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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
L'arquitectura que es feia a Barcelona en època de Sagnier ha estat sovint acusada de preocupar-se només de les façanes. Evidentment, tant aleshores com avui dia, era responsabilitat dels arquitectes distribuir la planta dels pisos segons les condicions del solar, determinar els sistemes d'accessos i ventilació, calcular i dirigir el procediment constructiu i, sovint, decorar els interiors, quan menys als espais més representatius. Però és cert que bona part de la inventiva projectual es bolcava a la façana, ja que les tipologies d'habitatge a l'Eixample estaven força estandarditzades. La preocupació decorativa d'arquitectes i propietaris va augmentar especialment a partir del 1897, quan es van aprovar unes noves ordenances municipals que permetien enriquir les façanes amb cossos sortints i elements ornamentals per sobre de la línia de cornisa.
A edificis com la casa de Camil Mulleras, el passejant podia adonar-se de la potència econòmica d'un propietari que no dubtava a utilitzar el material més car, la pedra natural, en una façana a la moda, ricament esculpida. A moltes obres, com en el cas que ens ocupa, Sagnier va comptar amb la col·laboració de l'escultor Alfons Juyol. Les cases de veïnatge dels anys compresos entre 1900 i 1907 presenten una clara familiaritat deguda a l'ús d'uns repertoris formals comuns: tractament rude de la pedra natural, obertures en arc trilobulat o abundància de l'ornament naturalista a les superfícies. En aquesta casa trobem un recurs que li agradava repetir a l'arquitecte i que trobem als seus edificis al llarg de la seva carrera: la introducció d'un petit fris que corre sota la llosa dels balcons, fris sovint emmarcat per dues mènsules.
El vestíbul treu partit de les modestes dimensions del celobert per ubicar, d'una manera enginyosa, l'escala particular que condueix al pis dels propietaris i una altra escala que prestava servei als habitatges de lloguer situats als nivells superiors.