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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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, which forms part of the edges of the ring roads plan, is located on a triangular plot with a steep slope at the meeting point of Passeig de la Vall d’Hebrón and Hospital Militar Avenue.
The main conditions considered in the project are the orientation of the houses, the natural topography of the site and the layout model present in this section of the Ronda de Dalt, as well as the optimisation of the use of natural energy resources, both lighting and climate related ones.
These arguments determine the position of the building on the plot, which is placed perpendicular to the Ronda de Dalt, taking up the entire front of the plot, thus obtaining a large façade surface oriented strictly to the south and freeing up the maximum space on the north side to separate itself from the gas station.
The houses, with two and three rooms, are structured with a very clear distinction between the night area and the day area. Those with three bedrooms are placed at the ends of the block, with the day area formed by the dining room-living room and the gallery on the south façade and the bedrooms located on the north façade. Those with two bedrooms are located in the central part of the block and have both the day and night areas located on the south façade.
The north, east and west façades are massive, in order to acoustically isolate the houses from street noise and provide them with a lot of thermal inertia, while the south façade is constituted as a gallery that acts as a selective solar collector, formed by an outer skin of wooden lamellas and an inner skin treated with specific openings. The core of vertical communications is built with exposed work and is moved slightly in plan, fragmenting the block, in order to widen the landings and also to provide them with more natural lighting.
Conxita Balcells i Blesa, Manuel Brullet i Tenas