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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

credits

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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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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Responsable del tractament: Col·legi d Arquitectes de Catalunya 'COAC'
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Memory

Arquitecte. Titulat el 1926, va ser deixeble de Francesc Galí. Soci del GATCPAC. Algunes de les obres són: el vestíbul de l’Estació de França, el Palau de les Arts Gràfiques per a l'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona de 1929 en col·laboració amb Pelai Martínez, la Casa Espona (1935), la Casa Cardenal (1940), va acabar l’Església de Montserrat de Barcelona; a la Garriga va construir la casa Pérez (1928) i la Casa Blanca Mitjà (1942)

Source: Arxiu Històric del COAC

Works (23)

On the Map

Awarded
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Disappeared
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Constellation

Chronology (25)

  1. Palace of the Graphic Arts

    Raimon Duran i Reynals, Pelayo Martínez Paricio

    Palace of the Graphic Arts

    The palace is located on a steeply sloping site, which served to centralise the access in the middle of two curved ramps that converge. The organisation of the building is based on creating a central body that takes the form of a triumphal arch or Renaissance façade, crowned with a pediment, and a dome with a hexagonal drum that acts as a lantern that illuminates the interior from above. Two loggias or porticoed galleries start from the main body on each side, with semicircular arches supported by Tuscan columns, which are crowned by small temples with hexagonal domes. These porticoed galleries conceal the two wings in which the building completes its space. The work that Pelai Martínez carried out in La Bisbal d'Empordà as municipal architect and the relationship with the firm Terracotta Fuster in the production of terracotta is evident in every detail of the building, as it is with these materials that all the ornamental elements are made, which give the whole a strong chromatic contrast with the smooth, whitish stucco of the walls. The echoes of Florence are evident and, in this sense, the admiration that both architects felt for Brunelleschi is very noticeable. It was built between 1927 and 1929 to become the Palace of Graphic Arts for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition, under the design of the architect Pelai Martínez i Paricio, with the collaboration of Raimon Duran i Reynals. The latter made a long trip to the Italian city in 1920, accompanied by Nicolau M. Rubió Tudurí, a great admirer of Brunelleschi.
  2. Escoles a Sant Joan de les Abadesses

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    Escoles a Sant Joan de les Abadesses

    Edifici que neix del primer i més delicat renaixement toscà. L'edifici el formen una sèrie d'arcades de terracota, on la combinació en porxos, finestres (algunes cegues), dóna una unitat exemplar a l'obra. Aquest edifici va ésser realitzat sota el mecenatge de Jaume Espona i Brunet. A l'interior, un domini de l'espai molt reeixit, junt amb l'enginy de solucions, donen l'obra més acurada de Duran i Reinals a Sant Joan junt amb l'exemplar restauració del monestir. Són destacables, tot i la seva degradació, les pintures de la façana.
  3. Concurs Anual d'Edificis i Establiments Urbans

    Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Arquitectura - Nova Realització Industrial
    Estació de França Railway Station

  4. J. Espona Apartment Building

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    J. Espona Apartment Building

    The building is undergoing a rationalisation of the Eixample’s traditional houses in terms of the excessive space occupied by the corridors. On a plot of 22 x 28 metres with a two-street façade, there are four houses per floor forming a double axis of symmetry. The vertical communications are placed in the centre, so that from the landing you reach directly to the heart of each house. These are organised into three bays, supported by load-bearing walls, which allow the living room and dining room to be placed on the façade, and the bedrooms next to the partition. The light is received by two interior courtyards of minimum dimensions.
  5. Mercè Ymbern de Cardenal House

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    Mercè Ymbern de Cardenal House

    This residential building in Barcelona's Eixample district presents an elevation that alternates strips of full and empty spaces with great compositional simplicity. The three façades that make up the chamfer are unified by continuous balconies, with beige stuccoed parapets and topped with a steel tube handrail. The façade plane is maroon to increase the contrast and reinforce the depth of the balcony. It is interesting how the dining room windows come forward and are integrated into the balconies, achieving an almost imperceptible vertical counterpoint. The composition of the volume shows clear references to Mies van der Rohe's concrete office building but adapted to a residential building. The layout of the plant is fully functional. It has three houses per landing, two of which face the chamfer, while the third presents a façade to an existing side passage. This passage allows most of the rooms in the building to ventilate to the outside. The wet areas are grouped to form service cores that ventilate interior patios: the central core, shared by the two symmetrical houses on the corner, deserves special attention. Due to his Noucentista training, Duran i Reynals changed styles very easily. He could make a neoclassical building and a rationalist one simultaneously, depending on the commission. In this case, he opted for the rationalist style at the insistence of the client's husband.
  6. New Benedictine Monastery of Mare de Déu de Montserrat

    Raimon Duran i Reynals, Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí

    New Benedictine Monastery of Mare de Déu de Montserrat

    Located in the district of Les Corts, the monastic complex of Santa Maria de Montserrat de Pedralbes occupies the entire block bounded by the Carretera de Esplugues and the streets Moneders, Miret i Sans, Ardena and Abadesa Olzet. The main access to the complex is from Carretera de Esplugues. The complex was designed by the architect and landscape architect Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, who designed a large garden area that complements a group of buildings in the Florentine Neo-Renaissance style, with a strong influence of the architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi. The complex consists of a church in the shape of a Latin cross flanked by two cloisters and a bell tower attached to the presbytery. Attached to the church on the north side are the annex buildings of the monastery, which are now a college. The complex is enclosed by a common masonry wall and is accessed through a wrought-iron gate flanked by two pylons crowned with sculptures of two dogs. The garden, planted with pines, cypresses and palm trees, has a large stone staircase with a central parterre leading to the top of the hill, which is crowned by the monumental façade of the monastery. The exterior walls are entirely clad in white, grey and pink marble, in the Florentine tradition. The main façade facing the garden is divided into three sections: the central section, which contains the portico of the church, and the two side sections, which contain the two adjoining cloisters. These lateral sections have a façade inspired by the Ospedale degli Innocenti, built in Florence by Brunelleschi. Like that façade, the present one is articulated by diaphanous galleries of Tuscan columns supporting semicircular arches decorated with medallions in the spandrels. These façades are crowned by a cornice that includes the gable roof that covers the galleries of the cloisters. The central body of the façade, corresponding to the atrium, was designed following the models proposed by Leon Battista Alberti for the church of Sant Andreu in Mantua, i.e. as a triumphal arch crowned by a triangular pediment. Thus, two pairs of Corinthian half-columns and, above them, two pairs of pilasters of the same order, frame a large moulded semicircular arch supported by two pairs of Corinthian pilasters with fluted shafts. The frieze of the entablature contains the inscription ‘ALMAE MONTIS SERRATI DEIPARAE SACRVM’ and the whole is crowned by a triangular pediment with a medallion in relief of the Virgin and Child. The large central arch gives access, as mentioned above, to the atrium of the church, a rich space covered by a barrel vault with lunettes supported by Corinthian stone pilasters and walls decorated with coloured marble quarters. The highlight of this space is the mural decoration that covers the vault, painted by Josep Obiols. The vault features the Chrismon surrounded by garlands of flowers, while the central lunette shows a monumental Assumption of the Virgin surrounded by angels and cherubs in an exotic garden. The side lunettes show, behind a parapet, the images of Santa Eulàlia and Sant Jordi, patron saints of Barcelona and Catalonia. Access to the church is through a door with a grey marble lintel topped by a triangular frieze and a frieze with the inscription ‘The noble and illustrious Catalan hero Josep Nicolav de Olzina y de Ferret ordered the building of this church and read it for the cult of the Virgin of Montserrat, patron saint of Catalonia, and handed it over to the Archbishopric of Barcelona on 22-VII-1964’. The church has a Latin cross plan with a single nave covered with a barrel vault, interrupted by a dome over the transept and ending in a polygonal apse. The walls and vaults are covered with white mortar, while the load-bearing elements (pillars, arches and entablatures) are finished in grey stone. The pilasters supporting the transverse arches have a Corinthian capital and a classical fluted shaft. In the chancel, the high altar is protected by a large gilded baldachin supported by four Corinthian columns in black marble. The dome of the transept, in the shape of a half-orange, rests on shells adorned with medallions and is directly inspired by the Pazzi Chapel that Brunelleschi built in the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. However, its external appearance is inspired by the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, an early medieval building covered by a closed dome with an eight-sloped roof and crowned by a narrow white marble lantern. The left arm of the transept leads to a Greek-cross-shaped mortuary space crowned by a dome that appears on the outside in the form of a four-sloped roof topped by a white marble lantern. Attached to the apse is the convent's bell tower, a square building with three sections of decreasing size crowned by a pyramid that is very loosely inspired by the Campanile of the cathedral of Venice. The complex, designed by the architect and landscape architect Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, was built in 1920 with the aim of establishing a Benedictine monastery in Barcelona, a branch of Montserrat. The construction was financed by the Sabadell industrialist Josep Nicolau de Olzina i de Ferrer and his wife Mercè de Pallejà i de Bassa, Marquises of Montsoliu. Between 1921 and 1924, the couple died without any descendants, but their nephews, Guillem de Pallejà Ferrer-Vidal and Clotilde Ricart Roger wanted to continue with the project. The sponsors of the church wanted a Renaissance-style building, while the monks of Montserrat, for whom the church was intended, wanted a Romanesque church. Faced with this dilemma, Rubió decided to depart from the Tuscan Greco-Roman and continue with Brunelleschi, thus giving relative satisfaction to both contenders. One of his disciples, Joan Mirambell, gave shape to the garden complex. Work on the monastery came to a standstill at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, when Rubió i Tudurí had to go into exile. Work was resumed in 1950, when Raimon Duran i Reynals took over the project and Josep Obiols was hired to paint the paintings that decorate the portico. In 1964 it passed into the hands of the Archbishopric of Barcelona, which converted it into the parish church of Santa Maria Reina.
  7. Blanca Mitjà House

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    Blanca Mitjà House

    The building was constructed on the site of a 17th century house that was demolished by order of Blanca Mitjà. It was located at the foot of the royal road, in the historic centre of La Garriga, opposite the Santa Isabel square and the site that had been occupied by the Hospital de Banys until 1881. It is a civil building built between partitions and on a corner, with a façade on two streets. It consists of a ground floor and two floors originally intended for summer residences. The façades are flat and have a classical layout. They are structured on the basis of vertical axes of openings; five on the main façade and seven on the side. Horizontally, the forging lines are emphasised with a solid railing on the first floor and prominent cornices on the second floor and also on the top. The two façades are covered with sgraffito work: the ground floor and the corner are covered with a broken ashlar stucco. The rest have various motifs such as baluster railings, lintel pediments, vases, geometric elements, pilasters and floral elements. Of particular note is the representation of four female figures representing the four seasons. This building is representative of Duran i Reynals' architecture – it represents a conscious return to Renaissance language due to the imposition of rationalist trends. The Mitjà House was built in 1942. In 1987, the interior was completely refurbished and the openings on the ground floor were modified, although the sgraffito work was preserved and restored.
  8. Remodelling of Lleó Morera House

    Raimon Duran i Reynals, Francisco Ferrer Bartolomé

    Remodelling of Lleó Morera House

  9. Colònia d'Obrers Espona

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    Colònia d'Obrers Espona

    Edifici de planta baixa i pis i a nivell de planta configura una U. Orientat al sud, amb accés frontal a partir d'una arcada que dóna simetria al conjunt. La fàbrica és de materials del país amb pedra de riu, lloses i teula àrab. Dins el conjunt es troben uns jardins comunitaris de factura neoclàssica que permeten l'accés als habitatges. Les llindes de les finestres de la planta superior són de fusta de pi. Es disposen simètricament respecte la planta baixa, on fan funció de trencaaigües. És significativa la manera en què els espais de jardí es relacionen amb els espais públics immediats, és a dir la carretera de Camprodon i la plaça Pompeu Fabra. L'obra es realitzà sota el mecenatge de Jaume Espona i serveix per donar habitatge als treballadors de la fàbrica de filats. És una de les obres més acurades de Duran i Reynals.
  10. Muñoz Tower Block

    Raimon Duran i Reynals

    Muñoz Tower Block

    The Muñoz Tower is attached to Palau Robert’s garden through a small two-storey body, and it was built in 1949 by the architect Raimon Duran i Reynals. It was commissioned by Julio Muñoz Ramonet, a businessman and then owner of the palace. The tower has a ground floor and ten more floors, which house offices. On the ground floor there are three openings in the shape of a semi-circular arch, of which the central one is the access door, while the others are large windows. The entire façade is padded and, as decoration, a pair of embossed panels are placed on either side of the door. A set of twelve fluted brackets support the corrugated balustrade on the main floor, which has eleven windows on both sides of the façade. In the following levels, the same number of windows is repeated, but without any decoration, beyond the padded facing that divides the façade into several bodies. On the last two floors, the walls become smooth, and this is complemented by the appearance of double columns. Finally, the closure is made with a winged cornice supported by modillions. All in all, this is a building with a classicising aesthetic that aims to harmonise with the architecture of the neighbouring Palau Robert.

Archive

  • Perspectiva de la Torre Muñoz

    Drawing

    Perspectiva de la Torre Muñoz

    Fons Raimon Duran i Reynals / Arxiu Històric del COAC

  • Perspectiva de la Torre Muñoz

    Drawing

    Perspectiva de la Torre Muñoz

    Arxiu Històric del COAC

Bibliography (20)

Routes & Notes (5)

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