About
In this first stage, the catalogue focuses on the modern and contemporary architecture designed and built between 1832 –year of construction of the first industrial chimney in Barcelona that we establish as the beginning of modernity– until today.
The project is born to make the architecture more accessible both to professionals and to the citizens through a website that is going to be updated and extended. Contemporary works of greater general interest will be incorporated, always with a necessary historical perspective, while gradually adding works from our past, with the ambitious objective of understanding a greater documented period.
The collection feeds from multiple sources, mainly from the generosity of architectural and photographic studios, as well as the large amount of excellent historical and reference editorial projects, such as architectural guides, magazines, monographs and other publications. It also takes into consideration all the reference sources from the various branches and associated entities with the COAC and other collaborating entities related to the architectural and design fields, in its maximum spectrum.
Special mention should be made of the incorporation of vast documentation from the COAC Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.
The rigour and criteria for selection of the works has been stablished by a Documental Commission, formed by the COAC’s Culture Spokesperson, the director of the COAC Historical Archive, the directors of the COAC Digital Archive, and professionals and other external experts from all the territorial sections that look after to offer a transversal view of the current and past architectural landscape around the territory.
The determination of this project is to become the largest digital collection about Catalan architecture; a key tool of exemplar information and documentation about architecture, which turns into a local and international referent, for the way to explain and show the architectural heritage of a territory.
About us
Project by: 
Created by: 
Directors:
2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2024 Ramon Faura Carolina B. Garcia Eduard Callís Francesc Rafat Pau Albert Antoni López Daufí Joan Falgueras Mercè Bosch Jaume Farreny Anton Pàmies Juan Manuel Zaguirre Josep Ferrando Fernando Marzá Moisés Puente Aureli Mora Omar OrnaqueCollaborators:
2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse ViuExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 Helena Cepeda Inès MartinelWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació Mies van der Rohe
Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Basílica de la Sagrada Família
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
Fomento
AMB
EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona
IEFC
Fundació Domènench Montaner.
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We kindly invite you to help us improve the dissemination of Catalan architecture through this space. Here you can propose works and provide or amend information on authors, photographers and their work, along with adding comments. The Documentary Commission will analyze all data. Please do only fill in the fields you deem necessary to add or amend the information.
The Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya is one of the most important documentation centers in Europe, which houses the professional collections of more than 180 architects whose work is fundamental to understanding the history of Catalan architecture. By filling this form, you can request digital copies of the documents for which the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya manages the exploitation of the author's rights, as well as those in the public domain. Once the application has been made, the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya will send you an approximate budget, which varies in terms of each use and purpose.
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Works (28)
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Chronology (35)
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Puig House
Gabriel Mora i Gramunt, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The house satisfies the specific program for a mother and her child, reproducing the dictated layout of each room and the definition of its particular use. The integration of all the spaces takes place through a staircase of continuous sections located on the longitudinal axis, which gives access to small areas separated by unevenness. A second hierarchy of stairs favours specific routes for each inhabitant. The roofs faithfully follow the slopes of the internal upward movement, and the walls of the façade extend to the limits of the plot, closing the plot and leaving only a gap for the entrance on foot. -
Jiménez de Parga House
Gabriel Mora i Gramunt, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The house is located in a large estate, on the border between the municipalities of La Garriga and L'Ametlla del Vallès. The project responds to the isotropic and indifferent character of the site by means of an extensive implantation guided by a random geometry that defines each of the areas. The living room and the dining room, on the ground floor, and the master bedroom, on the upper floor, determine a clear façade plan facing the pool. The children's and guest bedrooms form a well-separated body at the rear. The open spaces penetrate to the heart of the house, where the staircase that connects both floors is located. -
Can Bruixa Apartment Building
Gabriel Mora i Gramunt, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The building responds to the need of including six homes per floor on a plot located in a corner and facing north, with little contact with the block of houses’ courtyard. The solution proposes the arrangement of five houses in a row, leaving the remaining space for the sixth house, which adopts an atypical configuration. In this way, all the houses have a minimum surface area guaranteed on the façade. The inner courtyards follow the guidelines of the fan, as well as the load-bearing structure, based on pillars of rectangular section that enclose the smaller corridors. On the first floor, each pair of pillars is joined together to form one, more suitable for office use. The entire rear partition is cleared for access stairs, and the hallways receive light from the courtyards. The façade forms a double skin that filters the contact with the street and allows a composition of the openings, regardless of the interior requirements. -
FAD Award
Shortlisted. Category: ArchitectureCan Bruixa Apartment BuildingFAD Award
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: ArchitecturePaïsos Catalans SquareEl Besòs Park
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
We planned a site and not a park. From the project we only kept the will to build it. We had to invent the place and, on this occasion, its creator. For a few moments, we were giants capable of isolating the terrain with one hand to be able to draw with the index finger of the other the corridors where to place the vegetation that would give meaning to the site. We wanted to protect it from the north and open it towards the sea. The spaces that were left between these wide plant walkways were organised according to the vocation available to chance: a whimsical fountain on a slightly damp glass, a corner with a romantic bench, prisms and concrete balls abandoned in an obscure order, linear galleries, a monumental gateway, a boulevard with an unusual layout, etc. Two Y-shaped walkways cross the site according to their own exclusive law.Extension and Interventions in the Cemetery of Sant Pere
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
In 1984, the architects Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón carried out the second extension of the Sant Pere Cemetery in Badalona. This is located on the east side, notably away from the other groups of niches in the cemetery and separated by a series of squares that take the new intervention towards the lower part of the small hill where the complex is located. What configures the main strategy of the project is its settlement on the existing terrain. A route is drawn which, due to the presence of successive slopes and the zigzag shape of the path, is unpredictable. This unpredictability is achieved through the natural shape of the terrain tamed by retaining walls that further accentuate this visual play that provides a more intimate route and leaves the space of the niches, located at the end, more secluded. The route is understood as a transition from very open and sober spaces, such as the first concrete square, which passes into a second square, still open but more secluded by the topography and with a large mural on the paving, also in concrete, which according to the architects represents an image of love. This gesture gives access to the niche area, which is more dispersed and surrounded by vegetation. Unlike the niches in the other areas of the cemetery, which are arranged in rows, in this case they are grouped in isolated reinforced concrete blocks measuring about six by seven metres. This, together with their sloping position, makes each block an intimate and personal space.Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà Primary Healthcare Centre
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
El centre d’assistència primària es troba al límit del municipi de Sant Hipòlit, en un terreny situat entre les parts posteriors de les últimes cases i el camp obert. El projecte dóna resposta a la peculiaritat del lloc: renuncia a la lògica de la forma urbana i determina els seus trets formals bàsics a partir d’una lectura diagramàtica del programa. El centre de salut es configura com un edifici d’una sola planta de forma el·lipsoïdal, si bé el perímetre construeix l’el·lipse per mitjà d’una poligonal de segments de recta. Al nucli de l’el·lipse hi ha la sala d’espera, amb entrada des de tots dos extrems i accés directe a les sales de consulta, que formen una anella perimetral. L’estructura, de pilars i jàsseres de formigó, segueix fidelment aquesta disposició radial, fins i tot en l’orientació dels pilars. L’ordre de les obertures emfasitza aquesta indiferència, ja que arrenquen del terra mateix i la seva composició ve dictada pels para-sols.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Architecture - Urban SpacesJosep Barangué SquarePremi Ciutat de Barcelona
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Architecture and UrbanismArts Santa Mònica Cultural Centre133 Dwellings in the Vila Olímpica
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Ricard Mercadé i Rogel, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The dwellings take up one of the Eixample’s irregular squares, which is cut short by the diagonality of Bogatell Avenue. The main building maintains the continuity of the façade of Arquitecte Sert Street and Icària Avenue and builds the corner as a screen that conceals the separation between two independent buildings. Two smaller bodies, with the same type of housing, restore the diagonal layout of Bogatell Avenue. The block that faces Icària Avenue deviates from the street to maintain strict orthogonality, while a stepped series of terraces restores the layout of the avenue. The arrangement of the blocks, as well as the treatment of the façades, reveal the irregular shape of the block of houses by means of an adaptation device that seeks autonomy in the arrangement of the houses. The openings in the street reveal this rift between the dwellings and the arrangement of the streets.Montserrat Roig Public Library
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Ricard Mercadé i Rogel, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The library is located in a sloping park, next to the railway, and its layout is based on a reading of the altimetry of the site that does not interfere with the continuity of the park. The building is accessed from the highest level of the park, through a porch formed by the two upper floors. Above the porch, a 45-degree cut opens the two floors to the north through a large window, at the same time expanding and articulating the extension of the park. On the side street, both floors begin the formation of a longitudinal vault, independent of the structural supports, which generates a porch with its concavity. On the opposite side, the reading rooms open onto the park through glass enclosures. In this way, the building adopts an orientation in relation to the point that generated it. The archive is buried under the entrance to the library, always referred to the highest level of the park.Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB)
Viaplana / Piñón Arquitectes, Ricard Mercadé i Rogel, Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
The project responds to the need to convert the old Charity House into a metropolitan cultural facility, respecting the old building and incorporating a program consisting of a new lobby, two exhibition halls and a system of ramps that connected all the floors. Viaplana chooses to build a new body on the free side of the building and turn the basement of the Women’s Patio into the new lobby. The access takes place down a ramp from the same courtyard, and from the lobby you reach the ramps that slide along the façade of the new building. This is an intervention that gives a new functionality and a new character to the courtyard, closed on one side by a large glass partition. At the point where the partition extends beyond the existing building, it folds over the courtyard, suggesting a covering gesture, while, through reflection, it provides a suggestion of the urban landscape that extends outside the courtyard.FAD Award
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis ExistentsCentre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB)FAD Award
Finalist. Category: ArchitectureMontserrat Roig Public LibraryFAD Award
Finalist. Category: Outdoor SpacesMoll d'Espanya Quay, L'Istme Park and Rambla de MarTecla Sala Central Library
Heliodoro Piñón Pallarés, Albert Viaplana i Veà
Industrial complex made up of several buildings from different periods. The oldest one is the paper mill, but it has undergone many modifications. It consists of two floors and the north and south façades have been covered by other constructions. Inside, the staircase that leads from the ground floor to the upper floor is made of stone and the steps have the right half at a different height from the left, alternating one step with the other. The upper floor is a large room with a ceiling of beams and wooden crossbars and iron columns; large windows provide the room with light. There is a residential building attached to the mill. The main building consists of three large naves of great length, and the central one wider and higher than the lateral ones. The roof is double-sided, with the ridge parallel to the main façade, and the iron truss structure. The façade is of exposed brick and is divided into three floors. There is a large number of windows arranged regularly; those on the ground floor and first floor are very elongated and those in the attic square, but all are low arched with a brick moulding at the top. Separating the different levels there is a fine molding decorated with a serration. There are two forward bodies, one on the right with a flat roof and the other, in a more central position, with a double-sided roof. In this last body, the windows break the horizontal composition and are arranged diagonally following the staircase inside. The interior has cast iron columns and the ceiling is Catalan vaulted with iron braces. A metal bridge connects the mill building with the main one. The chimney, located next to the steam engine room, is also preserved. There is an isolated building, in the modernist style, which was probably built when Tecla Sala acquired the factory and, perhaps, was his residence. On the main façade there are two bodies and one of them is higher and more advanced than the other. The lintel and jambs of the openings are framed by floral reliefs, as is the case under the sill. The crowning, which is stepped, is decorated with a woman's head with her hair wrapped in flowers. Under the cornice, between the corbels that have a stepped shape, there is a strip decorated with sgraffitos and there are also the vents covered with openwork reliefs. The glasses on the top are acid etched. In 1821, the use of L'Hospitalet's canals and streams as an energy source began. The first was the Canal de la Infanta flour mill, which was fully operational in 1824, and in 1856 Antoni Ferrer's paper mill was installed in Torrent Gornal. In 1872, the Basté family acquired this mill and the adjacent plot to build a factory dedicated to yarn and fabrics. When the spinning mill was built and started working in 1899, the old paper building was respected. In 1913, Mrs. Tecla Sala bought the factory. In 1937, with the agricultural and industrial collectivisations, it worked as a Maternity Home until it was returned to its owners in 1939. In 1982, the City Council bought the building and rehabilitated it as a cultural centre.Bibliography (73)
Routes & Notes (4)
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