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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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.
We have proposed an abstract box, a volume seen as a piece of industrial design deposited in the middle
of the park and which is formalised by a skin of glass screen-printed with the binary code, protected by
large-scale vertical strips in polished aluminium. A tremendously efficient machine from a functional point
of view. The building, as home to all activities linked to the supercomputer, evokes a heat sink, a container
which protects technology and allows for its constant update.
The concept is to visually locate a single longitudinal block which is placed to respect the existing wall. A
new entrance from Plaza Eusebi Güell is created, giving continuity to public space and becoming the main
access to the building.The building emerges as a single piece and contain the programme’s three large
blocks: above grade, the block housing the departments of research, operations, management_txt as well
as ground-floor facilities; below grade, the partially underground home to the supercomputer; and the basement,
which is earmarked for facilities and parking. Besides these three spaces, a fourth block contains
the main lobby and training/conference rooms and which acts as a link between the different parts of the
programme.
The main entrance, on the level of Plaza Eusebi Güell, appears as a hollow crossing through the building
and becomes a viewpoint onto the chapel and the park. Displaying the building which houses Mare Nostrum
from the entrance of the new building is fundamental in incorporating it into the complex whilst also
enriching and characterising it.
Architecture takes a step backward to bow down to technology, creating a highly efficient piece where each
design-related decision is taken according to its functional efficiency, multi-purpose role and energy efficiency.