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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 project adopts the dominant urban typology in the immediate environment, which is characterised by being located close to the boundary of the plot facing the street and by exhausting the building width in order to compact the building and maximise the rear garden. In this way, the height at which the building is located is used to enjoy the views of the horizon and to house in the garden a swimming pool related to the more extroverted life of its inhabitants.
Simultaneously, the project introduces a courtyard in the two-storey building, which on the ground floor is closed on its four sides and on the first floor is an open U facing south. This yard operates as follows:
- Eliminates the house-garden dichotomy, introducing a space in between that de-densifies the interior space and prolongs the experience of the house.
- Introduces light and ventilation in the central part of the building.
- Solves privacy problems by creating an intimate space protected from neighbouring views.
- It allows the building to be semi-buried since the side façades of the house can be blind to contain soil and therefore follow the current levels and to avoid the need to open windows towards the neighbouring façades.
- It allows the building to be semi-buried since the side façades of the house can be blind to contain soil and therefore follow the current levels and to avoid the need to open windows towards the neighbouring façades.