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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
The Heras and Llobet houses are located in the Sants-Montjuïc district, where they face Carrer Tapioles. They are two buildings between dividing walls, with a very narrow rectangular plan, consisting of a house of flats, formed by a ground floor, a mezzanine and four floors and a walkable roof.
The two buildings form a compositional unit where the common dividing wall acts as an axis of symmetry. On each façade we find two portals, the one for access to the flats and a garage portal. On each of the upper floors we find two openings per building, although the type of balcony changes depending on the floors. The mezzanine and the top floor have individual balconies for each opening, while the other three are solved with a running balcony. Of the latter, the one on the main and the fourth floor are supported by three corbels, while the central one by only two. The balconies are solid stucco brick, with the lower parts covered with ceramic with geometric shapes and with almost schematic railings with smooth and helical metal bars with slight concessions to the decoration. The mix of materials on the façade also stands out: stone on the ground floor, mezzanine and second floors of exposed brick, main, third and fourth floors sgraffito, with some decorative elements located with some ceramic cornices, but not always placed on the floor line. It is also interesting to highlight the careful solution of the stone on the ground floor with some art nouveau frames with plant touches and the singular crowning of the building, where ceramics, exposed brick, sgraffito and metal elements are mixed, all with a Sezession aesthetic development.
The crowning of the buildings combines straight and curved lines as well as a wrought iron railing, under which there are two medallions with the date of completion of the work: 1906 and 1907, respectively.