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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Group of industrial buildings and former home of the owner of the Moretó flour mill, founded in 1890. It is a work of transition between Modernisme and Noucentisme, built between 1917 and 1919. In 1929 it was extended with new silos and, some time later, in 1935, the garden of the house was built there.
The industrial part is made up of several volumes at different heights. The main building has a rectangular floor plan of great height oriented to the north with several side buildings. They are located on a plinth of concentrated masonry with protruding exposed brick columns, which act as vertical dividers. The top is based on a cornice of wavy shapes with brick framing. The columns surmount the cornice in the form of a pinnacle covered with semi-circular ceramic pieces.
Casa Moretó is located within the complex, but isolated and surrounded by a garden. It has a quadrangular floor plan, two-storeys high and covered by a hip roof with an acroterium at the top. In the eastern corner stands a four-storey lookout tower with a pavilion roof, also crowned by an acroterium at the top. It has a semi-detached body at the front with a square plan, consisting of a ground floor and a main floor and crowned by a terrace protected by a masonry balustrade. Attached to this body we find a porch supported by two square shaft columns on which there is a terrace with access from the ground floor of the main body, and which is also protected by a masonry balustrade. The openings have flat lintels with stepped sills and decoration with green ceramic tiles above and also on the imposts, all crowned by a brick arch. The decorations under the eaves of the main building and the lookout tower stand out. They are made with bricks that combine brown and green in a pattern of geometric motifs.
The Moretó i Prat brothers, settled in Mollet and owners of a steam sawmill, took advantage of the surplus energy to install millstones to grind flour in 1895. In 1919, the second generation started construction work on the new factory and house at the current location. The garden and the fence of the house were carried out later, in 1935.