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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 initial programme for this project described a building complex that was to house the facilities for the treatment and reception of satellite signals, a telephone exchange and premises for the management and sale of these services.
These functions were grouped in the two main buildings: a representative building with offices and an exhibition hall with a small bar, as well as a technical building which is the teleport itself. The programme also included a security control and premises for conventional installations. Of all this, only the technical building and those of installations and control have been built.
In the technical building, the importance of the network of connections and its frequent modification due to technological innovations finally led to a square floor plan completely surrounded by a perimeter corridor of access and service. To complete the effectiveness of this corridor and the flexibility of the connections, numerous vertical ducts have been placed that allow the direct passage of the installations from the ground floor to all the others, including the roof.
A certain homogeneity in the premises that make up the building, the margin of the surfaces and the security with which an evolutionary programme must be treated led to solving the plan with an orthogonal plot. A circular concrete pillar is placed in each of its nodes, and the partitions are always placed within the lines of this grid. It is therefore a perfectly isotropic porticoed structure, in which the enclosures are totally subordinated to the organisation of the framework. Construction and design problems are concentrated, as always, at the edges. To support the corridor, the perimeter pillars are deformed, hinged from a certain height to support some prefabricated slabs located at the height of the false ceiling of the interior premises.
The technical building is surrounded by a light enclosure made up of glass and practicable aluminum carpentry, which accompanies the perimeter corridors on the two upper floors and, through them, provides light and views to the work premises. This closure is interrupted in all corners of the building.