About
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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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 Francesc Rafat Antoni López Daufí Joan Falgueras Anton Pàmies Mercè Bosch Josep Ferrando Fernando Marzá Aureli Mora Omar OrnaqueExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel Maria Jesús QuinteroWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació Mies van der Rohe
Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Arxiu Mas
Basílica de la Sagrada Família
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona
Suggestion box
Request the image
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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Alçat de la façana del Casal del Metge.
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- Author:
- Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
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- Date:
- 1931 - 1932
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- Type:
- Drawing
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- Fonds / Held by:
- Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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- Rights:
- © Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Perspectiva de l'entrada de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
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- Author:
- Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
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- Date:
- 1931 - 1936
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- Type:
- Drawing
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- Fonds / Held by:
- Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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- Rights:
- © Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Perspectiva de l'interior del saló d'actes de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
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- Author:
- Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
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- Date:
- 1931 - 1936
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- Type:
- Drawing
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- Fonds / Held by:
- Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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- Rights:
- © Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Perspectiva de l'exterior de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
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- Author:
- Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
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- Date:
- 1931 - 1936
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- Type:
- Drawing
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- Fonds / Held by:
- Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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- Rights:
- © Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Perspectiva de l'interior de la biblioteca de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
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- Author:
- Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
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- Date:
- 1931 - 1936
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- Type:
- Drawing
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- Fonds / Held by:
- Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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- Rights:
- © Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Memory
Nascut a Lleida el 15 de maig de 1889 i morí a Barcelona el 14 de juliol de 1968. Va obtenir el títol d’arquitecte el 8 de gener de 1914. Fou arquitecte municipal i l’impulsor de la reforma del barri gòtic de Barcelona. També exercí la docència a l’Escola d’Arquitectura de Barcelona des de 1914 fins a 1952, any en què es va retirar per raons de salut. Publicà nombrosos treballs sobre història de l’arquitectura i sobre les activitats municipals de restauració i conservació de monuments. Entre les seves obres destaquen el Casal del Metge (1929), les cases Cambó (1921-25), el Palau de Comunicacions de la Plaça Espanya (1929), la reforma de la Capitania General (1928), la Duana Nova o la restauració del castell de Peralada. Va realitzar obres conjuntes amb Alfons Barba i Miracle i Fèlix de Azúa.
Source: Arxiu Històric del COAC
Works (23)
On the Map
Awarded
Cataloged
Disappeared
All works
Constellation
Chronology (27)
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Escola Joan Benet i Petit
L'escola dels Torms, d'estil noucentista, és l'edifici civil més destacat de la població, situat al carrer Prat de la Riba, en un dels terrenys més escaients del nucli urbà, lleugerament enlairat i disposat als quatre vents. Va ser la primera escola construïda per la Mancomunitat de Catalunya que en va encarregar el projecte a Adolf Florensa. A mode de prova pilot i inspirant-se en la necessitat de crear escoles "belles, alegres, higièniques i funcionals" es va concebre un model de centre on havia de cobrar força el mateix edifici com a eina educativa, amb aula d'estudi, aula de treball, despatx del mestre, pati cobert i bona il.luminació. D'aquí els grans finestrals i el pati porxat encarat a migdia. Consta d'una única planta que s'estructura en cos rectangular en forma de dues "L": una que constitueix pròpiament l'edifici amb coberta de teula àrab a dues aigües al cos d'accés i a tres aigües a la resta; i l'altra que constitueix el porxo exterior encarat a migdia amb coberta plana. L'edifici és circumdat per un baix sòcol perimetral de pedra vista irregular buixardada al bast i continua amb parament llis arrebossat blanc excepte a les cantonades on apareixen, a contrapunt, carreus buixardats. Rematant el parament, s'alça una cornisa motllurada i un ample ràfec. Al cos d'accés, que s'eleva lleugerament per sobre el nivell de la resta del conjunt, s'hi obren dues obertures en arc de mig punt, la porta i una finestra, i centrat al damunt, un òcul. Aquesta façana, que es reprodueix a la part contrària del cos amb finestrals allargats, es corona amb un ràfec de pedra mixtilini de reminiscències barroques i ve coronat per una pinya de pedra ornamental. Als murs s'obren finestrals verticals allargats que a la façana nord, esdevenen més amples i de mig punt. A migdia, hi ha el porxo caracteritzat per un aire classicitzant amb arcs que descansen sobre columnes jòniques de pedra sorrenca. Actualment, l'interior és totalment reformat i consta d'una entrada-vestíbul, un taller, dues aules i serveis. A la part frontal, disposa d'un espai de jardí que precedeix l'accés al recinte i al lateral i al darrere disposa d'un pati. El 1985 es va restaurar tot i l'edifici i al 2006 va ser objecte d'una completa reforma interior. Malauradament i atesa la baixa natalitat al municipi, al curs 2012-13 l'escola va gaudir dels seus darrers alumnes. Actualment, fa les funcions d'espai social per a infants i joves. L'edifici es manté ben conservat i manté els elements arquitectònics més característics, entres altres, l'esplèndida porxada que simbolitza una escola oberta i lliure. L'escola dels Torms va ser la primera de les quatre construïdes per la Mancomunitat de Catalunya i l'única que es conserva. La Mancomunitat va convocar un concurs de redacció a cada província, el primer premi del qual era la construcció de l'escola. L'edifici porta el nom de Joan Benet i Petit (Barbens, 1890- Barcelona, 1968), mestre que ho va gestar i que va deixar una forta empremta al municipi. L'arquitecte designat fou l'eminent Adolf Florensa (1889-1968), les obres s'inicien el 1916 a càrrec del constructor Ramon Rius de ca la Tona i s'acaben el 1917. L'edifici es va inaugurar el 10 de maig de 1918, aplicant des del principi les directrius pedagògiques més avançades de l'època. El seu valor simbòlic i emblemàtic recau en la seva significació com a símbol de la identitat d'una incipient i exemplar escola pública catalana. -
Cambó House
Located in the Ciutat Vella district, the old Francesc Cambó House occupies the southern half of the block of houses bounded by Via Laietana, Avinguda de Francesc Cambó and dels Mercaders and Pare Gallifa Streets. This building has three façades facing Via Laietana (from where the main access takes place), and the streets of Pare Gallifa and dels Mercaders. With a rectangular plan, the plot structure of this property is configured by two built bodies that adapt to the slope of the land and belong to different construction phases: the higher body, facing Via Laietana, was built previously respect to the lowest body, facing dels Mercaders Street. The structure in height of the previous body includes a base made up of ground floor and mezzanine and is developed with six floors and a main floor that, instead of being on top of the base, is located in the attic. The elevated structure of the rear body comprises a base consisting of a ground floor and a mezzanine divided into two levels of openings and is developed with four more floors. Both bodies have large traversable roof-gardens. The three façades of the building structure their openings in vertical and horizontal axes of regular rhythm, and present a homogeneous finish consisting of a stone base that embraces the ground floor and mezzanine and a coated finish on the rest of the floors. The base, entirely clad in Montjuïc stone, has an almost transparent ground floor based on large portals with lintels flanked by pilasters. The mezzanine, on the other hand, is developed as a gallery of aligned rectangular windows. Both levels are included within the base of the building by means of a monumental colonnade based on pillars and ribbed Doric entablature, with their entablature based on triglyphs and metopes. The main portal of access to the building is developed as a triumphal arch: two doors with lintels flanking a wide semi-circular arch, whose interior light houses a triangular pediment supported by two fluted Ionic columns. This portal retains its original enclosures, consisting of Roman-inspired lattice doors in bronze, decorated with lion heads with laurel wreaths. This portal gives access to the hall of the building, a space with a rectangular plan formed by two corridors covered with a coffered ceiling that rests its weight on Doric pilasters of grooved wood. The openings of the upper floors are developed in an orderly manner, rhythmic in several vertical sections of variable width. These are horizontal Chicago-type windows, some of them tripartite or bipartite by means of handles in the shape of a Tuscan column. The verticality of the building is enhanced by the four padded Tuscan pilasters that run the entire height of the building and that collect the visual weight of the attic. Indeed, the flagstone of the monumental balcony on the main-attic floor, decorated with reliefs and supported by corbels, acts as the entablature of the building. The attic or main floor is developed as a wide gallery of semi-circular arches with molded profiles and flanked by double Ionic pilasters. Following the vertical axis centered above the main access door, this penthouse has a tribune crowned by a triangular pediment and which opens onto the street through a Tuscan Serliana. Above this attic runs the balustrade that closes the roof garden. The roof deck became a garden of 1000 m2, arranged on two levels, with trees, plants, fountain and pergola. Visually, it has a continuity with a scenographic construction - perspective of a large Italian garden - mounted on a protruding partition of the Bartomeu Trias house (no. 26) in Pare Gallifa Street. During the Civil War it was damaged and later rebuilt by Joan Mirambell. The rear body presents the same finishing solutions and exterior projection of the openings, although it appears as a building of smaller proportions. On the other hand, the façade facing the street and the Placeta dels Mercaders shows everything from vertical openings with finishes that have no architectural entity in relation to the rest. Francesc Cambó i Batlle, conservative politician founder of the Regionalist League and who was a councilor of the Barcelona City Council and minister of several Spanish governments, was also the owner of numerous companies. Cambó actively participated in the urbanisation of the new Via Laietana and it was precisely there that he set up the headquarters of "Inmobiliària Catalana S.A." and his residence. Cambó House was designed with this dual purpose in mind by the famous architect Adolf Florensa i Ferrer. The construction of the building, which corresponds to a typology of skyscrapers inspired by the work of the American architect Louis Sullivan, took place in two stages: the previous body, designed between 1921 and 1923, was completed in 1925, while the back body and the attic of the previous one were built between 1930 and 1931. The façades visible from the brand-new Via Laietana were conceived as an ostentatious curtain to hide the degradation of Ciutat Vella, as indicated by the neglected aspect with which Florensa designed the rear façade, facing dels Mercaders Street. Currently, the building has been converted into a luxury hotel. -
Casal del Metge
Enric Catà i Catà, Adolf Florensa i Ferrer
Casal del Metge is located in the Ciutat Vella district, facing Via Laietana and Tapineria Street. It is a building between party walls with a rectangular plan consisting of an office building, with a ground floor and five landings, plus a semi-basement. Although the main façade is the one that faces Via Laietana, access currently takes place from 8-10 Tapineria Street. The two façades, with classical elements, are made with a Florentine rigor transferred to the new urban scales. The symmetry in the horizontal and vertical axes is one of the most relevant elements of the buildings, with the openings reproduced at a regular rate. The one facing Via Laietana has a central section slightly advanced in the vertical axis which reinforces the symmetry of the whole. At ground floor level, it has nine openings. The access portal and the two windows located on either side are resolved with a semicircular arch. This lower part of the façade is made with buttressed ashlars that draw geometric motifs with their joints that stand out compared to the rest of the façade, finished with polished stone. Below these windows, the polished stone plinth, there are other small ones, with flat sills, which illuminate a semi-subterranean floor. Above a small ledge that separates it from the upper floor are the five balconies on the first floor, of which only the central one is overhanging. Above all openings there is a triangular pediment, in the form of a dust guard, supported by corbels and joined together by a small cornice. The pediment of the central opening is broken by a shield of Aesculapius flanked by single curule jugs with stone fleurons and, below, a medallion with the date "1932". Of the upper floors, the third one stands out, with a running balcony that joins the three central openings, where only the one on the axis has a pediment above it and the upper one, where Doric columns have been arranged between the openings semicircular section. Above these columns we find the crowning, formed by alternating triglyphs and metopes decorated with a central ornate disc above which opens a cornice supported by simple corbels and all finished with a central pediment. The façade of Tapineria Street reproduces the classicizing and symmetrical formulas, with slight changes in the layout, order and finish of the openings. Leaving aside the façades, a series of representative outbuildings also stand out, among which the central courtyard and the assembly hall are of special interest, where Florensa refers, through the architectural and decorative elements, to various details of the old Casa de la Convalescència, which at one time housed the Faculty of Medicine. The Casal del Metge, the Cambó House and the headquarters of the Foment del Treball are, according to Oriol Bohigas, the buildings in Barcelona where the classic language manifests itself with greater correctness and urbanistic efficiency. -
Facultat de Nàutica
Adolf Florensa i Ferrer, Joaquim Vilaseca Rivera
La Facultat de Nàutica es troba ubicada al Pla de Palau, a l'inici del barri de la Barceloneta. Es tracta d'un edifici aïllat i de planta quadrangular, consistent en una àmplia planta baixa destinada a serveis i administració del centre, per sobre hi ha dues plantes i al capdamunt un terrat pla. Cadascun de les quatre façanes compta amb un accés amb escalinata de poc desenvolupament, que donen pas a sengles pòrtics de grans dimensions sense frontó flanquejats per columnes toscanes. Per sobre, els dos pisos presenten petites diferències en els volums, però poc ressenyables, amb grans obertures amb balconada les centrades i amb balcó sense voladís les dels costats. Algunes de les obertures de la primera planta presenten un frontó no decorat, les del segon pis no en tenen i presenten un senzill arc escarser. Els buits sense obertures estan ocupats per pilastres llises, amb capitell les del centre i estriades les dels cossos laterals. Corona les façanes un prominent ràfec i per sobre una balustrada de pedra. La coberta de l'edifici és plana, excepte per una llanterna de vidre que s'obre damunt del centre de la planta baixa. Als extrems de les façanes laterals i posterior, unes pilastres de carreus de pedra sobresortints del pla de façana s'eleven per sobre de la balustrada del terrat i acaben en templets amb cupulí semiesfèric, delimitats per quatre frontons triangulars. L'interior està resolt amb una planta baixa lliure, generada per un pati central ovalat, il·luminat per la gran llanterna, al voltant del qual s'organitzen les dependències dels pisos superiors. Del pati arrenca, pel costat sud, l'escalinata, que accedeix a una galeria altell a cada pis, la qual fa d'espai de distribució de les aules; per mitjà d'una llotja de tres arcs, de clares ressonàncies italianes, hom introdueix a la galeria del primer pis. Tant a la planta baixa com a l'escalinata hi ha vitralls emplomats policromats de notable artisticitat. El que presideix l'escala representa una caravel·la, amb un àngel al davant, i porta la data 1932, però no la signatura de l'autor. Ocupat per milícies antifeixistes durant la Guerra Civil, després s'hi va instal·lar l' Escola de la Marina Mercant de la Mediterrània. Entre 1936 i 1939 l'escola va tenir adscrit un vaixell escola, el President Macià, que era l'antic iot Rosa VV del Comte de Godó. Des de l'any 1990 forma part de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), com a Facultat de Nàutica de Barcelona -
Conversion of Spaces of the Royal Palace into Frederic Marès Museum
Adolf Florensa i Ferrer, Joaquim de Ros de Ramis
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Rehabilitation of Berenguer d'Aguilar House
Adolf Florensa i Ferrer, Joaquim de Ros de Ramis
Montcada Street is mostly configured by a succession of small palaces from the 13th and 14th centuries. The Picasso Museum takes up five palaces, where the central courtyards that are uncovered and accessible from the street stand out. The intervention connects the five courtyards to each other through a central corridor parallel to the street with which it is in direct contact. The construction of the central corridor also serves other main interests of the project: visual order, establishment of clear routes and obtaining a space representative of the public nature of the building. This is extended to all floors -ground, main and first- and the interior distributions are organised in relation to the aforementioned public space. The public nature of the ground floor is reinforced by means of a second axis perpendicular to the one already described that organises access to the rear garden and thus turns what could be a simple interior transformation into an urban gesture. This transversal element is what constitutes the open façade of the Museum, in Jaume Sabartés Square, in the planned annex building with a new floor that will contain a program of external activities of great importance for the public projection of the Museum. The new interior streets add architectural value to the palaces without damaging the characteristics of each one. This attitude, which tries to add without subtracting, is what has presided over the overall design. The new elements are superimposed on the existing constructive context in the service; both of a renewed image of the complex.
Archive (5)
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Drawing
Alçat de la façana del Casal del Metge.
© Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Drawing
Perspectiva de l'entrada de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
© Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Drawing
Perspectiva de l'interior del saló d'actes de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
© Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Drawing
Perspectiva de l'exterior de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
© Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC
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Drawing
Perspectiva de l'interior de la biblioteca de l'Edifici de Foment del Treball Nacional.
© Fons Adolf Florensa i Ferrer / Arxiu Històric del COAC