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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

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.

Detail:

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Memory

A castle that is not a castle.

The Torre del Baró is a building built in 1904, located on one of the ridges of the Collserola mountain range, in a historicist style and with an air of fortification -despite being originally a residential building-. It is visible from much of the north-eastern sector of Barcelona and has wide views over the city and the interior valleys of the metropolitan area.


A rune that doesn’t want to be a rune.

The original construction was never completed and has been a ruin since its inception. Destined for military use during the Civil War and a meeting point for neighbourhood movements in the 1970s, its repeated abandonment led to an unstoppable process of degradation.

At the end of the 1980s, a consolidation operation was carried out to deal with its structural problems and a viewpoint was built at its foot towards Barcelona. Later, several inexplicably unfinished partial works are carried out.

Unfortunately, the fact that the building had no use continued to degrade it.

The new destination as an information point for the Collserola Park and the works that are being carried out to this end aim to stop this process, allow its use by the public and make it a reference for the neighbourhoods of the environment.


A bar in the mountains.

The information point is located on the ground floor, a transparent space in which the part intended for the information service is covered halfway up with ceramic tile and articulated around a granite countertop. A large backlit photo-plan and black iron panels are the bases on which the information is printed.

On the ground floor there are services and a warehouse. To facilitate access from the ground floor, a metal staircase is built to meet current regulatory requirements. These two floors are the only fully public levels and the only area with enclosures and protection.

The rest of the building is used as a viewpoint and is accessed by a spiral staircase introduced in the 1980s so all these levels are left open.


The three layers of time.

The intervention is respectful of the past, both with the original construction and with the intervention of the 80s, adding a new layer to the building that does not prevent the reading of the previous ones.

The original construction is characterised by masonry walls and openings with lintels and hand-exposed arches. The 1987 intervention makes concrete, mechanical work and grey-painted iron the materials with which it is articulated.

The new intervention works with almost a single material: varnished black iron. With it both the new security elements (grilles and railings), as well as the display panels and lecterns, the profiles of the new divisions and the new staircase will be configured.

The contemporary language of the new intervention is thus perfectly compatible with the historicist character of the building without being less recognisable.

Source: Mostres d'arquitectura

Authors

How to get there

On the Map

Awarded
Cataloged
Disappeared
All works

Constellation

Chronology

  1. Refurbishing Torre del Baró

    Jordi Farrando Sicilia

    Refurbishing Torre del Baró

    A castle that is not a castle. The Torre del Baró is a building built in 1904, located on one of the ridges of the Collserola mountain range, in a historicist style and with an air of fortification -despite being originally a residential building-. It is visible from much of the north-eastern sector of Barcelona and has wide views over the city and the interior valleys of the metropolitan area. A rune that doesn’t want to be a rune. The original construction was never completed and has been a ruin since its inception. Destined for military use during the Civil War and a meeting point for neighbourhood movements in the 1970s, its repeated abandonment led to an unstoppable process of degradation. At the end of the 1980s, a consolidation operation was carried out to deal with its structural problems and a viewpoint was built at its foot towards Barcelona. Later, several inexplicably unfinished partial works are carried out. Unfortunately, the fact that the building had no use continued to degrade it. The new destination as an information point for the Collserola Park and the works that are being carried out to this end aim to stop this process, allow its use by the public and make it a reference for the neighbourhoods of the environment. A bar in the mountains. The information point is located on the ground floor, a transparent space in which the part intended for the information service is covered halfway up with ceramic tile and articulated around a granite countertop. A large backlit photo-plan and black iron panels are the bases on which the information is printed. On the ground floor there are services and a warehouse. To facilitate access from the ground floor, a metal staircase is built to meet current regulatory requirements. These two floors are the only fully public levels and the only area with enclosures and protection. The rest of the building is used as a viewpoint and is accessed by a spiral staircase introduced in the 1980s so all these levels are left open. The three layers of time. The intervention is respectful of the past, both with the original construction and with the intervention of the 80s, adding a new layer to the building that does not prevent the reading of the previous ones. The original construction is characterised by masonry walls and openings with lintels and hand-exposed arches. The 1987 intervention makes concrete, mechanical work and grey-painted iron the materials with which it is articulated. The new intervention works with almost a single material: varnished black iron. With it both the new security elements (grilles and railings), as well as the display panels and lecterns, the profiles of the new divisions and the new staircase will be configured. The contemporary language of the new intervention is thus perfectly compatible with the historicist character of the building without being less recognisable.
  2. Mostres d'Arquitectura (Barcelona)

    Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Intervencions Parcials. Inclou Intervencions Interiors i Exteriors, Efímeres o Permanents
    Refurbishing Torre del Baró

    Jordi Farrando Sicilia

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