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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Civil building. Its interest lies in the adaptation of a new building to the old country house, located in the centre of the complex, of which the ground floor, the access door and one of the Gothic windows on the façade are preserved. The new building covers the defense tower and reproduces the original windows. The left side of the Casino constitutes the theatre area and the right side is made up of the main entrance and the Rotunda, on the roof of which the intersections of the framework are finished with decorative elements so that they look like hanging keys. The architectural elements are absolutely heterogeneous: Gothic, neoclassical, modernist and eclectic.
Theater
It has a neoclassical and romantic nature. It consists of a platform with lateral tribunes on the ground floor and a roughly semicircular curved balcony supported by cast iron columns. The decorations, mouldings and ceiling panels are made of plaster.
The wrought iron railings and modernist lamps are also interesting.
Some pieces of this theatre are reused from some places of Barcelona.
Forgings
The old Mas Vell Casino gate closes the garden. The access door is in the centre and on it are the initials M.A. of its former owner, Miquel Amat.
It is made of iron and consists of a set of parallel and crossed bars. There are rows with vegetal elements and sinuous lines, typical of modernism.
Constructive elements that demonstrate the marked modernist trend of the Casino. They observe how both the door handle or the wrought iron of the rotunda's pergola accentuate the decorative value through sinuous, asymmetrical curves that end in squiggles or spirals.
The "Casino" del Masnou was born as an entity in 1876. The idea of a new building was put into practice by Pere Grau Maristany -Count of Lavern-, located in the "Can Fontanills" country house, owned by Miquel Amat i Lluch. In 1903, the Rotunda, game rooms, billiards and other outbuildings were inaugurated. In 1904, the theatre also opened. The modernist main entrance is from 1902.