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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 project involved developing a school on a very small plot of land: a plot of about 630m2 on which a roof of about 700m2 had to be built. This plot was located at the end of an existing sports court that was to be used as the school playground. The school's surroundings were made up, to the west, of the facilities of a football field and, to the east, a sector of single-family houses separated from the school space by a passageway only three metres wide.
Virtually all the openings have been located on the south and north sides. Thus, the main visual axes through the building follow the longitudinal axis of the site, in the direction where there is no interference from buildings (those of the football field or the single-family houses). In this way, the longest views are prioritised: some towards the forests and hills to the south of the village and others towards the stream and fields to the north.
Both the layout of the main routes through the building (those leading to and from the school grounds and those of the staircase and interior hallways) and the design of the porch (set at different heights and where all the circulation routes converge) also aim to emphasise the views to the south and north.
The main access to the school is via a ramp that runs tangent to the passageway. This ramp manages to cross the east façade without hardly altering it - just like a child who climbs under someone's skirt without lifting them. In this way, the façade maintains its appearance of a blank wall that embraces and closes off the access porch. The ramp, the blind volumes and the fence of the site of the east façade are intended to widen and enrich the public space of the passage and to provide access to both the school and the different playgrounds through the proposed porch. The formalisation of the east façade, with hardly any reference to stairs, is intended to give the building the public character it deserves.