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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
The large unitary roof and the offset barbican help to accentuate this idea of a compact and unitary building.
With reference to the second aspect that has been taken into account when designing these homes, it has been that of their internal organisation. Unlike how it is usually done – with a central staircase that connects the different floors through a set of three crossed staircases that run through the building longitudinally and transversely and resting on double-height spaces – the different floors are gradually connected and related areas of the house to achieve greater spatial richness and interior light.
Likewise, the game of double space makes it possible to privatise the use of individual gardens by eliminating the views over the adjacent gardens.
Regarding the programme; on the two lower levels are the garage, services, kitchen-dining room and living rooms and on the upper levels are the bedrooms and a multi-purpose space under the roof.
The set of stairs and the double-height spaces have allowed several variants of interior distribution.
At the top of the estate near the ridge of the mountain is a smaller building with three floors of about 300 m2 each among a forest of pines and carob trees.
Access to this building is through a tunnel under the garden, which leads to the parking and community services floor, or through the garden along a small path next to the stone wall flanked by magnolias and blanks leading to the cylindrical volume of the inlet.
The aspects that have prevailed in designing this building have been the following:
1) Achieving a good relationship with the outside space where the openings adopt different solutions depending on the use and the conditions of the environment. Thus, the living rooms open onto the large terraces with canopies and pergolas on the south façade, the glass tower on the curb from which the ancient gardens can be viewed, the opening in the form of a large window that groups the children's bedrooms over the back garden, the curtain wall of the library over the forest, the window focusing on the landscape at the end of the corridor and the patterned windows of the service area or the open gaps between the walls on specific visuals. All of them contribute to achieving a good relationship between the different areas and the site.
2) Achieving a complex organisation from the simplicity of the floor plan of the house, in which the spaces overlap fluidly following the order of the structure.
3) Emphasise the construction based on handmade brick closing sheets which, when interrupted, allows to radiograph the mixed construction of metal pillars and concrete slabs with partial aspects such as the use of rigid, articulated knots, of simple support or cantilevered to support the front façade.
4) Finally, the use of noble materials such as the local Nicorella stone, manual bricks "maonets", exposed concrete, teak wood, steel and glass must contribute to the desired integration with the context and to the good aspect of the passage of time that was mentioned at the beginning.