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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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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
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Basílica de la Sagrada Família
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
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AMB
EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona
IEFC
Fundació Domènench Montaner.
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356.The design of the Q block, together with the P and R, made it possible to double the density of the building in the second stage of Montbau’s construction, separated from the first by the Torrent Central (Pomaret). Organisationally, it is similar to the L’s short arm of block P, with a square plant and 17 m laterally. In the same way, the staircase is in the middle and gives access to 4 houses per landing. But having 14 floors in height instead of just 4, requires the installation of elevators. Two of them are placed per block, serving the even and odd plants respectively. The other differentiating factor is the 45º turn with respect to the arrangement of the other buildings, in order to achieve a good orientation and to avoid the frontality between the towers, optimising the views and the sunlight that all the houses receive. It is the only building for which the ground was leveled, so that all 4 façades are of the same height. The structure of this building is mixed with concrete and masonry. At the time, there was still a tendency to build taller buildings with the load-bearing wall system. In this case, the reinforced concrete is introduced into the exterior walls and the brick is retained for the interior structure.
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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 Estate: Second Unit
Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri
When the decision to build the second sector was made in 1961, the Board of Trustees commissioned the architects Manuel Baldrich, Antoni Bonet, Pedro López Iñigo and Josep Soteras to drat the corresponding architectural project. What were the reasons for choosing this heterogeneous team, made up of two municipal architects, a provincial architect and an independent architect, who had just arrived from Argentina with an obvious professional prestige? This team, despite the presence of municipal architects, one of them co-author of the first Plan, decided that it could not be limited to design the buildings, but it was also necessary to completely redo the urban structure of that sector. A new Plan was therefore drawn up, which was approved on July 2, 1962. With this new Plan it seems that exactly the double number of dwellings that had been initially planned in that sector were built. -
Block Q of Montbau Estate
Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri
356.The design of the Q block, together with the P and R, made it possible to double the density of the building in the second stage of Montbau’s construction, separated from the first by the Torrent Central (Pomaret). Organisationally, it is similar to the L’s short arm of block P, with a square plant and 17 m laterally. In the same way, the staircase is in the middle and gives access to 4 houses per landing. But having 14 floors in height instead of just 4, requires the installation of elevators. Two of them are placed per block, serving the even and odd plants respectively. The other differentiating factor is the 45º turn with respect to the arrangement of the other buildings, in order to achieve a good orientation and to avoid the frontality between the towers, optimising the views and the sunlight that all the houses receive. It is the only building for which the ground was leveled, so that all 4 façades are of the same height. The structure of this building is mixed with concrete and masonry. At the time, there was still a tendency to build taller buildings with the load-bearing wall system. In this case, the reinforced concrete is introduced into the exterior walls and the brick is retained for the interior structure.
Bibliography
Related Works (15)
Set Polígon Montbau | Polígon Montbau: Unitat Nord-Est
