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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Rubí local market is in a central urban position. It is in a triangular plot, which gives the market the same shape. In the northern side, before the intervention, there was an excavated inbuilt and residual space which was not used. The project proposes building an underground two-storey parking, connected to the existing one. Over the new parking, the enlargement of the market is built.
The project includes the refurbishment of the lower floors in order to integrate them into the parking, installing refrigerators and waste processors.
This new square, over the underground parking, will be the new outdoors hall of the market. Its geometry tries to make the slope walkable and suitable as a public space. In addition, it is an extension of the commercial activities inside the market, giving enough space for fairs and occasional outdoor commercial events.
With this project the market changes its orientation, having the main entrance in the square. So then, this extension is almost like a façade-building, with new city hall and market administration offices, which lies on the northern side of the plot. This building, then, occupies the frontal area, growing higher than the existing market so that it becomes something like a three level placard. In the ground floor, the building has commercial spaces related to the existent market activity, and the main access to the market and to the underground parking.
“In fact, projects have always a secret thinking or a hidden beginning which allows thinking about the place and working in it… and this is something which is normally not explained. They are personal interests, certain ideas that were born in an intense work moment, which happen to be important for the logical development of the project.
We have built a sort of urban beach, where people would lie and sunbathe, wander, play… It is a new topography made of sand and pavement that landmark a water building, something like a wavy front. This is a transparent blue building, where foam is still shining. It is almost a marine landscape, made of blue and grey, like the roof of the market, where water would be the main character too…”