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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 entrance of this building has a space with direct access to the street, where we can see a ceiling painted in a floral style, with a predominance of ochre tones, and geometric sgraffito on the walls. This part communicates with the courtyard covered by a glass dome where the staircase leading to the first floor is located. The junction between these two spaces is formed by arches, supported by a pair of columns with pseudo-Ionic capitals. On the walls there are elongated openings with stepped lintels with geometric sgraffito on the jambs.
The structural forms and decorations are similar to those used by Puig i Cadafalch in the interior of the Macaya house. Also noteworthy are the wrought ironwork forming the grilles and railings, of a geometric type, reminiscent of those designed by Gaudí.
Grandstand:
Iron structure and leaded stained glass decoration in soft colours with geometric patterns presided over by rounded inflexion arches like those inside the entrance. This tribune has the most important windows, together with the windows of the Working Class Athenaeum from Igualada, and they are almost the only ones in modernist decoration in Igualada.
Refurbishment promoted by Antoni Capell i Balañà.
Tribune:
The recovery of leaded glass, very typical of the stained glass windows of medieval cathedrals, is recovered by the Catalan Art Nouveau movement, as are other applied arts (wrought iron, ceramics, etc.) which, due to Arts & Crafts, a trend born in England, spread throughout Europe.