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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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:
2019-2026 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2026 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 Gemma Ferré Inés de Rivera Fernando Marzá Moisés Puente Aureli Mora Omar OrnaqueCollaborators:
2019-2026 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Marianela Pla Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse ViuExternal Collaborators:
2019-2026 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.
ETSAB
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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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House and Studio for a Photographer
Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau
The house is configured as a coupling of attached bodies, in the manner of rural constructions. The first body already existed: it was a square stone barn, which has now become the living room. The bedroom body is separated from the first and, between the two, a third body allows the entrance and houses the dining room and the kitchen. Behind these pieces is the photographic set, with measurements determined by the customer. The roof section includes the entrance of zenithal light, as well as a second opening, to the west, which allows the entry of warm evening light into the studio. The guest pavilion, a small wooden structure, is located at the other end of the garden. -
FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis Existents
House and Studio for a PhotographerTriginer House
Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau
This is a single-family home in Vallvidrera, on plot number 4 of the existing estate between the streets of Actor Morano and the funicular’s route. The plot is located on a steep slope with accessibility problems, with a north-east orientation although with magnificent wide views over a forest close to the city. The house is built in two parallel and staggered bodies on the slope that build an empty space, oriented to the south, with a distant view of a mountain and the sea. These two bodies are connected on the lower level by organising the garage and annexes at the back, and a linear and continuous space at the front: hall and play area, gym with changing rooms and sauna, and owner's suite. Spaces that communicate through sliding panels and that connect to the outdoor pool. At the top of the front body there is a large space intended for living room-library-study which is connected to the lower level by an open staircase with a zenith skylight over the hall and a small secret staircase hidden by a piece of furniture, which connects the living room with the owner's bedroom. A small dining room and the kitchen are in the rear body. Between these bodies and crossing as a connecting link is the patio, there is a small, glazed body that can be opened and incorporated into the empty space between the two volumes. This space plays with light by means of large mobile panels next to the sea and a pergola suspended by catenaries of small wooden slats that offer denser shade. The background of this space, which incorporates the kitchen, is the mountain where a forest of black reed bamboos has been planted. The side garden that joins this space with the lower level of the pool is made up of another grove of white cane bamboo. Finally, the guest suite is at the top of the rear body, communicated by a staircase that intertwines the three levels.Arruga Cinema Studios
Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau
The project arises from the decision to locate the ARRUGA film studios in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Barcelona considering the production of films and commercials as an industrial activity. Thus, a building destined to house a creative activity was confined to coexist in a grey world, without language, like factories and warehouses with the typical hourly activities of industrial estates. Faced with the impossibility of generating a language with its "neighbours", the building becomes an image and reflection of its own essence, showing itself in the only possible way: a building for making films. When it gets dark, the main façade becomes a piece of celluloid, becoming the very activity of the building such as production, post-production, realisation, etc. The rest of the programme is hidden behind the blind box; casting, costumes, props, assembly warehouses, workshops, dressing rooms and services. Finally, the large space intended for the cinematographic set is presented to us in its most neutral form. The construction (materials, structure and installations) of this space is put at the service of the main activity, reinforcing the neutrality of the project. The building is constructed with the technique and prices of an industrial building; an exposed steel structure with fire protection, forged ribbed iron decks, concrete block walls, polished concrete floors, exposed installations and a façade of cement-wood counters. The project incorporates as an external element a linear plantation of Populus tremula a short distance from the main façade. This plant formation reveals to us a new negative interstitial space of the interior. This space relates the internal activity to the external space at the same time as it uses their changing condition. In the summer, a thick green mattress will protect it from the sun, in the autumn it changes colour and clears the leaves, in the winter it becomes a reflection on the large, glazed window, and in the spring it will show the different shades of green. Between this screen of trees and the street of the polygon, an open space is designed for the arrival and circulation of vehicles. Finally, in an industrial estate, a grey box raises a question of architecture; the tension between the envelope and the internal space articulated by the light.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis ExistentsTriginer HouseLawyers Mutual Society of Catalonia
Elena Mateu, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau
Located at 108 Roger de Llúria Street, close to the headquarters of the Lawyers’ Association of Catalonia, the existing premises are developed on the ground floor, a partial basement and of low height and some small attic dependencies, also of reduced height, and with problems of use, given the structural elements (joists and beams). The premises have a narrow and deep configuration (51.5 m) with little street frontage and a lack of intermediate courtyards. The project proposes an intervention limited in extension, however, which radically changes the spatial perception of the existing premises. The project also aims to optimise the use of the different spaces, organising the various activities by zone. A first access space, taking advantage of the conditions of the two façade openings, to access a first area, and then enter and recognise the full dimension of the intervention. The second façade opening on the axis of the premises thus becomes an eye that allows the central space to be illuminated and visualised from the outside. The name and anagram of the entity will be placed on the glass. The central area, which contains the mentioned radical intervention which consists of opening a void in the floor and the ground floor of 9.5 x 3 metres, which allows spatial and visual communication of the care areas for the mutual members located in the access level and the areas for occasional medical consultations located on the lower floor, in which, through a small excavation, the necessary height is obtained (2.50 metres). This spatial void visually communicates the mezzanine intended for archives and staff leisure, with a suspended walkway. With this intervention, a triple-height space is generated that includes the circulation elements: staircase-ramp, steps, stairs and walkways, visually communicating the areas for public attention, work, consultations and archives. Finally, the management offices and the large meeting room are at the back of the premises, opening onto the inner space of the block, which enjoys the possibility of lighting with large skylights of zenithal light placed on the roof. At the back of the premises, we create a small terrace-patio-garden in relation to this intermediate space with zenithal light, which connects the management offices to optimise the conditions of light and comfort causing attractive views of the landscaped courtyard. A whole set of complementary activities, services, facilities, warehouses, emergency exits, etc., are strategically placed in intermediate spaces of the project, solving security and evacuation issues.Nova Seu de Fisersa a Figueres
Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau
Fisersa's headquarters building is located on an industrial estate on the road from Figueres to Roses, on a site opposite the trade fair precinct, surrounded by other industrial buildings and warehouses. The complexity of the brief involved organising the bu ilding into tour different zones. The first is of a more representational and public nature, with a large lobby, a lecture hall, an exhibition area and customer care zones. The upper floor contains the management areas, separate administration departments, rooms far meetings, filing rooms, utilities etc. A third area caters far the workforce, with changing rooms, workshops and storerooms with access far vehicles. The last zone is that of the vehicle pool, with the bus park and the vehicle washing cleaning and servicing areas. The diversity of the brief led us to design the project as one unit, incorporating all the parts and sections within a volume that occupies the entire site and takes on a certain symbolic cha racter as a public building, but is built as though it were an industrial one as regards both the construction decisions and the budget. The strength and opaqueness of this volume contrast with the friend liness and abundance of natural light within its interior. A large, ambiguous opening in the façade of the vehicle courtyard manifests the essence of a building at the town's service, as the client had requested.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: ArchitectureArruga Cinema StudiosFAD Award
Finalist. Category: Interior DesignLawyers Mutual Society of CataloniaPremis Bonaplata
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Arquitectura - Nova Realització Industrial
Nova Seu de Fisersa a FigueresBibliography (35)
Routes & Notes (1)
