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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
The Stadium was inaugurated in September 1957, the first phase being built with just the first two stands and a symmetrical crown. The profile of the Stadium was characterised by the large roof canopy, with a new design adapted by the architects to the conventional techniques of the time. It was not until 1982, already under the presidency of the ineffable Josep Lluís Nuñez, when the original asymmetry of the Stadium was completed with the third tier for the celebration of the World Championship for National Teams.
The project for this second phase was carried out by Mitjans and Soteras, together with Juan Pablo Mitjans, son of the first, and Francisco Cavaller, nephew of the latter. The final construction was characterised by the assembly of an envelope of slats around the entire perimeter of the building, and by the inclusion of the body of ramps on the east façade, originally independent, within the volume of the third tier. These ramps, hanging taut from the rear façade, increase the presumed drama of the complex, even at the cost of eliminating the value of the original project as a mediating element.
In 1994, due to UEFA regulations, the first tier was adapted, moving the spectators from standing to sitting. This change involved lowering the level of the playing field by almost 3 metres, with the inevitable consequences on the isoptics of the Stadium.
The stoic spectacular nature of the original vision of the Stadium and its access to the grandstand on a ramp from the curved geometry car park located in Arístides Mayol, was gradually disfigured from 1957 with the appearance of a crude constellation of buildings. Among them, the beautiful dome of the Palau Blaugrana still shines with its own light, unfortunately currently condemned to demolition, carried out by Soteras together with Cavaller and the engineer Florencio del Pozo.
Its less fortunate exterior volumetry clumsily intermingles between a group of banal auxiliary buildings. The set, far from the mythical category of the stadium, ruins the symbolic access to the building. Also, the additions made to the west façade, including the current museum headquarters, with similar authorship, do not help to not deny the hypothesis of the existence of a genetic component in the quality of an architect.
Architectural knowledge, and this is even more visible when intervening in a pre-existing building, is probably of doubtful hereditary character. It is acquired with effort, dedication, perseverance, and even though it may not be fashionable today, with high doses of humility and willingness to serve society.
More than fifty years later, the Camp Nou maintains its stoic dignity and functionality as a stadium. Another question is whether it is the right set for broadcasting a football match, when the viewer becomes part of the show. Or when the ancient temple of sport is transformed, biblically, into a market. Well, into a mall.
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Camp Nou
Lorenzo García-Barbón Fernández de Henestrosa, Francesc Mitjans Miró, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri
The project responds to the need to accommodate a growing number of spectators for a football club that is constantly growing and with a greater social projection. The design criteria were based on a critical analysis of the world's major football stadiums. The playing field is below street level, so the ascent to the highest ranks is not so exaggerated. The stands follow a course of four lowered curves in order to guarantee the maximum proximity of the spectators to the field of play. In section, the stadium is organised in three overlapping tiers, to make the most of the vertical occupancy. The first tier rests directly on the ground. The second tier houses the grandstand seats and the most favoured seats, which are the only covered ones. The third tier houses the general seats and grows in height on the side opposite the grandstand. The evacuation is organised by the combination of numerous vertical circulation cores connected by uninterrupted walkways. The Camp Nou applies rationality criteria to the program of a high-capacity stadium, where the spectators are the real protagonists. -
First Extension of Camp Nou
Antonio Bergnes de las Casas i Soteras, Francesc Cavaller i Soteras, Juan Pablo Mitjans i Perelló, Francesc Mitjans Miró, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri
The Stadium was inaugurated in September 1957, the first phase being built with just the first two stands and a symmetrical crown. The profile of the Stadium was characterised by the large roof canopy, with a new design adapted by the architects to the conventional techniques of the time. It was not until 1982, already under the presidency of the ineffable Josep Lluís Nuñez, when the original asymmetry of the Stadium was completed with the third tier for the celebration of the World Championship for National Teams. The project for this second phase was carried out by Mitjans and Soteras, together with Juan Pablo Mitjans, son of the first, and Francisco Cavaller, nephew of the latter. The final construction was characterised by the assembly of an envelope of slats around the entire perimeter of the building, and by the inclusion of the body of ramps on the east façade, originally independent, within the volume of the third tier. These ramps, hanging taut from the rear façade, increase the presumed drama of the complex, even at the cost of eliminating the value of the original project as a mediating element. In 1994, due to UEFA regulations, the first tier was adapted, moving the spectators from standing to sitting. This change involved lowering the level of the playing field by almost 3 metres, with the inevitable consequences on the isoptics of the Stadium. The stoic spectacular nature of the original vision of the Stadium and its access to the grandstand on a ramp from the curved geometry car park located in Arístides Mayol, was gradually disfigured from 1957 with the appearance of a crude constellation of buildings. Among them, the beautiful dome of the Palau Blaugrana still shines with its own light, unfortunately currently condemned to demolition, carried out by Soteras together with Cavaller and the engineer Florencio del Pozo. Its less fortunate exterior volumetry clumsily intermingles between a group of banal auxiliary buildings. The set, far from the mythical category of the stadium, ruins the symbolic access to the building. Also, the additions made to the west façade, including the current museum headquarters, with similar authorship, do not help to not deny the hypothesis of the existence of a genetic component in the quality of an architect. Architectural knowledge, and this is even more visible when intervening in a pre-existing building, is probably of doubtful hereditary character. It is acquired with effort, dedication, perseverance, and even though it may not be fashionable today, with high doses of humility and willingness to serve society. More than fifty years later, the Camp Nou maintains its stoic dignity and functionality as a stadium. Another question is whether it is the right set for broadcasting a football match, when the viewer becomes part of the show. Or when the ancient temple of sport is transformed, biblically, into a market. Well, into a mall.
Audiovisual
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2:52
NOU CAMP NOU – Construïnt somnis blaugrana des del 1957
Related Works
Set Camp Nou
