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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 building has a rectangular ground plan with a flat roof and a rooftop crowned with battlements. The building consists of a ground floor and two storeys, and has two entrance doors which, like the windows, are now walled up. The door on the east façade is semicircular and opens onto the tower that encloses the access and service staircase. On the south façade, originally surrounded by private gardens, there is a porch with a balustrade that allowed access to the ground floor and was used as the main entrance. Above this porch there are two balconies that coincide with the floors, in the manner of a gazebo. The openings, scattered along the four walls and at all levels, are finished off with simple gothic elements. The floors are differentiated by a frieze of battlements.
The country house of the Count of Fígols was built at the beginning of the 20th century to temporarily house the owner of the mining operation, Mr. Olano, and the family itself, who spent short periods of time there. It is a clearly historicist building that reproduces the outline of the castles crowned with 13th and 14th century battlements, a language widely used in this type of construction that should dignify and differentiate the owners. The tower has strong parallels with other towers in the textile colonies of the region, such as Cal Metro, Viladomiu Nou (Gironella), Cal Pons, Cal Riera (Puig-reig).
The tower was used for many years as the offices of the company Carbons de Berga S.A., but in the 1970s it was closed down.