Intro

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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.

Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque
Directors arquitecturacatalana.cat

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About us

Project by:

Created by:

Directors:

2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental 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 Ornaque

Collaborators:

2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse Viu

External Collaborators:

2019-2024 Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel

With the support of:

Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura

Collaborating Entities:

ArquinFAD

 

Fundació 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.

Design & Development:

edittio Nubilum
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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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Memory

Reus 21.07.1866 - Barcelona 08.02.1914. Va començar a cursar els estudis d’arquitectura l’any 1881-82 a la Escuela de Arquitectura i els va continuar amb certa irregularitat fins al gener de 1888 en què els va abandonar definitivament sense obtenir el títol d’arquitecte. En Francesc Berenguer tenia més aptituds per les assignatures de caràcter gràfic que per d’altres més tècniques o de càlcul. El fet d’haver abandonat la carrera sense rebre la suficient formació científica i indispensable per l’exercici de la professió, no li va suposar cap obstacle, ja que, sobre l’any 1887, va tenir l’oportunitat d’anar al taller d’en Antoni Gaudí i, per la via de la praxis, va adquirir aquells coneixements que no va aconseguir per la via acadèmica completant així la seva formació. Amb el temps va arribar a tenir una estreta relació d’amistat amb Gaudí, i va col·laborar intensament amb ell en l’obra de la Sagrada Família i de la Colònia Güell. Entre les seves obres destaquen el santuari de Sant Josep de la Muntanya a Barcelona, la casa Gaudí al Parc Güell, el Celler Güell a Garraf, la casa torre El Poal a Castelldefels, o l’església de Can Aguilera a Piera. D’altra banda, és habitual trobar projectes seus signats per Gaudí, Miquel Pascual, Audet, Balcells i Buigas entre d’altres més, donat que al no tenir el títol d’arquitecte no podia signar els projectes. Al llarg de la seva trajectòria professional es distingeixen dues facetes ben diferenciades: la vessant arquitectònica i la decorativista. Cal dir que, en aquesta última, va aconseguir un alt nivell professional.

Source: Arxiu Històric del COAC

Works (20)

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Constellation

Chronology (20)

  1. Can Soler de la Torre

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Located within the grounds of Colonia Güell, it corresponds to a large building made up of a main body, plus others attached to the north, east and west. It has a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows on the western side. The main building has a basilica plan with a ground floor, first floor and attic, with a gabled roof made of Arabic ceramic tiles. The main façade faces south and on the ground floor there is the access door, made with a half-point arch defined by exposed stone dowels. The date 1692 is carved into the central dome and above it, in relief, what looks like a sun. Unfortunately, it is partially destroyed by the construction of the balcony on the first floor, corresponding to a later reform. Still on the ground floor and on both sides of the door, there are windows with wrought iron bars; the one on the west is larger and has carved crosses and rosettes on the lintel. On the ground floor, above the door and each of the two windows, there are three balconies with jambs and stone lintels with inscriptions. On each side of the lateral balconies there is a semi-circular arched gallery. Regarding the inscriptions on the lintel of the central balcony, we can read Iesus Maria and Antoni Solé, both names separated by a monogram IHS. The west window bears the date 1700 and a border with the monogram IHS, and the east window reads 1622 and a sculptural motif with the monogram IHS. Finally, above the central balcony we find the attic, where there is a set of five semi-circular arched windows that start from a running impost that collects them all. Still on the main façade, there are more items of interest. To the east, under the window there is a small, recessed sandstone basin, above a stone block which supported a spout with the date 1778, above which there are some illegible letters. To the west of the main door, there is a built-in bench with plinths with green and white glazed Cartabo tiles. The main door has a double wrought iron door, of medium height, which was used to close the access when the large wooden portico was open. Finally, also on the main façade, between the first-floor balconies are the remains of two twin sundials. The finishes of the chimneys of the main building are also noteworthy, with clearly modernist ornaments. The main body has another building attached to the north, with a ground floor and two upper floors with the façade facing the urban park of the colony. On the ground floor, the openings are small and without decoration. On the ground floor, a central balcony stands out supported on metal corbels with an opening with a lowered arch with a large stained-glass window. Both to the east and west of this, there is a balcony and a window with openings protected by dust covers. On the upper floor there are small openings under the roof eaves. The east side façade is open with six semi-circular arched windows that correspond to one of the galleries on the ground floor. The western gallery is closed by the side façade, as an annex is attached to it. The wooden floor covering the gallery room is in good condition. Forming a right angle in the western sector of the farmhouse, there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows with a gabled roof. It has an access from Plaça de la Masia, through a defined rectangular door of lime and stone lintel. Above there is an oculus that respects the central axis of the façade which is crowned by a curved cornice and has a belfry on the west side. At an angle to the chapel there are the facilities and warehouses with a dry cistern where there is a sun-shaped stone sculpture called "El Soley", which looks like an old sundial, but it is currently located in the shadow. Originally the construction must have been a defensive tower, in fact in 1444 it appears as Torre Burguesa, and for four centuries it was owned by the Soler family. As can be seen from the lintel of the east floor window on the main façade, in 1622 Antoni Soler de la Torre undertook the first major renovation, to convert it, surely, into a three-story farmhouse, with a similar floor plan to which we have reached today. It is therefore plausible to think that the original construction had a large entrance in the central body, cellar, stable and kitchen downstairs, the room above the entrance, which distributed the rooms arranged on both sides, and the attic at the top. Antoni Soler was one of the leaders of the peasant revolt called the Barretines (1687-1689) and, because of his rebellion, he was killed on December 2, 1689, and Can Soler was ordered to be demolished and salt thrown in their lands. His son Antoni and his son-in-law, Joan Roure, recovered the building by special grace of the King. The inscriptions on the key to the vaulted portal "1692" and on the lintel of the balcony on the west side of the main façade "1700" refer to the period in which these two owners lived. After the landing order, the house was rebuilt or redone, and possibly the lintels with the crosses and rosettes, which are of medieval character, must have been reused and belonged to the old tower. From that moment on, the farmhouse became one of the most prosperous in the region. Surely in the 18th century and coinciding with the economic rise of the family, the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows had already been built. In the 1740s the family had left the land in the hands of landowners to reside in Sant Boi and then, around 1826, settled in Barcelona. In the middle of the 19th century, the Solers began to incur debts and, in 1860, after the death of Baldiri Soler de la Torre i Ubach, his younger brother, Joan, sold the estate to the industrialist Joan Güell i Ferrer, when it was the most extensive in the area of Sant Boi de Llobregat. In 1890, Joan Güell's son, Eusebi Güell, began the construction of Colonia Güell on the grounds of Can Soler, which was surrounded by the textile factory to the south and the workers' houses to the northwest. Shortly after, Güell commissioned the renovation of the interior of the house to Francesc Berenguer i Mestres, Antoni Gaudí's collaborator, in order to host the family during their occasional stays. He erected parabolic arches, like the one that provides access to the chapel from the farmhouse, modernised the bathroom and the kitchen, and provided some rooms on the floor with fireplaces. He also renovated the dining room with wooden beams, a fireplace and wood and iron applications on the ceiling, from the centre of which hangs an iron and glass lamp, the design of which some scholars attribute to Gaudí. Then, the old Sorrows chapel worked as a church for the colony's workers, until the temple designed by Gaudí, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, was opened for worship in 1915. In 1892, Güell succeeded in segregating the estate, which at that time it was already included in the municipal term of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, of the parish jurisdiction of Sant Boi and united it with that of Santa Coloma. During the Spanish Civil War, Can Soler was used as the seat of the City Council. In the 1960s, the Güells sold the farmhouse to Teresa Farré and Pedret, and in 1998 Fèlix Sánchez and Janin Vacassy bought it. Part of the interior decoration of the main floor could be attributed to Francesc Berenguer i Mestres. Among the buildings linked to the estate, there is also an old water mine that runs parallel to the Can Ros Road, also known as "La Masia".
  2. Ca l'Ordal

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres, Joan Rubió i Bellver

    Ca l'Ordal

    Independent building made up of three terraced single-family houses, with ground floor, first floor, attic and basement converted into a garden at the back. Located in the residential area of Colònia Güell, it is the first building you see when you enter it. Work built around 1894, which, both due to the shape of its floor plan and the singularity of the façades and their symmetry, gives the building great originality. Although it does not have the typical appearance of a country house, it is noticeable how in one way or another the architect wanted to collect the most significant features of manor houses. For example, the building has a basilica floor plan and a gable roof, and the facing is made of stone conglomerate of various sizes bound with lime mortar, on which several structures are built. The marked historicist character of the building, beyond the appearance of a manor house at the front, is also reflected at the back with a construction on different levels and bodies. Undoubtedly, however, what stands out most about the building are the rounded corners, and the decorative elements, the filigree work with exposed brick is particularly relevant. This is visible in the windows, the three chimneys, the porch, the cistern or the eaves under the deck. The house was originally inhabited by the Ros de l'Ordal family, hence its name, and they are still the owners. However, other families such as the Cruañas, Gaudó, Montanès and Carrión have also lived there. All of them were farmers who worked the owner's land as tenants. Some members of these families also worked in the factory. In the interest of moving away from the existing social conflicts in the city, a new type of industry was proposed in the 19th century - the industrial colonies, i.e. the houses of the workers and equipment next to the factory, all in the same property, integrating its own nucleus with a social and economic life protected by the company. The Güell colony was an industrial colony dedicated to the manufacture of bread and velvet. Its construction began in 1890, and the project had an inn, school, shops, theatre, cooperative, doctor's house, pharmacy and chapel, in addition to factories and workers' homes, in a total area of about 160 hectares. Güell, in his capacity as a patron of culture, commissioned projects from several leading architects, such as Antoni Gaudí, Francesc Berenguer i Mestres or Joan Rubió. There used to be a well inside, but due to subsequent renovations to the building and new uses in the space, it has been modified.
  3. Gràcia City Council

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Gràcia City Council

    The building was constructed in the second half of the 19th century, in different phases of construction, and followed a neoclassicist style. Around 1905-1906, Francesc Berenguer i Mestres – a regular collaborator of Miquel Pascual and the town's municipal architect – made an initial modification to the building, increasing its height and giving it a new façade to replace the old, neo-classicist façade. Francesc Berenguer i Mestres began his architectural studies but never finished them, which is why his projects had to be signed by other architects. He worked with Antoni Gaudí, of whom he was a friend. Berenguer i Mestres drew from the mixture of the modernist trends of the time and created his own style, the result of his meticulous attention to detail. The Gràcia City Hall building is part of the architectural conception with a façade of flat, symmetrical composition and a simple volumetric approach. It recovers materials from popular Catalan architecture such as brick, wrought iron and stone, but also uses masonry combined with brick or stone to define the corners. The sophistication of the wrought-iron designs with axial bends, lacerations and serpentine forms are masterly, as can be seen in some of the decorative elements of the ensemble, such as the coat of arms on the façade. Originally, the continuous balcony on the main floor had a stone railing that was replaced by the iron railing that is still preserved today. According to the plaque above one of the doors, the hall on the first floor, now the assembly hall, was built in 1882. Another plaque recalls its past, specifically in 1967 when it was called ‘Sala Nuestra Señora de Gracia’.
  4. Güell Winery

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres, Antoni Gaudí i Cornet

    Güell Winery

    It is a small building intended to store the wines grown on the estate that Eusebi Güell had in Garraf. The construction is formed by three orders of parabolic arches, which decrease as they move up, in a way that they form a pronounced gabled roof. The winery is located on the edge of the road, next to a large slope. The whole factory is of pumice stone masonry, with monolithic reinforcements at the corners, and boldly unloaded in some places, as at the entrance to the chapel on the upper level. Although its authorship has always been attributed to Francesc Berenguer, Gaudí's intervention in some details on a smaller scale is clear, such as the chimneys, the access door and the latticework. The intermediate level, which houses the administrator's apartment, connects with the street level and with the access, where the slope of the roof rises gently and forms a profile similar to a pagoda.
  5. Francesc Cama House

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres, Miquel Pascual i Tintorer

    Francesc Cama House

    The Francesc Cama house is located in the block of flats in the Gràcia district bounded by Carrer Gran de Gràcia, Carrer Santa Eugènia, Carrer Sant Cristòfol and Travessera de Gràcia. It has a main façade facing Carrer Gran de Gràcia from where the main entrance is located, a secondary façade facing Carrer Santa Eugènia, and an interior façade facing the courtyard of the block. The building has a rectangular ground plan, with a structure in elevation that includes a ground floor, a main floor, three upper floors and a walkable rooftop. The main entrance leads to a vestibule area and a central rectangular courtyard where the staircase is located. The main façade structures its openings in two double vertical axes of regular rhythm separated by a wide vertical strip above the entrance door, forming an axial composition around the main entrance. The ground floor opens onto the street through three large stone doorways. The tall central doorway, topped by a segmental arch, gives access to the residents' staircase, while the two side doorways correspond to the ground-floor shops. These are divided into two parts by a cast-iron pilaster with a vegetal capital. The rest of the façade is covered with a light-green mortar on which, at the height of the first floor, there is a sgraffito with a tentacular ornament containing the date of construction. The main floor has a continuous balcony topped at the ends by polygonal tiled tribunes. The polychrome floral-themed stained-glass windows at the end of the balconies are particularly striking. The rest of the balconies, aligned in pairs, have an undulating floor plan and are closed with wrought-iron railings. The openings have low balconies of coloured brittle and a sculptural frame. The crowning, which serves as a railing on the roof, maintains the division with two false stepped pediments, highlighted by a moulding. The secondary façade, facing Carrer Santa Eugènia, has a compositional system similar to the main façade. It is also divided into four vertical axes of openings, but with fewer overhangs. The main floor has an undulating continuous balcony. The façade facing the inner courtyard has glass galleries supported by cast-iron pilasters. The entrance hall and the central courtyard is the space that gives access to the building and distributes the various horizontal properties. It is accessed through the vestibule of the main door, a rectangular space with white marble floors and ceramic tile wainscoting, but what stands out is an elaborate false plaster ceiling. Beyond a doorway there is the central courtyard, with the lift, the wooden porter's lodge and the residents' staircase.
  6. Moral de Gràcia Centre

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Moral de Gràcia Centre

    The Moral de Gràcia Centre is located in the block in the Gràcia district which is bounded by Ros de Olano, Gran de Gràcia, Montseny and Pere Serafí streets. It is the headquarters of a 19th-century cultural association. It has a single exterior façade facing Carrer Ros de Olano, where the main entrance is located. The building has an L-shaped floor plan and a long corridor that connects the side rooms on the right and the back of the plot, where there is a small theatre. The building consists of a ground floor plus two upper floors. The façade has a composition of openings with three vertical axes, the central one being the protagonist as it has the balcony and the largest opening. It has a ground floor with very vertical openings framed with exposed brick, like most of the façade. There are segmental arches over the windows and a bell-shaped arch over the entrance doorway. On the first floor there is a central balcony with an oval slab formed by five courses of exposed brick, cantilevered one above the other. This balcony is completed with a wrought iron railing and an unloaded opening with a brick book arch, a solution also used in other smaller openings, such as the series that make up the gallery on the first floor. The roof is flat with a roof terrace, from which a penthouse rises in line with the façade. The perimeter of the façade is also a brick wall that acts as a railing and is decorated with brick elements resembling battlements. Artistically, the brickwork stands out, as it uses a very careful technique to resolve all the elements of the façade with this single material: arches, framing, waterbreaks and finials. The complex wrought-iron railings on the balconies and the iron supports for the flags should also be noted. The building is considered of the Catalan Art Nouveau style because of the decorations and the dominance of the use of brick and iron. Within this trend, the type of façade composition has a medievalist influence due to the prevalence of decorations rather than a more austere style and the battlements at the top.
  7. Can Pou Alt

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Can Pou Alt

    Detached house in a natural setting of great beauty, at the beginning of the Garraf mountain range and slightly urbanised. The significant use of materials and the free, irregular volumetry reveal Gaudí's influence on his disciple Berenguer. The installation on a sloping ground favours the partitioning of the whole into base volumes, the main floor, with the largest openings, and the attic body, with the small curved openings, of manorial tradition. Built for Count Güell, Gaudí's patron and owner of vineyards and land in the Garraf area, not far from where Gaudí, with the collaboration of Berenguer, built the famous winery in Sitges.
  8. Joan Baptista Rubinat House

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Joan Baptista Rubinat House

    The residential building at Carrer Or 44 is located in the Gràcia district, in a block bounded by Carrer Torrijos, Carrer Torrent d'en Vidalet, Carrer Sant Lluís and Carrer Or, with the main entrance facing Plaça Virreina. It is a residential building that Joan Baptista Rubinat i Planas commissioned Francesc Berenguer Mestres to build at the beginning of the 20th century, although, as he did not yet have the title of architect, the project was signed by Joan Rubió i Bellver. Rectangular in plan with a back courtyard, it has a stairwell in the centre and, aligned with it, two small light courtyards. The structure in elevation has a ground floor and five storeys, with a flat, walkable roof enclosed by a wrought iron railing. The façade has a flat, symmetrical composition, with its openings arranged on four vertical and five horizontal axes in a regular rhythm. On the ground floor there are four identical doorways, all of which are formed by gently moulded stone pillars with four angular brick arches. The doorway leading to the entrance hall of the building, located in the westernmost part, has the door set back from the façade. On the rest of the floors there are four balconies with sinuous slabs, the lower part of which shows the iron joists that support the vaults, decorated in trencadís. These balconies have a meticulous wrought-iron closure, with wavy, interlocking bars. They also mark the four vertical axes, and are crowned on the roof by sharp brick pinnacles and a wrought-iron support to hold the pulley. From the first floor upwards, except for the brick framing around the openings and the crown of the building, the façade is covered with mortar and decorated with two-colour sgraffito work with floral and geometric motifs.
  9. Teacher's House and School

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Teacher's House and School

    Housing that is the complex or counterpoint of its complementary building, the School. It is constructed with stone slabs and has exposed brick openings, corners, a high band and spire, further emphasising the variety of levels, terraces and roofs giving it a 'magical castle' appearance and masking a simple plant in the shape of an L. The unevenness of the land favours its complicated aspect by favouring the different stairs, entrance, communication with the School, rear access from the private courtyard to the first floor, and creating a difference of one floor between the front and the back. The roofs are of glazed tiles in green and black, and on the chimney, there is, in glazed ceramic, the date of construction (1911). Historicism is obvious. In March 1890, the foundation stone was laid and the foundations of the new cotton factory that Eusebi Güell and Ferran Alsina installed around Santa Coloma de Cervelló were laid in order that "in this way the worker had better hygienic and food conditions...". This led to the construction of an authentic colony where the School and the Teacher's House could not be missing. Endowed with the best conditions available at the time, in 1987, the School still continued to function, although the Teacher’s House has seen its interior fragmented into two dwellings that fully respect its structure.
  10. Rectory of the Major Church of Santa Coloma de Gramenet

    Francesc d'Assís Berenguer i Mestres

    Rectory of the Major Church of Santa Coloma de Gramenet

    Interesting treatment of the stone façades, which harmonises with the adjacent church and the fences delimiting the site. The building, with a semi-basement and three storeys, plays with the staggering of volumes, especially in the entrance area, where a small staircase leads to a porch supported by a simple column with an Ionic capital. The façades combine symmetry and asymmetry. It was built at the same time as the new parish church of Santa Coloma, with which it forms an ensemble.

Archive

  • Esbós d'un cartell publicitari dels Cellers Güell.

    Drawing

    Esbós d'un cartell publicitari dels Cellers Güell.

    Arxiu Històric del COAC

  • Detall d'un cartell publicitari dels Cellers Güell.

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    Detall d'un cartell publicitari dels Cellers Güell.

    Arxiu Històric del COAC

Bibliography (18)

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