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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

2019-2025 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental 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 Ornaque

Collaborators:

2019-2025 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse Viu

External Collaborators:

2019-2025 Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel

With the support of:

Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura

Collaborating Entities:

ArquinFAD

 

Fundació 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.

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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Informació bàsica de protecció de dades

Responsable del tractament: Col·legi d Arquitectes de Catalunya 'COAC'
Finalitat del tractament: Tramitar la sol·licitud de còpies digitals dels documents dels quals l’Arxiu Històric del COAC gestiona els drets d'explotació dels autors, a més d'aquells que es trobin en domini públic.
Legitimació del tractament: El seu consentiment per tractar les seves dades personals.
Destinatari de cessions o transferències: El COAC no realitza cessions o transferències internacionals de dades personals.
Drets de les persones interessades: Accedir, rectificar i suprimir les seves dades, així com, l’exercici d’altres drets conforme a l’establert a la informació addicional.
Informació addicional: Pot consultar la informació addicional i detallada sobre protecció de dades en aquest enllaç

Works

On the Map

Awarded
Cataloged
Disappeared
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Constellation

Chronology

  1. Pintor Tàpias's Tower. La Pescadora

    Josep Torres Argullol

    Pintor Tàpias's Tower. La Pescadora

    It is a small, square-plan building with four doorways: one providing access to the interior and the others leading to a balcony that surrounds the structure. The foundations are made of stone, while the rest of the building is constructed in brick, used as a geometric decorative element. The building was probably erected at the same time as a new wing of the Cal Sala lime factory, with which it shares its decorative style.
  2. Sant Josep Church

    Josep Torres Argullol

    Sant Josep Church

    The church, with a Latin cross floor plan, measures 32 x 16 metres across its transepts, and its main nave follows the Gothic structural system, featuring intersecting diagonal arches and a ribbed vault. Six chapels open along the lateral walls, serving as buttresses for the central nave. Just beyond the main doorway are, on one side, the baptistery, and on the other, the staircase leading up to the choir. At the crossing rises an octagonal dome supported by four flying arches. The presbytery is framed by a polygonal apse with an ambulatory surrounding the high altar; behind it lies the sacristy, with a staircase giving access to the bell tower and the pantheon-crypt. The building displays a marked vertical projection, which is also evident in the main façade, featuring a porch with two cylindrical columns topped with capitals decorated with vegetal motifs, supporting a pointed arch of small voussoirs. Beside them stand two square columns crowned by pinnacles. The porch roof has a very steep pitch and is finished with a stone cornice adorned with three fleur-de-lis on each side and a cross in the centre above. Stone gargoyles, without special ornamentation, serve as water spouts. In the upper section of the main façade stands a two-storey belfry — the upper level with one opening and the lower with two. The rear façade is also carefully executed and features a large portal with archivolts leading to the pantheon-crypt. At mid-height, five windows open to provide light to the sacristy, and above them, higher up, is a medium-sized rose window. The stained-glass windows, composed of leaded glass, are important decorative elements depicting religious scenes (Saint Faith, the Eucharist, and Baptism) and geometric motifs. The materials used in the church are rough-hewn stone and fired clay brick, except for the façades, which are built with well-cut ashlar blocks. Built in 1877 to the design of the architect José Torres i Argulló, the church came to be known as the “Cathedral of the Upper Llobregat”. Its importance increased when it received the relics of Saint Aurelia of Nice. The promoter of Cal Pons — one of the most interesting industrial colonies in Catalonia from both an urbanistic and architectural point of view — was Josep Pons i Enrich, born in Manresa in 1811, a descendant of a local family linked to the silk industryduring the eighteenth century. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Josep Pons became a major cotton industrialist as well as a politician, founder of the Manresa Savings Bank, and promoter of the Manresa–Berga railway. In 1875, Josep Pons purchased the lands of Cal Garrigal — which he later expanded through the acquisition of nearby farm properties — with the intention of building an industrial colony. The following year he obtained permission to use the waters of the River Llobregat for industrial purposes, and he subsequently had the weir, canal, turbine hall, and factory built, which was inaugurated in 1880. Alongside the industrial area, the workers’ housing also began to be constructed. These dwellings, built in two distinct stages (1875 and 1890), form Carrer d’Orient, the most emblematic street of the colony. The stewards and overseers lived in flats adjoining the factory, while the houses in Carrer de la Baixada and Plaça del Centre — where the shop, café, inn, bakery, and other services were located — were occupied by families connected to the colony’s service sector. One of the most important buildings in Cal Pons, due to the functions it accommodated, was that constructed adjoining the church in 1893. This space included the school, convent of the nuns, girls’ residence, and theatre. However, the most emblematic buildings — owing to their spectacular character — were and still are others: the church itself and the owners’ towers. The church, inaugurated in 1887, was described by the press of the time as the “Cathedral of the Upper Llobregat”. The two towers, set within a garden, were built before 1885 (the old one) and in 1897 (the new one). The entire colony under construction was surrounded by a two-metre-high wall with three gates and two doors. The gatekeepers and the night watchman ensured that no worker entered or left the colony’s perimeter later than 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the time of year. This wall was demolished during the Spanish Civil War and was never rebuilt. Since 2009, the church has housed the Interpretation Centre of the Church of the Pons Colony, which, through three museum spaces, explains the role played by the Church in the consolidation of the industrial colony system in Catalonia, from the perspective of both the workers and the colony owners. The Interpretation Centre employs modern interpretive systems and state-of-the-art audiovisual techniques, which successfully transport visitors into an evocative and immersive environment. The museographic project focuses on three spaces within the religious building — the Chapel of Saint Lucy, the choir, and the crypt — and is integrated harmoniously with the church itself, fully compatible with its continuing religious function, which includes regular Mass services and liturgical acts that the Interpretation Centre always respects.
  3. Valldaura Church

    Antoni Calvet, Josep Firmat i Serramalera, Josep Torres Argullol

    Stone building with a nave and side chapels connected by pointed arches. Gabled roof. The main façade is orderly and smooth, with a predominance of empty space over full space: a round-arched doorway and a large tripartite window that follows the line of the façade forming the steel. A polygonal tower with a pyramidal roof marks the corner and serves as a link to the flat side façade, with small openings and buttresses. The exterior design is different to the interior. The façades show certain Central European influences, which is not surprising if we consider that the interior was designed later by a younger architect. Inside, the nave is separated from the side chapels by transverse arches, which are lower on the ground floor and pointed on the upper floor. Polygonal apse. Heart in the front wall, at ground floor level. Wooden roof structure. Coated furniture. At the head of the church, above the altar, is the shrine of the Virgin.

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