How to get there
About
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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Suggestion box
Request the image
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.
close
close
Memory
During the 1930s, Barcelona was carrying out a process of internationalisation of Catalan culture and Passeig de Gràcia was becoming the most elegant and prestigious promenade of the moment. Rogeli Roca, who was a jeweler very interested in contemporary design and avant-garde movements, decided to move the family jewelry store that was located on Les Rambles, in front of the Liceu Theatre, and take it to the corner of Passeig de Gràcia with Gran Via. He was a friend of Sert's and entrusted him with the project.
This is a good example of how to intervene courageously in an existing building, although current regulations would not allow such an action to be proposed due to the protection of the Eixample. Sert's proposal is radical and consistent with the possibilities offered by the metallic structure of the building, which remained hidden under the neoclassical façades of the Eixample. The new façade is completely freed from the restrictions of the load-bearing walls and is conceived as a light enclosure. A translucent skin, executed with polished and reflective materials, which radically contrasts with the matt texture and opacity of the render.
This façade caused much controversy in the society of the moment.
Establishment located in the building facing 18 Passeig de Gràcia on the corner of 611 Gran Via. Along the entire length and height of the premises’ façade there is a structure that reflects the wall of the building, made of laminated profiles of steel and a new attached enclosure on the outside with the following elements: a small canopy, a perimeter frame clad in granite, an upper strip of black pavers, a lower strip clad in pink granite with casement windows and a side door of the left. In total, there are four openings: two on the promenade, one on the edge of the chamfer and one on the chamfer with the Gran Via. The aim of using a compositional element such as the Belgian glass pavers was to achieve a very bright interior space. The façade is the work of Josep Lluís Sert and is the only commercial establishment built according to rationalist parameters.
As for the interior, it still preserves the configuration of the space and the decoration project of 1933. The linoleum flooring, the carpets, the wood paneling of the chamfered wall, the showcase of the façade and of the side walls, the counter of the interior corridor in stained wood and smoked glass or the chairs in lacquered wood and upholstery are some of the elements that have been preserved.
The rarity of Roca jewelery lies in two aspects. On the one hand, it is the only commercial interior that has been preserved from the early Modern Movement in Catalonia. On the other hand, this work shows the beginning of the transformation of the central Eixample for its commercial uses. With this work, Sert was the first to carry out a complete flashing on the wall of a bearing façade to offer the street an aesthetic that was adapted to modern commercial standards. Roca jewelery was a pioneer in the commercial use of ground floors in new constructions and modifications to existing buildings.
The establishment was inaugurated in 1933. In 1964, Marcelo Leonori refurbished the interior decoration.
Authors
On the Map
Awarded
Cataloged
Disappeared
All works
Constellation
Chronology
-
Roca Jeweller's
During the 1930s, Barcelona was carrying out a process of internationalisation of Catalan culture and Passeig de Gràcia was becoming the most elegant and prestigious promenade of the moment. Rogeli Roca, who was a jeweler very interested in contemporary design and avant-garde movements, decided to move the family jewelry store that was located on Les Rambles, in front of the Liceu Theatre, and take it to the corner of Passeig de Gràcia with Gran Via. He was a friend of Sert's and entrusted him with the project. This is a good example of how to intervene courageously in an existing building, although current regulations would not allow such an action to be proposed due to the protection of the Eixample. Sert's proposal is radical and consistent with the possibilities offered by the metallic structure of the building, which remained hidden under the neoclassical façades of the Eixample. The new façade is completely freed from the restrictions of the load-bearing walls and is conceived as a light enclosure. A translucent skin, executed with polished and reflective materials, which radically contrasts with the matt texture and opacity of the render. This façade caused much controversy in the society of the moment.
