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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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.
The block consists of five aggregation units, four of which have two dwellings per landing. The fifth aggregation unit of the front wall is made up of three houses per floor, to orient the rooms to the south and form a façade, instead of a front wall.
The double-orientation house orients the day area to the views of the Besòs and the planned adjoining park, while the rooms are oriented to a more domestic street belonging to the new Bon Pastor planning.
The arrangement of the bathroom nucleus in the centre of the ground plan allows circulation to be articulated around it, which not only makes the house appear larger, but also allows alternative paths. Thus, it is possible to reach the kitchen without going through the living room. The free-standing central piece allows a certain permeability of the ground plan, both to the air from cross ventilation and to the gaze, so that the nighttime and daytime areas are more interrelated with long views that cross the house from façade to façade. That same central position allows the typology on the ground floor to be symmetrical so that the living rooms are oriented, seeking privacy, towards the patios that the planning provides on the west façade. The double circulation loops are not only activated around the bathroom but also through the rooms. A pass-through terrace shared by the three rooms lengthens the walk through the house, minimising airtight spaces.
The use of exposed brick, as a materiality determined by the planning, is an opportunity to introduce lattices that allow texturing the base of the building and naturally ventilate the parking lot and the stairs. On the ground floor, a chamber unfolds the enclosing wall of the patios and the façade of the rooms, where it alternates with a terrace that allows not only the natural ventilation of the parking lot, but also generates privacy, as a filter between the street and the house.
The metal balcony system offers a support structure capable of incorporating metal meshes that allow the growth of vegetation such as sunscreen, clothes lines and textiles.