How to get there
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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
About us
Architects' Association of Catalonia:
Àrea de CulturaDirectors:
2019-2022 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2022 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:
2019-2022 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús QuinteroWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació Mies van der Rohe
Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Design & Development:
Nubilum EdittioSuggestion box
Request the image
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.
Memory
The Mediterrani building is a critique built on the residential house model that Cerdà proposes for Barcelona's Eixample, with little façade, a lot of buildable depth and several interior courtyards, only suitable for large flats and hardly adaptable to smaller homes.
Bonet Castellana has a double gable building which is completely rectilinear prismatic, with half of the houses facing the street and the other half facing the inner courtyard of the block. The interior courtyards, which are of a considerable size, are unified in a single band, through which rooms are exclusively ventilated to escape unnecessary smoke and dirt.
In the chamfer of the plot, the intervention is self-explanatory: the two blocks arrive separately and are arranged in different lengths in order to respect its geometry. The geometry of the housing blocks is not modified to adapt it to the contour of the street at any time.
The building that opens onto the street does not touch the ground, it stands on a ground floor that forms a porch with respect to the street (a free ground floor, or pilotis, according to the modern name). The pillars have a unique design given that, to save foundations, groups of three pillars are cast on a single support. Efforts are transmitted by a complex fan-shaped column.
The façades are made up of alternating vertical bands of windows, terraces (to which the living rooms open) and locks faced with dark green sandstone that group the walls of the rooms. The severe rhythm guides the building and makes its module compatible with that of the neighbouring houses.
The entrance gates to the homes are of a unique design, all of them different. They are fully glazed and allow the view from the street. It is recommended to dwell on the details of each one.
This project takes up the criticism of the GATCPAC against the regulations of the Eixample of Barcelona, where the building depth of 28 m prevents an adequate rational distribution of the houses and forces the introduction of patios. To avoid this problem, Bonet Castellana proposes a solution that the architects Oriol Bohigas and Josep Martorell had previously tried in the residential building at 213-215 Roger de Flor Street, that is, it divides the building into two parallel blocks and joins them together through vertical circulation cores. Upon reaching the corner, each of the blocks ends up defining its own headwall without repeating the characteristic chamfer of the Cerdà plan. As far as public space is concerned, the 5m sidewalks of the Eixample are not wide enough to allow comfortable urban life. Sidewalks are often cluttered with furniture and poorly parked vehicles. To avoid this problem and increase the public space, Bonet decided to raise the first of the blocks on stilts, creating a large porch that increases the public space and connects it with the premises on the ground floor of the second block. The piles are arranged in a V-shape, in such a way that it collects the pillars of the façade, joining them in groups of three at a single point, and increasing the feeling of lightness of the building.
