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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
Suggestion 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
‘Les Cotxeres’ was perhaps the strongest demonstration of Coderch’s conviction that quality urbanism must have its origins in an architectural concept that is also of high quality. These two stairs are joined in a particularly convincing way in the indented setback of ‘Les Cotxeres’ floor. Firstly, in the resulting block in plan and section, and secondly in terms of the modulated microspace of each home’s interior. Antifrontal by definition, ‘Les Cotxeres’ reaffirms itself as a new urban paradigm that is able to intervene between the suburban middle-class ideal of detached houses with gardens and the traditional urban form of a continuous terrace that defines the street. In this case, the street is subtly supported by a plinth that completes the block located one meter above the level of the sidewalk. This plinth, which contains the underground car park below, forms the grounds of a community garden that embraces each of the residential units – a set of seven floor blocks – as if it were the backbone of the whole complex. In a way, ‘Les Cotxeres’ might seem like an adaptation of the boulevards à redans by Eugène Hénard from 1910, since, while subverting the corridor street, the Hénard’s secluded block still maintained, however, the continuity of the avenue.
Three aspects deserve our attention as we move from the block’s configuration to the spatial articulation of the dwellings. Firstly, the ergonomic way in which the interior space unfolds when one passes from the entrance hall to the living/dining room sequence and to the concatenation of stepped rooms that open in a jagged sequence towards the street. Secondly, the fact that each bedroom has its own balcony to grow plants. And thirdly and most crucial of all from the point of view of its social accessibility, the coating of the entire surface with a precise brickwork. All these attributes bear witness to the continued validity of Coderch’s bucolic approach, amid all the vain and spectacular confusions that attend our contemporary era.
Authors
On the Map
Constellation
Cronology
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Les Cotxeres de Sarrià Housing Complex
José Antonio Coderch de Sentmenat
‘Les Cotxeres’ was perhaps the strongest demonstration of Coderch’s conviction that quality urbanism must have its origins in an architectural concept that is also of high quality. These two stairs are joined in a particularly convincing way in the indented setback of ‘Les Cotxeres’ floor. Firstly, in the resulting block in plan and section, and secondly in terms of the modulated microspace of each home’s interior. Antifrontal by definition, ‘Les Cotxeres’ reaffirms itself as a new urban paradigm that is able to intervene between the suburban middle-class ideal of detached houses with gardens and the traditional urban form of a continuous terrace that defines the street. In this case, the street is subtly supported by a plinth that completes the block located one meter above the level of the sidewalk. This plinth, which contains the underground car park below, forms the grounds of a community garden that embraces each of the residential units – a set of seven floor blocks – as if it were the backbone of the whole complex. In a way, ‘Les Cotxeres’ might seem like an adaptation of the boulevards à redans by Eugène Hénard from 1910, since, while subverting the corridor street, the Hénard’s secluded block still maintained, however, the continuity of the avenue. Three aspects deserve our attention as we move from the block’s configuration to the spatial articulation of the dwellings. Firstly, the ergonomic way in which the interior space unfolds when one passes from the entrance hall to the living/dining room sequence and to the concatenation of stepped rooms that open in a jagged sequence towards the street. Secondly, the fact that each bedroom has its own balcony to grow plants. And thirdly and most crucial of all from the point of view of its social accessibility, the coating of the entire surface with a precise brickwork. All these attributes bear witness to the continued validity of Coderch’s bucolic approach, amid all the vain and spectacular confusions that attend our contemporary era. -
FAD Award
Finalist. Category: Architecture
Les Cotxeres de Sarrià Housing Complex