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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
About us
Project by: 
Created by: 
Directors:
2019-2023 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental 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 OrnaqueExternal Collaborators:
2019-2023 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 configuration of the building adopts clarity and economy based on the short term imposed by the drafting of the project and its construction. Discrimination between teaching and representative purposes is reflected in the composition of two bodies. The body of the classroom, with two floors, is located concurrently to Diagonal Avenue, with three courtyards in the centre. The body that houses the administrative and study purposes has five floors and is located in a perpendicular direction. The ground floor, which only contains classrooms at the back, communicates both bodies in a single circulation space. The structure of the whole building, made of laminated steel, forms a regular module of 6.20 x 3.84 metres, which doubles in the rooms that require more surface. The building applies constructive economy criteria that renew the guidelines applied in Catalonia by the first generation of modern architects.
In terms of style, the building is fully linked to the principles of De Stijl and the architecture of Mies, specifically the IIT campus in Chicago. It has often been valued as the best example of the architecture of the Modern Movement in Catalonia, as well as the one that exemplifies best the rationalist line committed to technology. Due to schedule requirements, this work was carried out in record time, with just one year between project and construction. The project was conceived and shaped in a month and a half, resolving to the maximum any element that could create a doubt in the work.
The building is composed of two perpendicular volumes. One of them is horizontal and the other one is vertical, which in turn divides the horizontal one in half. The horizontal volume contains the classrooms and the representative area, and the vertical volume contains the administrative area and the seminars. The classroom area is made up of two parallel bodies, separated by three interior courtyards. While the representative area has a more dynamic shape due to the various functions it houses. From the entrance, a wide corridor, which crosses the entrance hall, plays the role of the axis of the composition, with an interior glazed patio to its right.
The structure consists of a metallic framework of pillars and girders. In the horizontal volume, simple modules of 6.20 x 3.84 alternate with double modules of 12.40 x 3.84, the latter corresponding to the classrooms and the former to the circulation elements. In the vertical volume, all the modules are the same —6.20 x 5.76—. The highest assembly hall is covered with metal porticoes with a span of 17 m. This room is closed on three sides with a wall covered in red granite, which takes the form of a U with the glazed opening facing north.
The plastic of the building has been entrusted to the grid of the structure, which is left mostly visible, closing the openings with walls covered in white stoneware. In the finishing touches of the facades, some fluted aluminium fronts that make up the drips and solve the deliveries of the roof have been arranged.
Authors
On the Map
Constellation
Cronology
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FAD Award
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Architecture
Faculty of Law of the UBGiráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages
Faculty of Law of the UB
Giráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages
The configuration of the building adopts clarity and economy based on the short term imposed by the drafting of the project and its construction. Discrimination between teaching and representative purposes is reflected in the composition of two bodies. The body of the classroom, with two floors, is located concurrently to Diagonal Avenue, with three courtyards in the centre. The body that houses the administrative and study purposes has five floors and is located in a perpendicular direction. The ground floor, which only contains classrooms at the back, communicates both bodies in a single circulation space. The structure of the whole building, made of laminated steel, forms a regular module of 6.20 x 3.84 metres, which doubles in the rooms that require more surface. The building applies constructive economy criteria that renew the guidelines applied in Catalonia by the first generation of modern architects.
Audiovisual
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3:35
Guillermo Giráldez explica la Facultat de Dret de la UB