; a small and completely personal publishing house that, over the years and under the name of Tusquets Editores, would become one of the most important in the country. The opening party was held at the Price boxing club and marked the start of the so-called Gauche Divine, a term invented by Joan de Segarra in his social chronicle. It was the Barcelona of García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Ferrater, Barral, Maspons, Massats, Pomés, Bofill, Peretti…

In 1973 he began an intimate relationship with his collaborator Anna Bohigas, who became a true inspiration for his work -especially his paintings- until her tragic death in 1984 at the age of thirty-seven.

In 1975/76, he was an adjunct professor at the Cátedra de Proyectos de la ETSAB, and in 1979, he collaborated as a guest professor at the same Cátedra. In 1980, he was a visiting professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Since then, he has lectured or led workshops at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, and the University of Miami, as well as at European universities in Paris, London, Lausanne, Munich, Milan, Rome, Naples, and various Spanish cities.

In 1983 he was named Patrono Vitalicio at Fundación Gala Salvador Dalí at the explicit wish of the Master, with whom, in 1975, he had created the Sala Mae West at the Theatre-Museum of Figueres, some book editions and maintained a close friendship until his death. In 1987 he founded Oscar Tusquets Blanca Arquitecturas with Carlos Díaz, with who he carried out projects in France, Holland and Japan. Significant works include the extension and remodelling of the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Toledo station of the Metropolitana de Napoli.

In 1989 he married Victoria Roqué, a renowned chef at the Azulete restaurant. Together they designed many tableware items, especially for Driade. He has also participated as a curator and editor in several exhibitions, including Dalí, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2003, and Dalí, Il sogno si avvicina, at Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2010. He also redesigned the 17th to 20th century rooms of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Since 2008 he has worked with the sporadic collaboration of young architects trained in his studio and, for strictly architectural subjects, with TDA Arquitectura y Urbanismo.

In 2007 the COAC published a complete review of his architectural career in the Inventaris d’Arquitectura collection and in 2017 they organised the exhibition CLOTET_TUSQUETS (1960-1980), that showed the documents and objects that both architects donated to the Arxiu Històric del Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, focusing on the twenty years of close collaboration between them.

He was a founding member of Bd Barcelona Design, 1972, and he launched his career as a furniture and object designer with this group. Some of his pieces form part of the collections of important museums such as the Moma in New York or the George Pompidou in Paris.  In 2022, fifty years after its creation, BD partners passed the baton to young people responsible for Ricardo Bofill's workshop, the Apartamento Publishing House and Arquitectura G. At the express wish of the new partners, Tusquets remained associated with the company.

Although he took up painting again in 1972, it would take him many years to show and sell his works, but from 1998 onwards he was encouraged to exhibit in several national and foreign galleries. In 2022/2023 an anthological exhibition of 50 years of his painting was organized at the Espai Volart of the Vila-Casas Foundation, with more than 200 works, of which a complete catalogue was published.

In 2015 he published the book ANNA, a tribute to Anna Bohigas, and in 2015 the erotic Hot Days.

In 1994 he appeared on the writing scene with Más que discutible; later he published a dozen books with personal reflections, as well as texts for other publications and articles for the press.

The exhibition El laberinto: Arquitectura, Diseño y Arte, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, 2003, directed by Juli Capella, showed a selection of his diverse work. The exhibition travelled later to the Palau Reial in Barcelona and to the cities of Sofia and Budapest. The book ENCICLOPEDIA/ÁLBUM was published on the occasion of these exhibitions.

In 2001 he began a sentimental relationship with Eva Blanch, a writer, photographer and graphic designer with whom he would collaborate on many of his future projects and who would be responsible for print and digital communication. In 2004 his children Valeria and Luca were born.

In 1997 he created the OTB foundation to preserve his legacy. In 2023 his children became trustees.

Among other awards he has received the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes, the Premio Nacional de Diseño and the insignia of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In addition, he has twice won the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona, and several FAD de Arquitectura and Delta de Diseño.