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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
About us
Project by: 
Created by: 
Directors:
2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2024 Ramon Faura Carolina B. Garcia Eduard Callís Francesc Rafat Pau Albert Antoni López Daufí Joan Falgueras Mercè Bosch Jaume Farreny Anton Pàmies Juan Manuel Zaguirre Josep Ferrando Fernando Marzá Moisés Puente Aureli Mora Omar OrnaqueCollaborators:
2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse ViuExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 Helena Cepeda Inès MartinelWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació Mies van der Rohe
Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Basílica de la Sagrada Família
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
Fomento
AMB
EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona
IEFC
Fundació Domènench Montaner.
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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.
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Memory
Located in Barcelona's port area, the Nova Aduana is located in the expansion area of the new loading and unloading docks and replaces the old customs house, which was housed in an 18th-century building near the Port Vell. The new construction sought to monumentalise the maritime entrance to the city and, at the same time, to rationalise the control and valuation of goods.
In this project, Sagnier counted with the collaboration of the architect Pere Garcia Fària, a specialist in the drainage of the city and an engineer in roads, canals and ports. The commission was formulated in 1890, but the project was not approved until 1895, after suffering many obstacles and alterations, as it was a public building controlled by the State and its layout had to be approved by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. The building adopts an H-shaped layout, as the initial idea of the customs technicians was that goods would enter at one end, pass through the inspection room and exit at the other end, but in practice its use could not be so rational, due to the bureaucratic formalities.
On the outside, the building has a monumental appearance, with certain echoes of Central European architecture, especially on the façade facing the city, while on the quayside the architectural lines are more sober. As in other projects, Sagnier avoids the monotony of the main façade by combining horizontal lines in the attic and vertical lines in the windows on the main floor, with the counterpoints of the two lateral bodies and, especially, the central core containing the entrance. This central body, where the inscription ‘Aduana’ appears in severe capital letters, concentrates most of the sculptural work and is crowned by a coat of arms of Spain and two large eagles, the work of the sculptor Eusebi Arnau, while at each end there are four griffins or winged lions. The chronicles of the time criticised the excessive proportions of these decorative elements ‘belonging to the fauna’ and the fact that the building did not clearly express its purpose.
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