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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
Industrial complex made up of several buildings from different periods. The oldest one is the paper mill, but it has undergone many modifications. It consists of two floors and the north and south façades have been covered by other constructions. Inside, the staircase that leads from the ground floor to the upper floor is made of stone and the steps have the right half at a different height from the left, alternating one step with the other. The upper floor is a large room with a ceiling of beams and wooden crossbars and iron columns; large windows provide the room with light. There is a residential building attached to the mill.
The main building consists of three large naves of great length, and the central one wider and higher than the lateral ones. The roof is double-sided, with the ridge parallel to the main façade, and the iron truss structure. The façade is of exposed brick and is divided into three floors. There is a large number of windows arranged regularly; those on the ground floor and first floor are very elongated and those in the attic square, but all are low arched with a brick moulding at the top. Separating the different levels there is a fine molding decorated with a serration. There are two forward bodies, one on the right with a flat roof and the other, in a more central position, with a double-sided roof. In this last body, the windows break the horizontal composition and are arranged diagonally following the staircase inside. The interior has cast iron columns and the ceiling is Catalan vaulted with iron braces.
A metal bridge connects the mill building with the main one.
The chimney, located next to the steam engine room, is also preserved.
There is an isolated building, in the modernist style, which was probably built when Tecla Sala acquired the factory and, perhaps, was his residence. On the main façade there are two bodies and one of them is higher and more advanced than the other. The lintel and jambs of the openings are framed by floral reliefs, as is the case under the sill. The crowning, which is stepped, is decorated with a woman's head with her hair wrapped in flowers. Under the cornice, between the corbels that have a stepped shape, there is a strip decorated with sgraffitos and there are also the vents covered with openwork reliefs. The glasses on the top are acid etched.
In 1821, the use of L'Hospitalet's canals and streams as an energy source began. The first was the Canal de la Infanta flour mill, which was fully operational in 1824, and in 1856 Antoni Ferrer's paper mill was installed in Torrent Gornal.
In 1872, the Basté family acquired this mill and the adjacent plot to build a factory dedicated to yarn and fabrics. When the spinning mill was built and started working in 1899, the old paper building was respected. In 1913, Mrs. Tecla Sala bought the factory.
In 1937, with the agricultural and industrial collectivisations, it worked as a Maternity Home until it was returned to its owners in 1939.
In 1982, the City Council bought the building and rehabilitated it as a cultural centre.
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