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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
We understand that the project responds to the particularities of its location and programme of needs.
In relation to the site, it is located between the boundary of the consolidated city and the future extensions.
The transition from one fabric to the other is articulated by a strip of natural terrain, which is structured by the Mèder river.
On the northern boundary, the consolidated city is made up of courtyards overlooked by the rear façades of buildings between partitions.
Among them is ‘Can Serratosa’, the current headquarters of the Vic School of Music, which will house common spaces in the new School of Music.
‘Can Serratosa’ has a side passage that allows direct access from the street to the site, which will be of great importance in the development of the proposal.
The southern boundary, on the other hand, is just a property line with no real consistency, which we think should be dissolved by giving a solution of continuity to the unbuilt plot with the green defined by the river bank.
In relation to the programme:
It is basically made up of parts of very different constitution: Theatre, Auditorium, Services, Music School and Restaurant.
If the Theatre and the Auditorium are large-scale pieces that do not need natural light, the Music School is, on the contrary, the repetitive aggregation of small units that do need natural light and ventilation. In the case of the Theatre, it is worth highlighting the inevitable height of the stage box which, due to its volume, will be a visual reference of the complex in relation to the city and its immediate surroundings.
PROPOSAL
It has been elaborated according to the objectives:
1. To understand the construction attached to the consolidated city, as a merged part of it and, on the contrary, to link the free space to the natural territory organised by the river bank.
2. To use project systems that were capable of solving with the same instruments (relationship with the ground, geometry and roofs, basically) pieces as diverse, in terms of use and scale, as those that make up the programme, and which in turn managed to include the volume of the scenic box in the rules of the system used.
3. In this sense, the use of the passage from ‘Can Serratosa’ to the free space has been very important, as a backbone that situates and gives access to all the parts of the programme. And also the use of the sloping roof, which descends from the highest level of the stage box and unfolds to cover porches and classrooms.
4. Among the materials used (exposed concrete, basalt, lacquered aluminium, etc.), we have introduced a metallic cladding in the highest parts of the stage box and the School of Music, a copper-aluminium alloy, which directs the view to the skyline of the complex and, from there, to the city of Vic.
Pedro Ayesta, Josep Llinàs Carmona, Josep Llobet i Gelmà, Laia Vives
Pedro Ayesta, Josep Llinàs Carmona, Josep Llobet i Gelmà, Laia Vives