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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
About us
Project by: 
Created by: 
Directors:
2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental 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 OrnaqueExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel Maria Jesús QuinteroWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació 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
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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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Memory
The office building of 19,000 m2, 17 floors and 4 basements is located in the new 22@ district of the Poblenou district. It has a pedestrian crossing that crosses the building on the first three floors, two low silver entrances and two cores of vertical access. On the intermediate floors, there are the most public spaces, with an auditorium and terrace for the social activities of the publisher and the management offices and the library are located on the upper floors. The building exhibits two grammatical currents, one related to the shape and scale of the building, and the other to the detail of its chameleonic façades. The first one has to do with the irregular shape of the volume of the building that was predetermined by the planning of the site. Based on this, we realised that by projecting a simple rectangular composition on the main façade facing west in the style of the painter Piet Mondrian, the rectangle of the upper floors could float on the base. The terrace that remained between the two rectangles could become an ideal space for the company's outdoor social activities. The lower rectangle, on the other hand, could be detailed on a more human scale in contrast to the metropolitan scale of the upper rectangle. The second one raises the various solutions that could be adopted in terms of the orientation of the façades. The narrow north-facing façade, which overlooks Diagonal Avenue, did not require any protective elements and could be made entirely of glass. On the other hand, the long west-facing façade had to be protected from the heat and the intense light of the afternoon sun. For this, brise-soleils were placed on each floor, and screen-printed glass screens, which protect the slightly tinted glass of the horizontal windows, which introduce a more human relationship with the street. On the narrow south façade, horizontal terraces prevent the vertical penetration of the midday sun. The east façade, sheltered by the office building located ten metres away, did not need solar protection. Another factor that was taken into account was the reference to the industrial past of the neighbourhood, expressed through the simple structural frame with white aluminum profiles and light-coloured ceramic panels, alluding to the few brick factories still existing today.
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