In Pictures
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© Josep Ferrando, Pedro García Hernández
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© Josep Ferrando, Pedro García Hernández
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© Josep Ferrando, Pedro García Hernández
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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
LOCATION
The building is located at the confluence of two streets of very different character and section, but of great importance for Vilafranca: on the one hand, Pelegrina Avenue, which is the bypass of the town, with a fast-track section, a large traffic density and few pedestrians; on the other, the Igualada road, as a great promenade that connects with the centre of Vilafranca. The new outpatients clinic understands and responds to the place through a clear, clean and articulated volumetry: a low body that grows in the corner, at the meeting of the streets, marking the entrance to the building and becoming the new door to the city.
PROGRAM
The building is projected from the void, the patios articulate the volumetry and the spaces, guaranteeing the perfect illumination of all the spaces and favouring the privacy that a healthcare building requires. The articulation of the patios achieves domestic and human proportions of the waiting rooms, the steps and the rest of the spaces for relationships, favouring a comfortable use with quality visual and lighting relations. The lower body incorporates the entire program for public use, leaving the most private parts on the upper floors of the entrance volume.
MATERIALITY
The materials used also respond to a double scale: on the one hand, the precast concrete pieces give the volume its character as a public building, as a new access door to the city; that contrasts with the interior, white, clean and bright, where the materiality is the light itself, which floods the spaces through large windows framing the relationships between the interior and the exterior. The glass and the windows move in and out in these large sheet metal frames, establishing different spatial relationships with the exterior and with the patios, which guarantee the intimacy and privacy of the consulting rooms and waiting rooms.