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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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:
2019-2025 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2025 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:
2019-2025 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse ViuExternal Collaborators:
2019-2025 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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Works (18)
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FAD Award
Shortlisted. Category: Interior DesignVia Sonic Travel AgencyLa Bastida Vocational Training Centre
Eduard Bru i Bistuer, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
The building is the result of a critical reading of the urban periphery, as it appeared in the 1980s, that is, as a series of broken terrains lacking cohesion. The project gives a monumental response through an elongated body that imposes a clear geometry on the site. The school is located on the edge of a street that comes from the city and articulates the programme and the volume around this street. The curved path of the street and the straight path of the classroom determine the entire layout. The auditorium forms a bridge over the street, where the entrance to the entire site is located. The ground floor is built up to the street, while the basement floor, which houses the workshops, covers the entire surface indicated by the street and the front of the building. The school is articulated with the road that connects it to the urban centre and offers a resounding response to the topography, while the construction becomes lighter as you reach the roof.FAD Award
Shortlisted. Category: ArchitectureLa Bastida Vocational Training CentreUrban redevelopment of Ullastret
The project has, first and foremost, sought to explore the possibility of the coexistence of an approach that was systematic, ordering and abstract with a sensitive attention to each one of the concrete forms and places that constitute reality.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Buildings of new plant for private useBilbao DwellingsCan Felipa Civic Centre
The building of the factory was a strange French style construction, built with catalan vault and steel structure. The roof was an extraordinary wooden structure that climbs above the solid block. On the ground floor, we had to build a swimming pool. In the inside of the existing aisle we installed the changing rooms, the showers and the small pool, trying to keep the space continuity of the ceiling. A new aisle was built for the main pool, that was not compatible with the order and dimensions of the existing structural system. The hall of the pools is thought as the strict recurrence of the concrete structure emphatically covered with closing walls: different skins over a regular bone structure. The second and third floors contain neighbourhood facilities, plus a lecture room and a small theatre. We worked there to value the space characteristics of the old building with a light construction, ironically not tectonic, and with the use of colours to personalise each floor and emphasise the provisional festive aspect.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Architecture - Remodelling and RehabilitationCan Felipa Civic CentreUAB Central sports Services Building
Ferran Cardeñas i Parés, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
The building is the result of the proposal to build it as a bridge that crosses a stream, determining the configuration of the campus, so as to link the two slopes where the sports courts are located. The programme is made up of a heterogeneous set of activities linked to sport and leisure: changing rooms, bar, gym, offices, meeting room, etc. On the other hand, the dimensions of the building are much smaller than those of the other buildings that make up the historic campus. This explains its placement and shape, which are intended to emphasise the lightness of the working scale. The building is linked to the topography and the landscape while adopting the form of an infrastructural tube that recalls certain images of industrial installations dignified superimposed on the landscape.Joan Güell Multifunctional Complex
The building is subject to an urban planning of the 50s which proposes linear blocks with commercial spaces in the courtyards of the block. It is located in an area where recent typologies (blocks, towers, offices) are mixed with relatively traditional pieces of urban fabric, in addition to the unique presence of the Trade buildings and the opaque and massive volume of El Corte Inglés. The approach of the project responds to this peculiar environment with a very diverse program, which includes homes, offices and an aparthotel, as well as five underground parking floors. The supporting structure, determined by the car park, establishes the order of the entire building and the location of the different parts of the program. A special character has been given to the houses on the front, through a terrace that enjoys the best position in the whole complex. Office space has been left open, with all services concentrated inside.Sant Feliu de Guíxols Law Courts
Jaume Avellaneda Díaz Grande, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez, Jordi Moliner i Salinas, Antoni Poch Vives
El projecte pren com a referència principal la mitgera deixada per l’edificació preexistent, que es consolida amb independència de la nova edificació. La coberta del cos principal, paral·lel a la mitgera, queda pinçada per la part posterior i s’obre cap a l’altra banda del solar. Aquest cos acull els jutjats i les sales de vistes, i és de dimensions més petites que les edificacions veïnes. La resta del programa se situa en uns cossos davanters de cobertes variables. L’edifici adopta així un davant i un darrere referits al teixit urbà i indiferents al carrer, des d’on es revela el procediment compositiu a través de la secció.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis ExistentsUAB Central sports Services BuildingHome for Pensioners and Retirees
En un paisatge muntanyós i sense referències urbanes, l’edifici adopta forma de barra per tal de subratllar la traça rectilínia de la carretera que recorre la vall. A la cara longitudinal, frontal a la carretera, es disposa de sol i de bones vistes. A la cara posterior, al nord i cap a la muntanya, l’edifici actua com un mur de contenció. La distribució de les plantes també es vincula a aquest fet natural, si bé articulant de forma complexa les situacions nord/sud, sol/ombra, visió/no visió. La façana est, la primera que es veu en arribar des del poble, mostra fragmentàriament el gruix de l’edifici. Els materials i la construcció segueixen la mateixa lògica: la façana sud expressa les diferents dimensions de les habitacions. El mur de zinc en voladís ofereix una cara lleugera i en moviment. La façana nord és de bloc de formigó, si bé emprat amb una tecnologia que permet les perforacions horitzontals.Dwellings in Torelló
L’edifici es troba en un carrer estret i ondulant del nucli antic de Torelló. Les característiques del carrer fan que l’edifici s’hi hagi de relacionar d’una manera activa i generosa, compensant les mancances pròpies de l’espai públic. El programa requeria habitatges a les dues plantes superiors i serveis públics a la planta baixa. Aquest doble requeriment porta a una juxtaposició de tecnologies estructurals: als habitatges, l’estructura portant és de murs de maó, mentre que la planta baixa se sustenta sobre pilars de formigó. A través d’una manipulació de la imatge resultant d’aquestes dades, l’edifici, massís a la part superior, flota respecte del carrer, dilatant d’aquesta manera l’espai públic. La façana dels habitatges recull deliberadament els tòpics contextuals: finestres allargades, balcons, tot distorsionant-los, sense anul·lar una imatge estereotipada que afavoreix la comunicació.Les Palmeres Housing Complex
mateoarquitectura, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
Next to a large avenue that separates an urban void from the built-up city, the building unfolds in a curved shape as a single 280-metre-long body. The set is defined as a long building and two small final constructions that allow us to understand the scale and unitary dimensions of the linear block. The main building is divided into two bodies: a wide, half-buried base on which a narrower body that contains the housing slides. The treatment of the surfaces increases this intensity. On the convex side, the galvanised steel and glass base supports a band of red brick with systematically arranged perforations. The concave part also expresses standardisation through enormous stone pieces of 3 x 1.50 metres. The work with this panel aims to dematerialise it and transform the hardness of the concrete into a fabric, more suitable for the day areas it encloses.Piscina Municipal de Santa Eugènia
Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez, Assumpció Puig i Hors
Comprèn un vas principal de 25 x 12,5 m, un altre per a aprenents de 12 x 2 m i una cubeta d’hidromassatge, a més de 6 vestidors i els serveis corresponents, racionalment disposats al llarg del costat menor de la sala. S’hi afegeix, en una testa, una sala de fitness que acota els límits est i nord d’un jardí planer tancat pel carrer i pel cementiri de Santa Eugènia, al sud. Aquest vell recinte suggereix l’escala moderada i cautelosa de la nova construcció, també relativament baixa per tal d’economitzar el tractament del baf intern. L’edifici és estricte i racional i s’envolta d’un formigó protector, cobert de plaques alveolars sense bigues. A la cara sud, desplega unes plaques solars que protegeixen d’una part de la insolació. Atén les qüestions tècniques i d’estalvi energètic, complexes per la presència de les saunes dins els vestidors, i rescata el suro aglomerat com un coixí de les reverberacions.Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB)
Marta Cervelló Casanova, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
The building is the result of an intervention on a block of houses in the Forum 2004 area, in which uses, programs and customers were not defined. The block is divided into a series of strips that favor the availability of future interventions. Finally, the part opposite the sea is occupied by a hotel and an office building, and the CCIB building is in the foreground, serving as the plinth of the later towers. The convention centre is a large metal structure covered with an uneven and undulating surface, which acts as a roof and determines the facings. All the supporting elements are hidden behind the uneven plane. Mateo explores the possibilities of bar structures to affect roofs and wall coverings. Inside, there are large open spaces with very flexible availability, and only the hall is specially qualified with an intervention by the artist Cristina Iglesias.Office Building for CZF
mateoarquitectura, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
The upper part of the office tower, which is suspended, is covered with a double layer of glass. At night it will take on the appearance of a lighthouse. Again at night, lights climbing up it will reveal the presence and consistency of the building (work of the artist Silvia Hornig). The entire volume breaks down into various parts that are unified formally and structurally by solid communications core built of exposed concrete. One of these is reminiscent of the south façade of the CCIB. A sample of what occurs abuts the volume of the CCIB, giving rise to the appearance of courtyards. One of these courtyards runs lengthways, creating a tangential cut that will be a jungle. The central courtyard gives the façade a sense of movement towards the street. Rreflective pieces of white stone are at its feet.AC Forum Hotel
mateoarquitectura, Josep Lluís Mateo i Martínez
It is a solid piece, a sculptured volume with relatively small windows. The cut at the middle of its height and a certain shaping of the mass are reinforced by the different quality of its external surfaces cut, polished or bush-hammered Extremeño granite. The rooms' ground plans follow the standards of the chain. The access continues the same arguments as the façade of the adjacent CCIB, a large portico, letters and lights, colours (red), though, as usual, in a more domestic and delicate tone.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: ArchitectureBarcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB)Interventions in the Banc Sabadell Tower Block
On many occasions, we were called to intervene in the most public areas of a beautiful building from the 50s by the architect Francesc Mitjans. At the entrance, very disfigured by many interventions that made it complex and clumsy, we try to clarify it at a functional and urban level. The interiors, joined by a circular staircase that we restore freely, have a floor that changes level gently (we had to avoid the steps that already existed). The roof reacts to these movements. The ceiling, especially in interior areas, concentrates the light and has a special expressiveness. At times it resembles, like a ghost, the original interior.Filmoteca de Catalunya
The building is located on a very difficult site in the heart of the Raval district. It respects the alignments on Sant Pau and Espalter Streets and opens onto a newly created adjacent square. Its program consists of the Filmoteca de Catalunya’s buildings, which require a considerable public area and a more private one that houses offices, an image bank and a library. The public parts are in contact with the ground. The two cinemas where the films are shown are underground, under the square, to avoid large vertical displacements of the public. The most private program takes up the upper floors of the building. The structure is the most special feature of the intervention: two screens of post-tensioned concrete configure the long façades of the building and are more than visible. The horizontal structure goes from façade to façade without intermediate supports. The screens leave two large, cantilevered bodies at each end of the building that cover public spaces without any kind of support, well tensioned and very attractive. An interior atrium connects the public and private parts of the program and crosses the entire heart of the building from top to bottom. The interior design contrasts, due to the delicacy it presents, with the structure in a very strong way. It is based on interior glass partitions, light and transparent, dyed in soft colors, which introduce a subtle note in powerful, balanced, diaphanous and spacious spaces. The structure is also visible inside and introduces a mass of material that will patina and age differently in the partitions. The pavement of the public spaces on the ground floor is remarkable, made of small cobblestones arranged in a herringbone pattern, following the Portuguese style. The public areas will be visitable on screening days. The building is called to be one of the backbone spaces of the neighbourhood given that, due to the uniqueness of the films exhibited there, it mixes the local public with that of the rest of Barcelona and its metropolitan area.EU Mies Award
NominatedFilmoteca de CatalunyaBibliography (164)
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