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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 must bear in mind that the Vila de Madrid Square is a very special space within the system of squares and free spaces in the old town. That is why we proposed the revitalisation of the square as an urban space for pedestrians, maintaining its specificity as a "different" place within the streets and squares that surround it, and to celebrate the archaeological site that the square hosts: a Roman necropolis, one of the most important vestiges of Catalonia in the Roman era.
The square is presented as an urban public garden, partly because it is the way to respond to its uniqueness as an archaeological site, partly because it continues the same concept of intervention, and finally because we always imagine it as a different place in urban spaces of commercial activity (sometimes frantic) surrounding it. A central grassy square is proposed at the level of Canuda Street and the eastern front of the square. The central area of the square is covered with grass and most of the existing trees are maintained. The surface of the lawn is depressed with a slight slope to the level of the Roman necropolis.
Approximately in front of the façade of the Palau Sabassona building, the headquarters of the Ateneu Barcelonès, there is a paved strip with a portico-viewpoint towards the area of the tombs. A pedestrian walkway "flies over" the archeological remains until the extension of the Duc de la Victòria passage (connected to the Rambla through the commercial passage). This walkway has, at the bottom, a system of doors that protect the access to the archeological area.
In the perimeter area of the square, the usual building materials and street furniture in the historic centre of Barcelona are used. In the central area, however, turf, basalt stone and weathering steel are introduced. With the latter, walls that allow the permanence of pre-existing trees are built.
autoria desconeguda
BCQ Arquitectes, David Baena i Asencio, Antoni Casamor i Maldonado