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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
This Primary Education Centre is distributed over five floors. The ground floor is in a basement situation with respect to the main access, but practically on the same level as Carrer d'Avinguda del Carrilet and the playing fields. The first floor, above the previous one, is the main floor of the school. It has a level entrance thanks to the formation of a large embankment that forms a gentle ramp for the main access. This embankment also allows for the creation of play spaces reserved for pre-school students, and as a barrier to the street, a large heavily landscaped slope. Above this there are two more floors fully occupied by classrooms, and above there is the fourth floor with some additional classrooms, an engine room, the large skylight in the central courtyard, and a large, sheltered terrace. The large central courtyard of the building receives light from an extensive skylight and distributes it to the vestibular areas of each floor, located around the entire perimeter. At the two ends of this courtyard, and consequently, at the ends of the vestibular areas, there are two staircases that connect all the levels of the centre that allow the interior circulation to be split at will. These stairs also receive light from the courtyard, which serves as a constant spatial reference. Adjacent to one of the stairs is an elevator. When the yard reaches the bottom, it expands into a free interior area next to the gymnasium, forming what we know in the school programme as a "porch". This distribution of the plants allows the students to converge in a common space that participates in the lights of the playground when they leave each of their classrooms. This vestibular space, however, is acoustically protected on each floor by a large, glass window. In this vestibular space and in the corner opposite the courtyard we find the spaces for special attention: departments, tutorials, small warehouses, etc., which receive light from the courtyard through windows placed in a very regular and serial manner. We intend that these windows constitute the frame-enclosure where the school's works are permanently exhibited, as showcases of the vestibular common space on each floor, which in this way becomes a small exhibition gallery.