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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Street house located on the corner of the square and the Vic road, facing east. It consists of a ground floor and two storeys with volutes on top. Right at the corner there is a centenary arched window, divided into two parts by a pillar and some volutes and with a lion's head above it. In addition, there is a small stone balcony with the doorway framed with sgraffito and glazed tile decorations. The roof is supported by an elliptical brick column with a ball on top. On the first floor, in the area of the square, there is a terrace with sinuous brick railings, and on the corner of the street there are galleries. There are geometrically decorated windows on the floors in this section. The building is in a good state of preservation.
The building follows Catalan Art Nouveau principles and was built in 1917. On the balcony we can read the following inscription: “L'HOME RESOLT/ FA'L QUE/ VOL[...]” (‘THE DETERMINED MAN/ DOES WHAT/ HE WANTS’).
Can Pallàs is a Catalan Art Nouveau house built during the first third of the 20th century. It is a building located in a corner and made up of two distinct bodies. The central element of the façade is located on the very corner of the building, with a double-lancet window from which the corbels that support a balcony with a central Solomonic column start. This extends over a small canopy with a ball inscribed ‘YEAR 1917’. The balcony is decorated with mosaics and wrought iron elements and is accessed through a doorway with a sgraffito inscribed ‘El hombre resuelto hacelo que quiere’ (The determined man does what he wants). The entrance doorway is on one side and has a segmental stone arch with a decorative border on the lintel. On its axis there is a window with an upper relief in the form of a dust cap with a central decorative scroll. This same type of window is repeated on the floor of the second body, while on the ground floor they have a mixtilinear arch with a mullioned lintel. At the attic level, there are two large porticoes with ceramic segmental arches. From the upper part of this body, there is access to the walkable terrace that crowns the first body, which is enclosed by a sinuous handrail of exposed brickwork. The exterior treatment of the walls is plastered and painted, with a stone plinth imitating ashlars linking the openings on the ground floor.
The house was built by the developer Josep Pallàs Sala, who built several houses in Taradell and the Núria rack railway, and after whom it is named. According to popular tradition, the duration of the construction of the house was a much talked-about topic among the inhabitants of Taradell. When the works were finished, Pallàs had it inscribed in response: ‘the determined man does what he wants’.