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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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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Memory
Títol d'arquitecte: 05/02/1912
Fou deixeble de l’Escola d’Art de Francesc d’A. Galí i del Conservatori del Liceu. El 1920 féu en un estil classicista la biblioteca pública del Vendrell per al servei de Biblioteques Populars de la Mancomunitat. Amb el seu germà Antoni féu un projecte historicista per a un gran Teatre de la Ciutat de Barcelona (1921). Viatjà per Europa i a Viena, on residí un quant temps, conegué l’obra de Hoffman, Loos, etc. Esdevingué arquitecte municipal de l’Hospitalet, on projectà un pla general de la ciutat amb la prolongació del carrer de Corts fins al Llobregat (1928) i féu diverses construccions públiques com el grup escolar “Francesc Macià” o el mercat de Collblanc (1933). Entre les seves construccions sobresurten la fàbrica Cosme Toda de l’Hospitalet (1927), l’anomenat Gratacel de Collblanc (1931-33) —on es palesa la influència del Bauhaus— i a Barcelona les cases Pidelaserra del carrer de Balmes cantonada Comte de Salvatierra (1932) i la del carrer de Vallhonrat cantonada Prunera (1935). Féu també edificis a la Via Laietana número 12 i al carrer de Bailèn número 197, torres a Sarrià i a Cerdanyola i una sèrie de xalets al Masnou (1936). Hom l’ha considerat l’arquitecte més representatiu del grup de renovadors catalans del seu temps no estrictament avantguardistes. Fou soci numerari del GATCPAC (1931) i vicepresident del Cercle Artístic de Barcelona (1931), directiu del Col·legi d’Arquitectes (1932) i soci de mèrit de l’associació d’Amics dels Museus de Catalunya (1935). Durant la República representà Espanya al Congrés Mundial d’Arquitectura celebrat a Àustria. Fou conferenciant i ponent al Primer Congrés d’Arquitectes de Llengua Catalana (1932). Publicà articles a La Construcción, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, etc. Fou amic dels principals artistes i polítics del seu temps —com Domènech i Montaner— i ell mateix fou un dibuixant excel·lent i un bon pianista.
Source: Arxiu Històric del COAC
Works (29)
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Chronology (29)
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Botiga Nova
This building was built under the influence of the Viennese Secession. It is a block of flats with a ground floor, where the shop is located, and a first floor, where the houses are located. The two floors are separated by a continuous balcony with a large overhang and an iron railing. The building juts out a little from the building on one side as soon as it turns a corner. The upper floor is decorated with green, yellow and red ceramics, such as the horizontal mouldings, one at mid-height and one at the top, and the mouldings of the three openings. At the round corner turn, there is a large ceramic panel protruding from the top of the façade, with the date '1912' and another ceramic panel sgraffitoed underneath. It is one of the first works by Ramon Puig i Gairalt, built in 1912. -
Cheap houses
The cheap houses are a set of two houses (originally three) between partitions. They consist of a ground floor, a first floor and an attic. These houses are not symmetrical, but, while maintaining the same aesthetic, each one is different. The building on the left has a two-storey projecting body, three elongated windows on the ground floor and a three-sided tribune on the first floor. Taking advantage of the separation between the main body and the protruding part, a balcony with a brick railing has been built on the first floor, and on the ground floor it creates a small porch in front of the main door, supported by a Solomonic column made of brick. It has two roofs, one for the house and the other for the secondary body, but both are gabled with the ridge perpendicular to the main façade. The house on the right has an entrance door on the ground floor and a double window on the right. On the first floor there is a door in the centre, leading to a small balcony, and a window on each side. In the attic there is a tribune supported by brick arches resting on brick corbels. Both houses are plastered except for some brick elements such as the framing of the openings, the Solomonic column or the balcony of the house on the left. There are also decorative elements of white and green ceramic. Built by the municipal architect R. Puig Gairalt between 1914 and 1915, they are the work of his youth, still strongly marked by the secessionist movement in Vienna. They originally consisted of three houses, but the one on the corner was demolished. Gairalt designed a house that would be accessible to everyone thanks to the reduction of volumes and the use of low-cost materials such as brick instead of stone. In the 1926 Eixample Plan, he planned to design two hundred low-cost houses following a garden-city layout, such as the workers' gardens for Pubilla Casas and La Florida, which, overwhelmed by immigration, could not be entirely built. -
Biblioteca Popular del Vendrell
La biblioteca popular d'El Vendrell és un edifici en forma de petit temple d'obra de fàbrica que recorda als temples tetràstils i perípters clàssics grecoromans. Projectat com edifici aïllat i disposat sobre un pòdium que li atorga certa monumentalitat. Els portals dels dos accessos que hi ha a les testeres de l'edifici estan coronats per un frontó triangular sostingut per columnes jòniques, i les façanes i les arestes estan reforçades per un ritme regular de pilastres encoixinades, que s'alternen amb els panys que contenen dues finestres superposades d'esquema vertical. Les pilastres estan decorades en la part superior amb un medalló ovalat amb garlandes i un capitell motllurat. L'edifici acaba en una cornisa motllurada damunt d'una línia de dentellons i un ampit massís, sobre els pilars del qual s'aixequen boles ornamentals. Tot plegat està concebut segons els cànons clàssics. La gran alçada de la sala va permetre una acurada ampliació a la dècada de 1970, consistent en la construcció d'una entre planta sense desfigurar l'edifici exteriorment. Les biblioteques populars sorgiren del gran moviment de normalització cultural i polític representat pel Noucentisme i per la Mancomunitat de Catalunya. És per aquest motiu que la present obra arquitectònica constitueix un bon testimoni dels equipaments impulsats per la Mancomunitat que van tenir continuïtat durant la Segona República Espanyola. En el marc d'un procés de construcció nacional i amb l'impuls modernitzador del Noucentisme, es pretenia acabar amb els desequilibris entre la Catalunya més rural i empobrida i la més urbana i rica. Els ideals polítics i ètics convergien amb els artístics, de manera que cultura i política compartien objectius comuns: la modernització i la construcció nacional en un marc mediterrani i europeu. Per tal d'aconseguir una universalització de la cultura i millorar les oportunitats laborals en territori català, es van crear equipaments culturals, docents i sanitaris. El projecte de les biblioteques populars foren una aposta personal de Prat de la Riba i Puig i Cadafalch. L'any 1915 i, basant-se en un projecte redactat per Eugeni d'Ors, la Mancomunitat, en el procés de recuperació cultural de Catalunya, creà el servei de Biblioteques Populars sota la direcció de Jordi Rubió i Balaguer. L'any següent, el 1916, l'ajuntament d'El Vendrell es presentà al concurs obert per la Mancomunitat per tal de sol·licitar una biblioteca popular per a la vila, que li fou adjudicada el 7 de desembre del mateix any. El terreny fou cedit per Odon Nin, i la projecció de l'edifici va anar a càrrec de l'arquitecte Ramon Puig i Gairalt i el contractista de Valls Salvador Serra. La biblioteca s'inaugurà el 17 d'octubre del 1920, amb la presència del president de la Mancomunitat Josep Puig i Cadafalch. L'any 1925, l'edifici quedà reintegrat a la Diputació de Tarragona. El 1978 s'amplià, amb la construcció d'una planta intermèdia. -
Puig i Gairalt House
Tower located in the neighbourhood of Sarrià, next to Plaça de Borràs, between Via Augusta and Ronda de Dalt. It has a quadrangular plan, with a ground floor, a floor, and an attic, with an attached rectangular tower that has one more floor. On the main façade, taking up the central space of the ground floor, there is a polygonal tribune that protrudes as if it were an added body; in this tribune large rectangular windows open and are framed by stepped mouldings, above which there are large sculptural reliefs, and the body is crowned by a large molding that imitates the shapes of a capital. The rest of the openings on this floor are similar, decorated with stepped moulding. On the first floor there is a balcony with a stone base and iron railing, a large window in the centre with three sculptural reliefs above, and another rectangular window on the other side. In the main body, this level is topped off by a moulding that imitates a classical capital supported by pilasters that follow the wall; this same decoration is found in the tower but one floor higher. The attic openings are two portholes and a quadrangular window, while in the tower there is a slightly larger window. The main body is topped by a large cornice in the shape of a capital. Two small square windows open on the top floor of the tower and the upper finish is similar to that of the main body. All openings, including portholes, are framed by a stepped moulding. The sculptural reliefs on the façade and a sculpture of a Venus in the Garden are the work of Rafael Solanic. On the ground floor, in the tribune, there is a music hall with a dome decorated with paintings by Francesc d’Assís Galí, with allegories of child musicians and goddesses. This house was built to be the residence of Ramon Puig i Gairalt and his brother Antoni, also an architect. The works, started in 1925, continued until the Civil War and the death of the architect in 1937, leaving the tower unfinished, which was completed later. -
Ramon Pont House
The Ramon Pont house is located on the corner of Carrer d’Olzinelles and Sagunt, in the Sants district. The building has a triangular floor plan and consists of a ground floor, five floors and a roof terrace. The intersection of the two streets is formed by a six-storey circular tower where the façades are attached like a hinge. On the façade of Carrer d’Olzinelles there are five linteled openings on the ground floor: the central one is the entrance of the building, with a window on both sides and commercial premises at the ends. The rest of the floors have the same number of openings per floor, following the same axes as those on the ground floor. The doors on the first and fifth floors open onto a continuous balcony that turns the corner and also runs along the façade of Carrer Sagunt. The first-floor balcony is supported by large, solid-looking corbels. On the other floors, only the three central openings open onto individual balconies. All the openings in the building are lintelled. The façade is crowned by a cornice with a large overhang and three plain friezes in a degrading pattern, which also turn at the corner and continue on the other façade. The corner tower has three openings per landing. In addition to the two balconies that run along the two façades, there is another continuous balcony on the fourth floor. A moulding separates the first floor from the second one and the second from the third. Above the cornice that crowns the building, the top floor of the tower juts out, completely free-standing. It has small rectangular windows and is crowned by an eave. The façade on Carrer Sagunt has three openings per floor with similar characteristics to those on Carrer d’Olzinelles. Here there are no balconies other than those on the first and fifth floors. The facing is painted grey on the ground floor and white on the upper floors, except for the top floor and the corner tower, which are painted ochre. On the Carrer d’Olzinelles façade there are three vertical ochre-coloured strips following the three central openings. The relationship between the architect Ramon Puig i Gairalt and the developer-owner Ramon Pont i Vila began in 1929 with the construction of a multi-family housing building at Carrer d’Olzinelles 19 bis, Barcelona. The following year, they built the Ramon Pont house, just opposite the previous building. Finally, they built an eleven-storey skyscraper on Carretera de Collblanc in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. -
Vallhonrat Dwellings
The Joaquima Vendrell house is located on the corner of Carrer Vallhonrat and Passatge Prunera. It is a block of flats between partitions consisting of a ground floor, a mezzanine, six floors and a rooftop. There are five flats per floor, of about 76 m2, with an uneven distribution. The façade is articulated from the corner, rounded and symmetrical. On the ground floor, the openings follow a regular rhythm and have the jambs marked by a plain moulding that ends in a rectangular piece in the form of corbels that support the lintel. The main door, located in Vallhonrat street, has a broken frame. This level has a stone slab facing, unlike the upper levels, which are plastered and painted. From the first floor onwards, the façade folds into a triangular shape following two longitudinal axes on Carrer Vallhonrat, and another two on the Passatge Prunera. On these two façades, all the openings, which follow a regular rhythm, are lintelled, and on the first and fourth floors there is a continuous balcony that follows the triangular shapes. This fourth floor is crowned by a cornice and from this level onwards, the plane of the façade recedes diagonally, which means that from the top floor only the triangular bodies are visible from the street and, as they do not recede like the rest of the wall, they remain in the form of a tower. The rounded corner has a tribune protruding from the mezzanine and acts as a balcony on the first floor. On the first, second and third floors there is a projecting cubic volume, the upper one less than the other two, and here there are windows. On the second and fourth floors there are balconies running around the corner, while on the third floor there are two balconies and the corner is left free. The fifth floor has no balcony, but is crowned by a cornice. The top floor is left as if it were a tower, as are the triangular bodies of the other two façades. The facing is painted white except for the triangular bodies, balconies, the tribune and cornices, which are painted red. This play of volumes, emphasised by the use of colour, shows the influence of expressionism and cubism in the construction of the building. -
Pons House
Located at the confluence of an important traffic artery and a narrow alley, the building responds to the need to solve the urban congestion problems typical of the time. The tower adopts a long and narrow plan, following Carrer Progrés, which is why the corner with Carrer Collblanc takes on special importance. The floors decrease as the building rises, so that the first six have four dwellings per landing, the next four floors have three, and the next two and the last one have a single dwelling. The long and narrow shape of the floor plan allows all the homes to be distributed with at least two courtyards in the central part, although for reasons of use Puig i Gairalt uses diagonal traces to avoid the surfaces intended for corridors as much as possible. The building straddles the noucentist rhetoric and the social programme of the following generation of architects. -
Sardañés i Bonet House
Building located in Les Corts district, between Déu i Mata and Taquígraf Garriga Streets, Cinc Torres passage and a private passage. It is a building with a rectangular plan, which includes five blocks of flats, and with a flat roof. It consists of a ground floor and five landings. The long façades are very simple, marked by longitudinal axes where large rectangular openings open. In some axes the openings give way to balconies of very little span. The short façades follow an axis of symmetry with a small triangular tribune, with a window on each face, which occupies all the central space of the wall except for the low ones; at the ends a quadrangular window and a porthole open on both sides. In addition, on the front of Déu i Mata Street, there are balconies at the ends that leave the corners empty, creating a greater plasticity than on the other façades. The whole building is crowned by a smooth cornice. The facing of the walls is plastered and painted light brown except for the framing of the openings, the triangular tribunes and the balconies which are cream in colour. -
Josep Miró House
Complex consisting of two buildings together, located on the corner of Passeig Sant Joan and València Street. The building that makes the chamfer has a triangular plan and consists of a ground floor, seven landings and a flat roof, while the one on Passeig Sant Joan has a rectangular plan and consists of a ground floor, six landings and a flat roof. The construction of the corner has the main façade in the chamfer and the corners are rounded. On the ground floor there are large rectangular openings, except for the portal of access to the building which has a semicircular arch; all of them are decorated with a smooth double moulding and the facing is plastered with limestone. The upper floors are marked by a series of vertical axes where the typology of openings, entrances and exits and changes in the colour of the facing are combined, which create a very dynamic game. Quadrangular windows open on the two central axes of the main façade; on both sides, the façade moves forward like tribunes and a large window opens on each level. These four axes begin on the second floor, where a curved balcony joins the two tribunes. On the first floor there are four windows, and the facing is the same as on the ground floor. At the corners, the rounded shape is inserted slightly into the wall creating the feeling of being two embedded towers; here large triple windows that follow the rounded shape of the wall are opened. On the narrow side façade’s there are small balconies, with the iron railing, and a tribune on the first floor. For the opening of the top floor there are small rectangular ventilators. The façade is crowned with a cornice. A moulding goes around the building separating the top floor from the lower ones; in the stands you can also see this moulding separating each floor. The façade is plastered and painted salmon except for the tribunes, the corners and the 7th floor, which are painted grey. The building on Passeig Sant Joan has similar characteristics with three large openings on the ground floor, the central one is the access portal, and the lateral are the commercial premises, framed by mouldings. On the upper floors there are four vertical shafts. Quadrangular windows open in the two central ones and on the sides the wall is advanced in the form of tribunes, except on the top floor where the wall does not advance and the upper part of the tribune acts as a balcony. Above there are rectangular vents and the façade is crowned by a cornice. The facing on the ground floor is faced with stone while on the upper floors it is plastered and painted brown, except for the end wall of the two side shafts which is painted cream and the plastering draws horizontal lines. The construction company of this building is "La razón social Harinas Serra, SA" from Mollet del Vallès. In the late 20s and early 30s of the 20th century, this company moved into construction, winning numerous public tenders. -
Mariano Pidelaserra building
The Mariano Pidelaserra building is located on Balmes Street, above Diagonal Avenue, in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district. It consists of two multi-family houses between partitions, on a corner between the aforementioned street and that of Comte de Salvatierra. It consists of a commercial ground floor, a mezzanine floor, five floors, an attic and an upper attic, as well as a prominent tower, located in the corner. This property is characterised by a great profusion of volumes and shapes that emerge from the façades from the first floor. At the base, the ground floor and the mezzanine are the simplest and have numerous openings, simple with few significant volumes. From the first floor, a good series of diverse forms begin. The first and which gives more personality to the building is the corner itself. This joins different openings in a curved balcony, with a tubular railing, of different lengths depending on the plan. In the attic, this curved balcony reaches the entire perimeter of the two façades and above, it is finished with the presence of a prominent tower, which has two bodies. The lower one has a quadrangular morphology with blunt corners and the upper one has a circular plan. On both sides of this curved balcony we find other forms, repetitive by section but not by floor. Trapezoidal bodies protrude at the ends and triangular ones further in. The ensemble follows an ascending rhythm around the important body of the chamfer; they follow the criteria of the modern movement, in terms of treatment of the lighting and skin of the building, but its formal composition lies closer to the aesthetic theories of Marinetti's futurists than the aesthetics of GATCPAC. It does not appear that the building has undergone major renovations since its construction. In addition, its state of conservation is good.
