Intro

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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.

Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque
Directors arquitecturacatalana.cat

credits

About us

Project by:

Created by:

Directors:

2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental 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 Ornaque

External Collaborators:

2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel Maria Jesús Quintero

With the support of:

Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura

Collaborating Entities:

ArquinFAD

 

Fundació 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

Design & Development:

edittio Nubilum
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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

Eva Prats (Barcelona, 1965) és arquitecta per l’ETSA de Barcelona des de 1992 i Doctora Arquitecta pel Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (2019). Durant els anys d’universitat treballa a l’estudi de Miralles & Pinós i després amb Enric Miralles fins al 1994, per un període total de 9 anys. L’any 1994 obté el Primer Premi al Concurs Internacional EUROPAN III, la qual cosa propicia la formació del seu propi estudi. L’any 1998 s’uneix a Ricardo Flores per formar l’estudi d’arquitectura Flores & Prats.

El treball d’aquest estudi ha obtingut entre altres reconeixements el Grand Award for the Best Work in Architecture de la Royal Academy of Arts de Londres (2009), el Premi Internacional Dedalo Minosse de Vicenza (2011), el Premi Ciutat de Barcelona (2016) per la Sala Beckett / Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia i el premi Ciutat de Palma (2017) pel Centre Cultural Casal Balaguer. Han estat nominats al Premi d’Arquitectura Contemporània – Premi Mies van der Rohe el 2005, 2015 i 2016. L’any 2019 Eva Prats va ser nominada al premi Women in Architecture, atorgat per les revistes britàniques The Architectural Review i Architect’s Journal.

La seva obra ha estat exposada a les últimes quatre edicions de la Biennal de Venècia, a la Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, al Swiss Architecture Museum de Basel i a la Royal Academy of Arts de Londres, entre altres. L’any 2019, el projecte de la Sala Beckett va ser objecte d’una exposició monogràfica a la Roca London Gallery.

A més de la seva pràctica professional, Eva Prats està activament involucrada en el món acadèmic. Des de 2002 és professora associada de Projectes a l’ETSA de Barcelona, des de 2015 és Professor of Architecture and Urban Design al Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, i des de 2019 Guest Professor a l’ETH Zurich. Ha sigut a més professora convidada als Estats Units i ha impartit tallers i ha donat conferències a diverses universitats d’Amèrica, Europa i Austràlia.

Works (9)

On the Map

Awarded
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Disappeared
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Constellation

Chronology (12)

  1. Fabra i Coats Gardens

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    The project turns an empty plot that was part of the Fabra i Coats textile industry in the Sant Andreu neighbourhood of Barcelona into a garden. It takes up a central place in the neighbourhood, between the Market, the Town Hall and the Church of Sant Andreu, so the crossing of the garden has been incorporated into the daily routes of the residents. The site had certain qualities that helped turn it into a garden: it is a protected space, with a perimeter defined by industrial buildings and an old wall; it has good views (the church of Sant Andreu); and it is surrounded by two large industrial buildings, interesting enough to become the architectural reference of the garden. We can understand them as two large palaces that frame the park. Recognise the garden from the outside. The main entrance, from Sant Adrià Street, is defined by a large ramp that leads to the middle of the garden. The interior of the garden is occupied by a poplar plantation that will, over time, form a volume of leaves similar to that of the old factory. The entrance ramp is separated from the Can Fabra industrial building to allow possible extensions (premise of the City Council); this space is occupied by basketball courts. The other side of the ramp split into several paths defined by the planting of geometrically cut bushes is the labyrinth of the park. This is a very generous access, which reinforces the relationship between the two large existing industrial buildings. A concrete bench, designed as a large ledge, accompanies the entire descent. The project is defined by redesigning the boundaries of the plot. The western limit is formed by the old perimeter wall of the industry, which runs along Otger Street; it is an almost pedestrian street. The old windows have become doors and the possibilities of crossing the wall have multiplied. We have worked with this wall to provide it with more volume and presence in the garden. It is accompanied throughout its length by a brick pavement and a series of pergolas. The brick pavement forms platforms and organises places to sit, while the pergolas are the support of various types of climbers. At one end of the wall, at the corner of Sant Adrià and Otger Streets, is the garden gazebo. It is the highest point, from where you can observe the arrangement of the bushes of the labyrinth and the church of Sant Andreu. Under the gazebo, the route through the park can take several directions. At the northern end of the park, some children's playgrounds that already existed have been kept, surrounding them with a chain of benches and low trees, forming successive lines of protection. The surface of the benches is large enough for the little ones to play on.
  2. Nuevo Triunfo Hotel

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    The project is a rehabilitation of an old industrial building of which only the main forged structure has been recovered. The program of the new hotel was very extensive for the small size of the site (8 x 25 metres), so the initial effort was focused on fitting the large number of rooms necessary for its operation, in addition of two new stairs and common services. Later, our attention was focused on the definition of the public part of the building, i.e., the lobbies of the type floors, of the ground floor, with the reception and the bar, and of the façade to the street, the hotel's main claim. The use of exposed brick for the façade was the client’s wish, who values this ceramic material's great durability, low maintenance and the warmth of its colours. This desire of the client, added to the personality of the area where the hotel is located, with a marked theatrical character, resulted in a proposal that experiments with the colours of the ceramic brick and its placement possibilities. The new hotel brings the theatre theme into scene, with its intense activity in front of and behind the scene, making it the protagonist of the old industrial building. The façade is not made up of windows but builds a curtain of coloured bands that completely covers it. Now, the inhabitants of the hotel appear and disappear between the movement and the folds of these curtains. The façade is organised in continuity with the ground floor. Dealing with a narrow and long piece of land both in plan and height, one plane being almost a mirror of the other at ninety degrees, the project was developed in both dimensions at the same time. The façade descends from the highest point with all the bricks in a row, at high speed, and when we reach the ground floor it seems to turn and also enter very quickly horizontally, leading us to the bottom of the site. The strips of bricks echo the vertical stripes of the neighbouring houses on this same street, continuing their colours: yellow, orange, red... The bricks are placed vertically to express their non-loadbearing function, and they are attached to the existing slabs with steel profiles, like a curtain wall. In the constructive detail that indicates the order of placement, the bricks look like books on a shelf. While they were manipulated in the work, held by their higher side and attending to the arrangement according to the different coloured spines, they turned the operators into librarians for a few seconds. The various colours are grouped in more or less wide strips, to which the five artificial stone pilasters that framed the façade of the original building are added. Each sash, made up of a variable number of rows of bricks, has a continuous horizontal joint, not interlocked, and this joint is different for each colour. This gives unity to each colour, which runs as a band independent of the others. When you reach the street, this curtain folds further to open the entrance to the hotel and its small cafe. There, the façade brings the void of the street inward at double height to let visitors in and out of the hotel, creating an intermediate staircase between the street and the interior lobby. It is an open-air hall, with brick curtains that act as latticework and allow a glimpse of the houses in front. Into this lobby they go out to receive the interior flooring, also with bands of two colours, and some volumes that, like controlling eyes, contain the reception and a small office for the owner of the hotel to do accounts, or take a nap. On the ground floor, we place the customer staircase at the bottom of the plot and in the diagonal corner opposite the entrance. In this way, we achieve that, upon entering, the view travels the maximum dimension of the lot, disguising its dimensions and making it appear larger than it is. This diagonal direction directs the movement of people and the ordering of activities on this floor. The various actions that will take place: checking in, going to the bar, taking the elevator... take place against the dividing walls, forming lateral bulkheads, surrounded by long lines that give speed and accompany the passage from one side to the other of the hotel. These lines are formed from walls that sometimes reach the floor and sometimes hang from the ceiling, framing the tourist in either of these situations, or helping him to disappear from the scene quickly.
  3. Social Housing and Public Space in Guissona

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Social Housing and Public Space in Guissona

    El bloc tanca el perímetre d’una illa de cases poc homogènia d’edificació, en una àrea de nou creixement on manquen les jerarquies d’escala entre els espais públics i els privats. El projecte es proposa crear uns espais intermedis que facin de gradació entre els habitatges, el carrer i la plaça pública del centre de l’illa. Amb el nou edifici es dissenyen els accessos a aquesta plaça per mitjà d’un plegament de la façana als dos extrems i a la part central. Els habitatges, tots orientats al sud, tenen l’entrada pel pati central, de manera que aquest pati esdevé un espai comú per als veïns de totes dues escales.
  4. Yute's Warehouse

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Yute's Warehouse

    The Yute's project is the extension of an existing textile warehouse, located in an industrial area near Barcelona, Sant Just Desvern. It is located next to the Walden 7 housing complex, which has inspired the design process due to its scale, strength and colour. The two young clients had bought an old office building with some warehouse space next to it. After a few years of using it, they needed more warehouse space and thought of expanding it, since the regulations for that plot allowed double the occupancy of the existing building. The main problem with the extension was that it could only be done in height, as the sides were already compromised by fire regulations. The original building didn't have much quality from an architectural point of view, but both the clients and us thought from the beginning that it was better to keep as much as possible of what existed, and grow from what existed, rather than demolish everything and start a new building. The project extends the entirety of the existing building above and wraps it in coloured metallic skins that allude to the coloured fabrics that the company manufactures and sells. The decisive factors when using corrugated steel were lightness and construction time. Later, we thought about its relationship with the textile pieces, the similar dimension of both elements: the sizes of the metal pieces were similar to the length of the textile coils. There is also the fact that both need a support structure, which can be raised like the end of a garment (the awnings on the front façade) which could be turned and show the seams (the west façade through which the customers enter). The effect of this empty construction in the centre is ultimately affected by its perimeter, by its limits, and this follows the same logic as the design of a dress, of a skirt: enveloping a body that is not there, reshaping its edges...
  5. Pius XII Square

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Pius XII Square

    The project eliminates an old street that passed in front of the housing building and brings all the public space against it. The relationship between the hall and the square becomes very direct, in continuity – they are an extension of the halls of the houses and the bars, which have their terraces next to the games. To reinforce this open-air lobby, a large climbing pergola traces the profile of the building at some distance. It acts as a cushion that absorbs the abrupt change of scale between the vertical and horizontal plane of the square: it turns the corner and heads towards the Fòrum. Inside this open hall there is a kiosk, which attracts attention due to its shape and colours. Its striped wrapper reveals its contents: ice cream and candies, concentrating much of the energy of this place. Beyond the pergola, a red path connects with a bridge that crosses over the Gran Via to the other side of this avenue, where the children go to school every day. On the way back, in the afternoon, they cross the bridge and see the candy stand in the distance. They still don't know if it's open or not since the door hides, turning towards the building and turning its back on them. The red crossing in the middle of the square acts as a shortcut. The square is no longer just a square, but rather a street with things passing on one side and the other. It connects the other side of the Gran Via with the La Mina neighbourhood, and beyond the new area of the Fòrum and the sea.
  6. Providència House

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Providència House

    A skylight of 3 floors. The new house is an extension of an old popular house in an industrial district of Barcelona. The existing house, between partitions, was located on a very narrow and elongated plot, and had two floors in height and a rear courtyard that belonged to a larger structure of interior courtyards on the block. Currently, the regulations in this area of the city allow one more floor to go up, that is, up to three floors, and to extend the house in depth by up to five more metres. The main problem in extending a house so narrow in depth and height is to illuminate the central part, and to get the sunlight to penetrate to the ground floor level. Thus, the decision was to transform the main staircase into a skylight three stories high, like a huge lamp that brings light throughout the house to the ground floor, where the living room is. This staircase is the place where family members meet, the public space of the house. When entering this space, a change of scale is experienced: long diagonal views open up, up to 10 metres long. A large volume of air has been introduced into a plot that seemed unable to contain it. Each room in the house participates in the light and cross visions through this space. The main level of the house appears to be level 3, the second floor, where the light is located. Thanks to a small patio, the house begins to be transparent on this level, where everything mixes: plants, light, rain, air, wood, fabrics, strollers... The staircase crosses the house by crossing the natural light that comes from above. It seems as if space is flowing upwards faster than itself… There is an almost theatrical way of moving through the staircase, appearing and disappearing… as soon as the staircase touches the ground floor it becomes a kind of secret place. Whoever uses it surprisingly disappears and reappears under the arch. Domestic activity The family that commissioned the house, its future occupants, envisioned a very intense way of living, filling the interiors with everyday activities. Thus, the daily activities have been represented in every space, in every piece of furniture... The family fills all the rooms with their presence. The couple with their two children followed the design process very closely, constantly commenting on how the house would help organise daily activities: Dolors would take care of the daily tasks of the house; the washing machine would be near the bathroom, in the parents' area; the food would be stored in the pantry under the fireplace; the kitchen, close to the garden, enjoying the sights and smells of the plants and the garden planted there; the garden would have a place to organise barbecues and to cook bread and pizzas with an earthen oven; bathing, eating, sleeping... While the boys would take responsibility for cleaning the upper floor. The meetings in our studio were getting longer and more intense, their comments never alluded to a special atmosphere or the use of a particular material, but rather intense conversations about household chores, which tend to be cyclical and exhausting, but which they faced with the illusion of making the house an aid to the list of tasks. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and we ended up drawing all these commissions, driven by their positive attitude. Organisation of the house The two new façades, the front and the back, contain the rooms for the various members of the family: bedrooms, studies, a kitchen connected to the back yard... The original staircase, located in the middle of the house, divides each floor into two areas, the one facing the street and the one facing the back yard. The central area is where everything matches: smoke rising, light and water going down, people rising and descending. The outer areas Rear garden The relationship between the house and its yard is clear and open. The patio is an extension of the interior of the house, a place to carry out daily outdoor activities. We could say that the social part of the house is concentrated towards the back, away from the street, in the quieter area related to the interior of the block. At the far end of the garden there is a shed to store garden tools, and a barbecue with a floor oven for cooking bread and pizzas. The rear façade functions somewhat like a tower, with folds that make the block less compact, more fragmented, with several windows acting as individuals representing the occupants of the various rooms. Upper terrace The original house had a gable roof, without the possibility of outdoor activities. Directly related to the children's area, this upper floor is a new room open to the sky, quiet and solitary during the day, and at the same time a place to organise social activities in the summer nights.
  7. FAD Award

    Finalist. Category: Architecture
    Yute's Warehouse

  8. Torre-Sana Social Housing Block

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Torre-Sana Social Housing Block

    The 111 Building in Barcelona investigates and experiments with the idea of promoting communication, relationships and familiarity between neighbours, so that the neighbourhood acts as the first structure within society, reversing the tendency towards isolation and individuality. The centre of the project is a large void, occupied by three trees and a fountain, surrounded by balconies and terraces, in the manner of a large theatre the seating area of which is surrounded by boxes and galleries that open onto it. Here, the neighbours come out to life on their balconies and stick their heads out to socialise or look at the landscape through a huge opening that frames Torrebonica Park. This communal yard is a platform for social relations, where people from very different origins and cultures communicate and make friends: the great void unites them. This empty centre is reached through an excavation of the large massif that is the building towards the outside. The path from the street to the interior of the houses, crossing this large courtyard, is modulated in a sequence of stairs and a progressive change from the most open and public area to the most intimate and private area of home. The closures are blurred and unfolded in overlapping elements to unite one end with the other, working to graduate the relationship between what is public and what is private. From one end to the other, from the bedroom to the street, the route is varied and always different. The relationship between family members is mixed with the relationship with the neighbours in the yard, so that it becomes an extension of the family core, where friends and acquaintances accompany one another in their daily lives in a second level of privacy. The tranquility with which mothers let their children go to play in the yard, where everyday shopping can be entrusted to others, where the door of the house opens to invite you to walk in naturally, confirms that architecture can help provide a space of trust, and generate a fragment of the city that invites the culture of sociability.
  9. FAD Award

    Finalist. Category: Architecture
    Torre-Sana Social Housing Block

  10. Sala Beckett International Drama Workshop

    Flores & Prats Arquitectes, Ricardo Daniel Flores, Eva Prats i Güerre

    Sala Beckett International Drama Workshop

    To visit the abandoned building of the former Pau i Justícia Cooperative to do the contest meant entering a time tunnel, which took us to the moment when it was used as a meeting place, a small theatre, a social room and for parties. It still retained much of the decoration on walls, ceilings and floors, which helped us understand the different occupations that the building had had: hydraulic mosaic floors, wooden carpentry with stained glass, cornices and rose windows in the rooms... they all define large spaces, unusual for Barcelona if we weren’t in an area of the city with an industrial past. The state of physical decay in which we found this building interested us, but not because we wanted to return it to its original state; instead, we intended to bring this ruin forward, and make it participate, with its unfinished character and overlapping styles and eras, in a new reality that can continue to be updated on it. Thus, the project recovers a building present in the collective memory of this neighbourhood, maintaining its spirit so that it is naturally reincorporated into its cultural dynamics and where the neighbours, many of them former cooperative members, are recognised in it. Therefore, when we started working, we made an inventory of everything that could be recovered from the building and which we relocated in different places and in a different way to where they were originally located. These elements - floors, windows, doors, wooden stairs, moldings and rose windows - return to the building in an operation of recovery, adaptation and re-use.
  11. FAD Award

    Finalist. Category: Architecture
    Sala Beckett International Drama Workshop

Bibliography (23)

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