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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 Joaquima Vendrell house is located on the corner of Carrer Vallhonrat and Passatge Prunera. It is a block of flats between partitions consisting of a ground floor, a mezzanine, six floors and a rooftop. There are five flats per floor, of about 76 m2, with an uneven distribution. The façade is articulated from the corner, rounded and symmetrical.
On the ground floor, the openings follow a regular rhythm and have the jambs marked by a plain moulding that ends in a rectangular piece in the form of corbels that support the lintel. The main door, located in Vallhonrat street, has a broken frame. This level has a stone slab facing, unlike the upper levels, which are plastered and painted.
From the first floor onwards, the façade folds into a triangular shape following two longitudinal axes on Carrer Vallhonrat, and another two on the Passatge Prunera. On these two façades, all the openings, which follow a regular rhythm, are lintelled, and on the first and fourth floors there is a continuous balcony that follows the triangular shapes. This fourth floor is crowned by a cornice and from this level onwards, the plane of the façade recedes diagonally, which means that from the top floor only the triangular bodies are visible from the street and, as they do not recede like the rest of the wall, they remain in the form of a tower.
The rounded corner has a tribune protruding from the mezzanine and acts as a balcony on the first floor. On the first, second and third floors there is a projecting cubic volume, the upper one less than the other two, and here there are windows. On the second and fourth floors there are balconies running around the corner, while on the third floor there are two balconies and the corner is left free. The fifth floor has no balcony, but is crowned by a cornice. The top floor is left as if it were a tower, as are the triangular bodies of the other two façades.
The facing is painted white except for the triangular bodies, balconies, the tribune and cornices, which are painted red. This play of volumes, emphasised by the use of colour, shows the influence of expressionism and cubism in the construction of the building.