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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
About us
Project by: 
Created by: 
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
It is a clear example of Coderch's conceptions of urban architecture, this time applied to a scholar and cultural building. The plot is occupied in its entirety by two underground floors and a ground floor, while the remaining eight floors form a very clear prism, set back from the street and separated from neighbouring buildings. The image of this prism from the different points of view of the street means that the design of the building has focused mainly on the skin of the façade. The reinforced concrete pillars are absorbed into the thickness of the skin, and the openings, very slender and located on the outside, accentuate the smooth appearance of the ceramic coating and offer a light and nuanced light inside. The result is a large, smooth volume that clearly assumes its urban role and is shown as a fragment of a city that cares, above all, about its position and the open spaces it generates.
The regulatory conditions of buildability and height mean that the first decision of the project is to give up part of this buildability in order to distinguish the building, separating it from other neighbouring buildings. In this way, Coderch endowed the edifice with notoriety towards the rest, convinced that this virtue is inalienable to any institutional construction.
Although the building is located on a street near Diagonal Avenue, it remains secluded and therefore isolated from the noise pollution of such a busy street. In any case, it is decided to solve these possible problems in the façade’s detail, as well as those of the visuals and glare, opting for a composition of very close pillars that leave in between each other the same void that they occupy. This fulfills the brise-soleil function, placing the carpentry flush with their exterior and favouring a neutral but forceful expression. The parallelepiped is covered with ceramic tiles and the only volume that stands out and is displaced is that of the emergency staircase that faces Tuset Street.
The surface that has been left free is complemented by vegetation that accompanies both the parking ramp, which grows two floors below, and the path that accompanies it to the entrance of the lobby, which houses both the reception and the library and the administration.
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French Institute of Barcelona
José Antonio Coderch de Sentmenat, Manuel Valls i Vergés
It is a clear example of Coderch's conceptions of urban architecture, this time applied to a scholar and cultural building. The plot is occupied in its entirety by two underground floors and a ground floor, while the remaining eight floors form a very clear prism, set back from the street and separated from neighbouring buildings. The image of this prism from the different points of view of the street means that the design of the building has focused mainly on the skin of the façade. The reinforced concrete pillars are absorbed into the thickness of the skin, and the openings, very slender and located on the outside, accentuate the smooth appearance of the ceramic coating and offer a light and nuanced light inside. The result is a large, smooth volume that clearly assumes its urban role and is shown as a fragment of a city that cares, above all, about its position and the open spaces it generates. -
FAD Award
Shortlisted. Category: ArchitectureFrench Institute of Barcelona