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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 Domènec Coll apartments are located on the block of the Eixample district, which is bounded by the streets Bruc, Diputació, Girona and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. These are two residential buildings, one of them between partitions and the other forming a corner.
The building located at the corner of Bruc and Diputació Streets has a particular structure. The ground floor and mezzanine follow the alignment of the chamfer, but on the ground floor it recedes, forming perpendicular façades to Bruc and Diputació Streets that converge in a tower that contains the stairwell. In this way, façades are obtained, open to the street, which contain galleries more typical of the façades that face the courtyards. The structure in height comprises a ground floor and five upper floors, all covered by a passable flat roof. The entrance portal of the building, the apex of the roof of the existing small building on the terrace of the chamfer and the tower of the stairwell form an axial axis from which the openings are distributed. The facing of the façades facing the street is covered by a stucco that imitates limestone, broken by the openings framed in stone, where those on the first floor and the central tower have pilasters crowned by a classicist pediment. This system contrasts with the light solution of the open galleries on the main façade, of which the use of coloured glass stands out. The main access leads to a lobby area and the central tower where the residents' staircase is located. These elements are decorated with fire-ironed stucco in different colours and geometric shapes, hydraulic mosaic...
On the other hand, the building facing number 62 Bruc Street responds to the most common solutions for buildings between partitions in the Eixample. Rectangular in plan, it has a structure in height that includes a ground floor and five upper floors, with three axes of openings on the ground floor and four on the rest of the upper floors, all formed by an axial axis that is in the central entrance hall. The façade presents the same facing solutions as in the chamfer building, with smooth stucco imitating ashlar and openings framed by classic pediments on the lateral axes. The ground floor opens onto the street through three large vestibules where the main access is located in the central one which gives way to a lobby area and to a central rectangular clerestory in which the residents' staircase is located. The crowning of the building is identical to the other, with stone permodules supporting a cantilevered cornice, with the roof enclosed by a balustrade.