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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

2019-2023 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental Commission:

2019-2023 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:

2019-2023 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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How to get there

In Pictures

Memory

The building is a clear example of the influence of Central European purist architecture on the sensibilities of some Noucentista architects. The building is divided into three parts: the ground floor and the first four floors are for commercial use; the next two floors are rental housing, and the last two floors, in duplexes, are destined for the owner’s home, clearly facing the interior of the block of houses. This represents a transgression of the usual order of the Eixample’s houses, in which the main floor is reserved for the owner. The façade articulates the edges and vertical orders of the building by means of a single window module positioned in very different shapes, which differentiate the change of use from the fourth floor. The use of the metal structure and the excellent execution denote a desire to associate this architecture with a rigorous application of the construction procedures.

Author: Maurici Pla

Source: Catalunya : guia d'arquitectura moderna, 1880-2007

Casal Sant Jordi is located on a chamfer of Barcelona, facing north. One of the most important characteristics of the building is that it is much higher than the ones surrounding it, which makes it bear a certain resemblance to a skyscraper. The possibility of making a relatively tall building is a consequence of the new possibilities offered by mechanical elevators. This has made it possible to make the most innovative decision of the project, which consists of developing a mixed program of activities. From bottom to top, two floors of commercial premises, three floors of offices, three floors of rental housing and an attic for the owner, who manages the rental of the entire building, are superimposed.
The façade reflects all these innovations and becomes the most expressive element of the project. It is conceived as a large canvas, completely smooth, which folds slightly and introduces a series of vertical lines, without ornaments, which sometimes become tribunes and other times in the turns of the chamfer. They are counterpoints that cross the different functional layers of the façade. The sculpture of Sant Jordi introduces a symmetry that otherwise would not exist.

Author: Xavier Llobet i Ribeiro

Source: DOCOMOMO Ibérico

Located in the Eixample district, the Casal de Sant Jordi is a partitioned building located on the northern corner of the block of houses bounded by Casp and Pau Claris streets and Ronda de Sant Pere and Passeig de Gràcia. It has a façade that embraces numbers 24 and 26 of Casp Street and number 81 of Pau Claris Street. The main access is from number 26 Casp Street.

With a beveled quadrangular floor plan, the elevated structure of the building includes a ground floor, mezzanine, six floors, attic and roof. The attic, which was the home of the original owner's family, is arranged on two staggered levels and open to a rear terrace in which a glass-bottomed pond is located that serves, at the same time, as a skylight in the inner courtyard of the plot.

The façade of the house structures its openings in horizontal axes of regular rhythm. In fact, it is the most expressive element of the project. The plan of the façade is conceived as a large and completely smooth canvas that folds slightly and has a series of vertical lines, without ornamentation.

There are different types of windows that express the different functions of each of the floors. The office part embraces the base of the building (finished with stone cladding on the ground floor and mezzanine) and the first three floors, which open to the outside through three levels of rectangular windows; the part destined to houses counts on the three following floors, that are pronounced to the outside by means of less numerous windows; the part intended for the owner's home (the attic) is made evident through seven Chicago-type or landscaped windows. Some of these windows provide a greater amount of light as they are included in the four angular grandstands that rhythm the façade and provide it with new angles to give access to the light. The walls of the façade are covered with a plaster of green mortar that contrasts with the light-coloured artificial stone that frames each of the windows.

The main access consists of a large portal flanked by two smaller portals crowned by two relief gates sculpted by Joan Rebull. These enclosures are made of bronze and glass and include, in their rhomboid-based grille, allegorical motifs related to agriculture and trade. On the right-side door, the grate houses a cast relief with the caduceus of Hermes, depicted in the petri relief of the overhang as a young boy with a winged helmet. On the left side door, the grate houses a cast-iron relief with ears of wheat and a flaming torch, attributes of the goddess Demeter, depicted in the petri relief of the overhang as a young girl with a bouquet in her hand. Above these doors are the original numbering signs of the building, backlit bronze and glass signs. The central portal shows an allegory of modern leisure, with a woman reading a book and a man sitting on a balustrade, surrounded by prickly pears. The iconographic program of the façade closes with a sculpture by Joan Rebull depicting Saint George semi-nude, standing and holding his shield on a corbel.

The main lobby is the space that has best preserved the original elements of the building, both in terms of its structure and in terms of the movable elements that make it up. In this sense, the bronze and frosted glass doors that segment the area and, above all, the railing of the main staircase, with markedly Art Deco lines, should be highlighted.

This building was built by the architect Francesc Folguerola i Grassi between 1929 and 1931. It is the first building in Barcelona inspired by rationalist currents from Central Europe (along with the Josep Masana House on Lleida Street), attentive to the avant-garde innovations through a decorative device tending to Art Deco. However, the sculptural decoration on the façade is presented as a concession to the last Catalan Noucentisme.

Source: Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya (IPAC)

Authors

How to get there

On the Map

Constellation

Cronology

  1. Casal de Sant Jordi

    Francesc Folguera i Grassi

    Casal de Sant Jordi

    The building is a clear example of the influence of Central European purist architecture on the sensibilities of some Noucentista architects. The building is divided into three parts: the ground floor and the first four floors are for commercial use; the next two floors are rental housing, and the last two floors, in duplexes, are destined for the owner’s home, clearly facing the interior of the block of houses. This represents a transgression of the usual order of the Eixample’s houses, in which the main floor is reserved for the owner. The façade articulates the edges and vertical orders of the building by means of a single window module positioned in very different shapes, which differentiate the change of use from the fourth floor. The use of the metal structure and the excellent execution denote a desire to associate this architecture with a rigorous application of the construction procedures.

  2. Reforma del Casal de Sant Jordi com a Seu de la Conselleria de Justícia de la Generalitat

    Ignasi Sánchez i Domènech

Archive

  • Perspectiva de proposta prèvia de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    Drawing

    Perspectiva de proposta prèvia de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    © Fons Francesc Folguera i Grassi / Arxiu Històric del COAC

  • Perspectiva de proposta prèvia de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    Drawing

    Perspectiva de proposta prèvia de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    © Fons Francesc Folguera i Grassi / Arxiu Històric del COAC

  • Perspectiva de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    Drawing

    Perspectiva de la Casa Tecla Sala.

    © Fons Francesc Folguera i Grassi / Arxiu Històric del COAC