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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

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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
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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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In Pictures

Memory

Housing that is the complex or counterpoint of its complementary building, the School. It is constructed with stone slabs and has exposed brick openings, corners, a high band and spire, further emphasising the variety of levels, terraces and roofs giving it a 'magical castle' appearance and masking a simple plant in the shape of an L. The unevenness of the land favours its complicated aspect by favouring the different stairs, entrance, communication with the School, rear access from the private courtyard to the first floor, and creating a difference of one floor between the front and the back. The roofs are of glazed tiles in green and black, and on the chimney, there is, in glazed ceramic, the date of construction (1911). Historicism is obvious.

In March 1890, the foundation stone was laid and the foundations of the new cotton factory that Eusebi Güell and Ferran Alsina installed around Santa Coloma de Cervelló were laid in order that "in this way the worker had better hygienic and food conditions...". This led to the construction of an authentic colony where the School and the Teacher's House could not be missing. Endowed with the best conditions available at the time, in 1987, the School still continued to function, although the Teacher’s House has seen its interior fragmented into two dwellings that fully respect its structure.

Source: Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya (IPAC)

Building, together with the Teacher’s House, clearly differentiated from the rest of the colony in terms of materials, layout and structure. It is of an irregular plan, covered with stone slabs and emphasising the openings with visible brick, the border under the eaves and part of the wall of the first floor, precisely the one that faces the roofs which, at its height, surrounds almost ¾ of the building. Despite its historic appearance, it is highly functional, with a profusion of windows to encourage children's work and located at one end of the Colony surrounded by pine trees to enhance leisure time. The roof is of Arabic gable tile and the distribution of the openings (large on the ground floor and small and grouped in rows on the first floor) shows the dominant historicist tendency in most of the unique buildings of the Güell Colony.

The school was built when all the other constructions in the colony were practically finished, except for the church which, despite having been designed ten years earlier, was built at a slow pace and ultimately left unfinished.

In 1914, therefore, the school and the teacher's house were completed, two twin buildings joined by a brick bridge and substantially different in their spatial conception, as derived from the various functions for which they were created.

Source: Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya (IPAC)

Construction made with stone slabs and exposed brick, connected to the Old School by a stepped bridge decorated with curvilinear elements. The bridge rests on two large parabolic arches, where Gaudí's influence can be detected. The master's house is built in the entire lower part with stone slabs, and has highlights with exposed brick: the high strip of the building, the rounded corners, the perimeter of the openings and the singular elements, such as the chimney, or the guardhouse. This detail accentuates the variety of levels, constructions, terraces and roofs that provide it with its unique castle appearance. The openings are mainly rectangular and of various sizes, and are distributed throughout the façades. The uneven and irregular appearance of the building has access with stairs on the north side, and a great aesthetic difference between this façade and the south, which communicates with the school. The roofs are glazed tiles in green and black, with roofs on two and four sides. The building has a marked historicist tendency, as can be seen from its tower/circular gate located in the corner. The tower is finished with battlements and has two levels, as can be seen by two lines of windows, one at the bottom and one at the top. The base of this guardhouse is made up of cut cylinders, arranged in descending order. The whole is crowned by a conical pinnacle covered with glazed ceramics and a wrought iron cross. On the chimney, embedded between the buildings at different levels, the date 1911, made of glazed ceramic, can be read.

The building communicates with the old school forming a single complex.

The construction of the Colony began in 1890, and it was equipped with cultural and religious facilities, with the workers' houses next to the factory, constituting an urban centre with its own and independent personality. In this context, the teacher's house and the school were important elements, within the various services offered by the site. School was free for workers' children, and education was different for boys and girls. First, the boys' school was on the ground floor, while the upper part remained open and was for gymnastics. Later it was closed with glass and occupied by girls with nuns as teachers. Although they were taught to read and write, manual and domestic work was emphasised in their training. The building was built between 1911-1912 and was equipped with the best conditions of the time. The teachers who have lived there are, in order of seniority, are: Josep Franquesa Aliberch, Josep Baiget Massip and Guillem Morell i Huguet born in Santanyí, Mallorca, who ran the school together with his wife, also a teacher, Maria Carme Pons Llabrés from Palma. Gregori Bernal Ferrer, foreman of the factory, lived in the northern part of this house. In 1987 the school was still operating, and the teacher's house housed the Sol Solet kindergarten until 2011.

Source: Mapes de Patrimoni Cultural. Diputació de Barcelona (diba)

Construction made with stone slabs and exposed brick, joined by a stepped bridge decorated with curvilinear elements to the Teacher’s House. The bridge rests on two large parabolic arches, where Gaudí's influence can be detected. The school follows a marked historicist character. It has an irregular plan, with a slight U-shape oriented to the south. It has a ground floor and a first floor, and while the first is covered with stone slabs, the rest is made of exposed brick. It stands out for the rounded corners on the south side, and the brick lining seen from the openings and the border under the eaves. As for the openings, they are perfectly distributed throughout the building and are rectangular or define a kind of galleries, with 6 or 10 elongated openings highlighted in a zigzag pattern. On the first floor there is a terrace. The roof is gabled made of green and yellow glazed Arabic tiles.

The construction of the colony began in 1890 and it was equipped with cultural and religious facilities, with the workers' houses, the services and the factory, forming a unit. In this context, the school and the teacher's house were important elements, within the various services offered by the site. School was free for the workers’children, and education was different for boys and girls. First it was a boys' school on the ground floor, the upper part remained open and was for gymnastics. Later it was closed with glass and occupied by girls with nuns as teachers, and manual and domestic work was emphasised in their training. Although the chimney bears the date 1911, the work was carried out between 1912 and 1913. Between 1916 and 1917, the School for Boys and the School for Girls were built simultaneously, in the Sant Lluís Centre building. The teachers who have lived there are, in order of seniority: Josep Franquesa Aliberch, Josep Baiget Massip and his daughter Maria Àngela, Guillem Morell I Huguet and Maria Carme Pons Llabrés. Francesc Bernal Ferrer lived in the northern part of this house, apprentice, then assistant, foreman and finally weaving butler of the factory. In 1987 the school was still operating, until a new building was built. The teacher's house housed the Sol Solet kindergarten until 2011 and is now closed due to various pathologies.

Source: Mapes de Patrimoni Cultural. Diputació de Barcelona (diba)

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