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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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: 
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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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The Agbar Tower is a "small skyscraper" with 35 floors and a height of 142 m. Its shape mimics a constant-pressure, stabilised water fountain, an ideal image for a water company's corporate headquarters. Structurally, the building responds to a model of load-bearing core and outer perimeter that transmits the loads of floors free of intermediate supports.
Constructively, these are two oval-shaped concrete cylinders supported by frames of metal beams that support corrugated steel sheet slabs and a layer of concrete. The eccentricity of the core organizes the standard floor: the free space is compressed in the elevator lobby and gradually expands, generating office space. The outer cylinder is straight until the 18th floor, where its generators begin to bend inward, gradually decreasing in section to the 26th. Here the concrete is interrupted and a glass dome with a metal structure ends the building. The last 6 floors, formed by post-stressed concrete slabs, are suspended in cantilever.
The outer wall is "pixelated" according to an almost square module plot. The windows are arranged on this lattice, forming a "calligraphy": the density of perforations in the wall is conditioned, in part, by solar radiation. Following this framework, modules of lacquered aluminum sheet are placed in 25 different colours and a second skin of glass slats with different degrees of transparency that blur the tower.
In a very indeterminate urban area and pending further action, the building is designed as a small skyscraper with 35 floors and 142 meters high. Its shape simulates a spring of water under constant and stabilised pressure, an image that is reinforced by the crater at the base, with a sheet of water that is interposed between the inside and outside of the tower. The office program occupies the first 18 floors and is completed with four floors below ground level that occupy the entire site. In the first basement there is an auditorium, which protrudes from the outside in the form of a small hill. The last six floors house the address. The total tower has three equidistant technical floors. The transmission of the loads is done through the perimeter and the core, so that all the plants are released from pillars. The façade completely dematerialises the outer cylinder by means of the lighting device, which becomes one of the main information and propaganda channels in the city.
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Agbar Tower
Ateliers Jean Nouvel, b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos, Jean Nouvel, Fermín Vázquez Huarte-Mendicoa
The Agbar Tower is a "small skyscraper" with 35 floors and a height of 142 m. Its shape mimics a constant-pressure, stabilised water fountain, an ideal image for a water company's corporate headquarters. Structurally, the building responds to a model of load-bearing core and outer perimeter that transmits the loads of floors free of intermediate supports. Constructively, these are two oval-shaped concrete cylinders supported by frames of metal beams that support corrugated steel sheet slabs and a layer of concrete. The eccentricity of the core organizes the standard floor: the free space is compressed in the elevator lobby and gradually expands, generating office space. The outer cylinder is straight until the 18th floor, where its generators begin to bend inward, gradually decreasing in section to the 26th. Here the concrete is interrupted and a glass dome with a metal structure ends the building. The last 6 floors, formed by post-stressed concrete slabs, are suspended in cantilever. The outer wall is "pixelated" according to an almost square module plot. The windows are arranged on this lattice, forming a "calligraphy": the density of perforations in the wall is conditioned, in part, by solar radiation. Following this framework, modules of lacquered aluminum sheet are placed in 25 different colours and a second skin of glass slats with different degrees of transparency that blur the tower. -
FAD Award
Finalist. Category: ArchitectureEU Mies Award
ShortlistedRoutes (1)
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