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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Architectural complex comprising three houses belonging to the tenor Francesc Vinyes. The one on the far right has an interesting overhanging roof. The one on the far left is a stone tower with sgraffito decoration on the window lintels and a stone balcony supported by corbels with volutes. Simple doorway and tower next to a terrace at the top.
The gardens contain several interesting features. Particularly noteworthy is the Art Nouveau-style dovecote with an attached turret and glazed ceramic roofs. It has many wrought iron elements, notably the windows with floral ornamentation. It combines brick with plaster.
Surrounding the garden are the remains of a curved railing made of brittle ceramic tiles alternating between brown and white tones. Finally, there is a sculptural ensemble of three figures related to characters or elements from Wagner's operas that the tenor Viñas had performed.
On the façade of the middle house, several names of musicians are written. All of these towers were built less than a century ago.
Tenor Viñas' garden was landscaped around 1900 and underwent a remodelling in 1956-60, promoted by Jacint Vilardell, the tenor's son-in-law. Remains of the original garden include the railing, the small chapels (both attributed to Gaudí) and the dovecote (attributed to Puig i Cadafalch). With the remodelling, some elements disappeared and new ones were added, such as the aforementioned sculptural group.
MERCEDES VILLA
The building, with a hipped roof, features at its western end a lookout tower with stairs, which forms part of an added four-storey square structure attached to the original core.
The cornice of the central building is decorated with a kind of rounded battlement and stone vegetal motifs. Access is through a stately entrance with a wrought-iron gate, preventing entry to the building and its gardens by any pedestrian without permission. The house has four floors plus a basement. The windows and balcony doors throughout the property have false arches with two stepped rows.
On the second floor, there is a continuous terrace running from the south façade to the western side, with doors featuring lowered arches and a stone balustrade supported by slender columns. This terrace is supported by six simple, smooth-shafted columns founded in the garden, creating the effect of a porch for the house.
Inside, a long and elegant white marble staircase provides access to the various rooms and floors. Upon entering, one finds a spacious hall that distributes the first rooms, two of which contain fireplaces. The stained-glass windows in the hall and in the small sitting room to the right are particularly striking.
Ascending to the first floor, one finds several rooms used as bedrooms, still containing beds and wardrobes, some of notable period interest. The floor tiling in several of these rooms is of high quality and in relatively good condition.
The second floor, also reached by the marble staircase, leads to the rooftop terrace.
Surrounding the building, on the eastern side, lies a large garden, notable for a dovecote typical of this kind of construction and of the Catalan Art Nouveau style (attributed to Puig i Cadafalch), with an adjoining small tower and a glazed ceramic roof. There is extensive use of wrought iron, and the windows feature floral ornamentation, combining brickwork with stucco.
Around the garden, remnants remain of a curved, brittle-style balustrade alternating brown and white tiles. The garden also contains two swimming pools with a sculptural ensemble of three figures related to characters or motifs from Wagner’s operas. The area below ground has been transformed into a play area, with direct access to the part of the garden where the vegetable plot is located.
This is the first of the buildings forming part of the Viñas complex. Both the exterior and the interior of this building follow the Art Nouveau style.
Francesc Viñas had this house built in 1906 on the site where some huts once stood and where he had been born. The works were completed two years later. It served as both his primary and secondary residence.
The garden was laid out around 1900 and remodelled between 1956 and 1960 by his son-in-law, Jacint Vilardell. From the original garden, remains of the balustrade, small chapels, and the dovecote are still preserved. Some elements disappeared after the remodelling, while others, such as the sculptural group, were added.
“Villa Mercedes”, together with the dovecote, constitutes the only example of Catalan Art Nouveau in the town.
CASA DEL MIG
A two-storey building of Noucentista style, with a single-pitched roof and an interesting wrought-iron pulley inscribed with the date 1909.
The north façade is notable because, just above the lintel of the now-sealed entrance, there are four tiled inscriptions bearing the names of theatrical works. On the south side, at the uppermost level of the building, there is a row of eight elongated brick windows with lowered arches, separated by only a few centimetres and without glass.
The lower floor features a terrace that runs the entire length of the building, with tiled paving. The level giving access to the garden is in a ruinous state and largely overgrown with uncontrolled vegetation. The garden is enclosed by an interesting brittle-style balustrade reminiscent of the Catalan Art Nouveau movement, in red and white tones.
This building corresponds to the house where the celebrated tenor Francesc Viñas was born. His father continued to live there permanently. Viñas carried out several refurbishments between 1890 and 1900, which gave the building a distinct character with influences of the Noucentista style.
CAL METGE RIUS
This building is located to the far left of Francesc Viñas’ house. It is a tower reminiscent of the Belgian-Flemish style, with a gabled roof and a higher section in the form of a tower featuring a tiled pediment and a green-painted wooden overhang. The building has two storeys at the northern side, at road level, and one additional, semi-basement level to the south providing access to the garden. The second floor, facing south, has a rectangular terrace extending across the full width of the building.
The façades (north and south) beneath the tower are decorated with two blue ceramic plates. The north façade has a simple entrance and four windows with lowered arches and Venetian-style wooden shutters, arranged two per floor.
It is the third of the buildings forming part of the F. Viñas architectural complex. It is the most modern of the three and is popularly known as Cal Metge Rius, as a doctor of that name had his surgery there for many years.
