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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
The editorial team of Bloc N takes a trip to Germany, where they visit the reconstruction of some cities under the precepts of the Modern Movement. The visit to the International Exhibition of Berlin Interbau 57 and the reconstruction of the Hansaviertel district have a great influence on them. Architects visit works by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto and Walter Gropius. But the residential tower of the Dutch Bakema and Van der Broek is of special relevance. In the N block of Montbau, which still being projected in the first phase did not find its position on the plan until 1968, the exploration of the section of the tower of the Dutch made by the Catalan team and applied to its design is remarkable. The building, made of a ground floor and 15 additional floors, is the tallest one of the complex. It has a vertical access core and 8 homes per floor with access through a walkway. The house is organised in three half-heights: one for access, another for living-dining room and kitchen and the third for bedrooms and bathrooms. The structure is made of load-bearing walls, of reinforced concrete, 25 cm parallel to the front wall. Access to the homes is made every 3 floors, in a staggered fashion. This block gives the singular point to the square framed by blocks A and B, being the most visible element of the set.
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Chronology
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Montbau Industrial Estate
Giráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages
The Montbau district, located below the Tibidabo, next to Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron, has a total area of approximately 31 Ha. The part built today, or in a very advanced stage of construction, consists of two basic residential units. The garden and the neighbourhood park are also practically finished. A group of about 70 single-family homes in the upper part of the slope is currently under construction, a group that we will not include in the present analysis because it is in a very little advanced phase and, therefore, without specific data. The architect of this group is Joan Bosch. Who are the authors of Montbau? Here is a first concrete problem that can lead us to general considerations. Due to programming requirements, the Municipal Housing Board decided to commission the architects Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López and Xavier Subías with the urgency of a very few weeks as a matter of urgency. By what criteria were these architects chosen? Probably for simple reasons of proximity, administrative relationship, circumstantial insufficiency of the technical staff itself, etc. But was there a concern to choose a good team precisely for one of the largest projects that were then being developed? At least, or was there an awareness that, by chance and for reasons of bureaucratic convenience, he had fallen into the hands of a good team, then with a promising youthful push? * The original Partial Plan was altered, both in its first phase, slightly, and in the second one, with a change of drafting team and urban planning that substantially modified it. -
Montbau Industrial Estate: First Unit
Giráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages
The architects quickly made a complete enough Advanced Plan to approach the requirements of a Partial Plan (1957) so it could be presented at an urgent commemorative exhibition. After the exhibition, the City Council's Technical Services completed, modified and, in fact, redrafted the Plan until it was fully approved. Among these corrections, imposed through the procedure, it is necessary to consider some of special importance: the addition of another floor to all the buildings that appeared in the Plan. It was a last-minute 'administrative' imposition, given the fear that the land would be too expensive due to low building density. Here is how, with the simple handling of the aseptic and seemingly harmless text of the Volumetric Ordinances, one can redo an inclusive plan and misrepresent on possible guiding ideas. With this distortion, the Plan was approved on December 13, 1957. In accordance with this project, the Board carries out the first sector. The Board of Trustees is limited to acting as a general developer, making various private entities, especially Cooperatives, act as owners and builders. The administrative system is interesting and proves to be extraordinarily effective, especially in economic channeling, and even in some limited sociological integration. -
Block N of Montbau Estate
Giráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages
The editorial team of Bloc N takes a trip to Germany, where they visit the reconstruction of some cities under the precepts of the Modern Movement. The visit to the International Exhibition of Berlin Interbau 57 and the reconstruction of the Hansaviertel district have a great influence on them. Architects visit works by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto and Walter Gropius. But the residential tower of the Dutch Bakema and Van der Broek is of special relevance. In the N block of Montbau, which still being projected in the first phase did not find its position on the plan until 1968, the exploration of the section of the tower of the Dutch made by the Catalan team and applied to its design is remarkable. The building, made of a ground floor and 15 additional floors, is the tallest one of the complex. It has a vertical access core and 8 homes per floor with access through a walkway. The house is organised in three half-heights: one for access, another for living-dining room and kitchen and the third for bedrooms and bathrooms. The structure is made of load-bearing walls, of reinforced concrete, 25 cm parallel to the front wall. Access to the homes is made every 3 floors, in a staggered fashion. This block gives the singular point to the square framed by blocks A and B, being the most visible element of the set.
Bibliography
Routes (1)
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Rutes 59
Related Works (15)
Set Polígon Montbau | Polígon Montbau: Unitat Sud-Oest
