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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 building is made up of two distinct bodies. The one facing Mañé i Flaquer Street consists of eight small homes, four of which face the interior of the block and another interior body, which was destined for an architecture studio.
The construction, intended for housing, fits discreetly into the urban environment in which it is inserted, that is, the old town of Sarrià, with a minimal and subtle language.
The composition of the narrow façade takes the suppression of the overhangs as a starting point for the design, which by ordinances could be built but which, at the will of the promoters and technicians, they renounced to execute them and gave place to the flat façade, which will be shown as an effective support for the general composition in narrow streets and old houses.
The resignation of protruding bodies ensures the continuity of the façade plans with the neighbouring buildings and provides an answer to the problem of narrow streets, avoiding the confrontation of façades and their openings and making family meetings more intimate.
In the unitary conception of the façade, each element is individualised, fitting into the space of the opening, taking as a reference the image of the block’s façades. They are glazed galleries, superimposed like a skin on the structures of the façades, which resolve interior/exterior traffic spaces.
Both façades, the interior of the block and the one on the street, are designed as a double skin, forming an intermediate air chamber between the interior of the homes and the exterior. The interior wall is glazed and the exterior, flush with the façade, is made of metal profiles, responding at the same time to a constructive problem and the need to divide the space, as a reference to the scale of the environment.
The ground floor is resolved with a small porch, which facilitates the maneuverability of the access and facilitates the independent entrance of the homes and the premises, enabling the vision of the depth of the inner courtyard through transparency.
Pere Aixàs i Espar, Sergi Godia i Fran, Juli Laviña Batallé, Josep Urgell i Beltrán
Pere Aixàs i Espar, Sergi Godia i Fran, Juli Laviña Batallé, Josep Urgell i Beltrán