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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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Project by: 
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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
The Baixeras School Complex is located on the block of the Ciutat Vella district bounded by the streets Salvador Aulet, Sots Tinent Navarro, Via Laietana and Plaça Emili Vilanova. It has an exterior façade facing Via Laietana, Salvador Aulet and Sots Tinent Navarro Streets. The main access is via Salvador Aulet Street.
This building for school use is located at the end of a block with a plot delimited by an acute angle. The project places the main staircase at this angle to regularise the rest of the floors and make better use of them for classrooms.
It consists of a basement, ground floor and four floors. The ground floor is split to absorb the unevenness between the two opposite streets, two levels of windows appear on this floor.
The composition of the façades presents two conceptions: more regularity in the two upper floors than in the lower ones. Thus, in the upper part, equidistant rhythms of half-point arch and rectangular windows without decorations are traced, while the lower floors respect the vertical correspondence of openings but are composed by window areas: groups of six windows grouped in contrast with groups of two, with classicist aesthetics.
On the ground floor, the facing of the façade is a continuous coating that represents ashlars arranged regularly. On the rest of the landings, the same covering draws a grid that generates rectangles occupied by large sgraffitos where angels and vegetal and floral elements appear.
The building is finished by a large classicist cornice with noucentista-style modillions. The roof is flat, and the rooftop is used as a play area. The perimeter of the crowning is solved with pedestals of classic molding combined with metal grid. These pedestals had served as a base for some very colourful terracotta vases that have now been removed.
Artistically, the sensitivity demonstrated in the decoration of the façades should be highlighted, especially in the sgraffitos. Its ornamentation includes formal elements of traditional Catalan architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the aforementioned terracottas and sgraffitos. A sculpture in honour of Àngel Baixeras, benefactor of the school, made in stone by Francesc Canyelles i Balaguerí should be noted.
The name of the school comes from the architect and financier, Àngel Baixeras, who donated money for the construction of the school. It is also a coincidence that he was the one who drew up the Project to open the Via Laietana, connecting the Eixample with the port as Cerdà conceived it. In honour of this generosity, the Mancomunitat of Catalonia added a sculptural group at the corner of Via Laietana with Salvador Aulet at the height of the first floor. The terracottas and sgraffitos were made by Francesc Canyelles i Balaguerí, also author of the interior pictorial part.
This construction is a clear example of noucentista architecture, with classical and Mediterranean inspirations. Buildings for schools became of great historical importance due to the great attention that the Commonwealth authorities gave to education. It was the first School Group promoted by the Mancomunitat of Catalonia to alleviate the deficit in schooling and illiteracy. The school has a recreation area on the roof; classrooms with direct light; library, etc., responding to the pedagogical renewal.
Its political and strategic importance is also evident in the breadth and urban presence of the buildings, located in very prominent places in the city, and by the resources used in the architecture.
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