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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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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.
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Memory
The headquarters of the SGAE in Barcelona is established on two different buildings in Passeig de Colom and La Mercè Street. The first corresponds to a manor house from the end of the 16th century. The plan is organised around a courtyard, which is reached through a vestibule covered with four-point vaults of low arches. Initially, the entrance is made through La Mercè Street. The urban transformations of the 18th and 19th centuries, which took place on Barcelona's seafront, forced our building to open up to the new space, and to change the direction of the main access. The building typology of the stately building corresponds to the characteristics of the time: carriage entrance and auxiliary outbuildings on the ground floor; main floor with more height and upper floors dedicated to secondary rooms. The second building, without any functional link with the previous one, was dedicated to low-quality housing.
The project, in addition to the rehabilitation tasks, has maintained the closed character of the building, opening different points of light inside to facilitate its habitability.
The main operations have been: 1. Covering the main courtyard with a skylight to achieve equality between its two entrances. 2. Maintain the role of the main staircase as access to the main floor and open a skylight over it that allows the visual relationship between the floor’s dependencies. 3. Recover the deck as a viewpoint over the port of Barcelona. The fundamental premise of the intervention has been to make the opaque and closed nature of the building compatible with the functional and environmental needs required by an office program. Mainly those of natural lighting and internal interrelation.
The project reinforces the contrast between the darkness that we imagine behind the hard façades and the clarity and spatial correspondence that we encounter when we enter the building. The design has not imposed any language unit, but each part of the building has imposed its own conditions. This explains the absence of globalising designs and the taste for diversity in architectural treatment.
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Headquarters of the SGAE
Rafael de Cáceres Zurita, Esteve Terradas i Muntañola, Robert Terradas i Muntañola
The headquarters of the SGAE in Barcelona is established on two different buildings in Passeig de Colom and La Mercè Street. The first corresponds to a manor house from the end of the 16th century. The plan is organised around a courtyard, which is reached through a vestibule covered with four-point vaults of low arches. Initially, the entrance is made through La Mercè Street. The urban transformations of the 18th and 19th centuries, which took place on Barcelona's seafront, forced our building to open up to the new space, and to change the direction of the main access. The building typology of the stately building corresponds to the characteristics of the time: carriage entrance and auxiliary outbuildings on the ground floor; main floor with more height and upper floors dedicated to secondary rooms. The second building, without any functional link with the previous one, was dedicated to low-quality housing. The project, in addition to the rehabilitation tasks, has maintained the closed character of the building, opening different points of light inside to facilitate its habitability. The main operations have been: 1. Covering the main courtyard with a skylight to achieve equality between its two entrances. 2. Maintain the role of the main staircase as access to the main floor and open a skylight over it that allows the visual relationship between the floor’s dependencies. 3. Recover the deck as a viewpoint over the port of Barcelona. The fundamental premise of the intervention has been to make the opaque and closed nature of the building compatible with the functional and environmental needs required by an office program. Mainly those of natural lighting and internal interrelation. The project reinforces the contrast between the darkness that we imagine behind the hard façades and the clarity and spatial correspondence that we encounter when we enter the building. The design has not imposed any language unit, but each part of the building has imposed its own conditions. This explains the absence of globalising designs and the taste for diversity in architectural treatment. -
Premi Ciutat de Barcelona
Menció Especial. Category: Architecture and UrbanismHeadquarters of the SGAERafael de Cáceres Zurita, Esteve Terradas i Muntañola, Robert Terradas i Muntañola