Intro

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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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

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About us

Project by:

Created by:

Directors:

2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental 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 Ornaque

External Collaborators:

2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel Maria Jesús Quintero

With the support of:

Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura

Collaborating Entities:

ArquinFAD

 

Fundació 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

Design & Development:

edittio Nubilum
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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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How to get there

In Pictures

Memory

Between 1836 and 1840, construction work began on a monumental square designed by Francesc Daniel on the extensive plot of land occupied by the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Sant Josep since 1593, and in the area closest to Les Rambles. Molina designed a harmonious and orderly architecture that was superimposed on a strict Ionic colonnade that supported a generously sized terrace. In this dignified and unfinished square, the Boqueria Market was installed, one of the most popular temporary markets in Barcelona and which ended up being covered - for practical reasons - with a permanent metal shed, poorly attached to the surrounding buildings preventing the perception of its magnificent architecture. On the other hand, between the market and the Old Hospital of the Santa Creu, the so-called Gardunya Square was found, which was actually an open field caused by the bombings suffered during the civil war and which was used as a temporary area of loading and unloading.

In 2006, the City Council showed its will to start an operation to refurbish and improve the market and its surroundings.

The project was oriented towards the formation of three pieces: the square of Dr. Fleming facing Carme Street, the Canonge Colom Square facing L'Hospital Street and the large square formed by the gaps of La Gardunya and Sant Josep. Housing conceived in the manner of those proposed by Francesc Daniel Molina on the one hand and the new headquarters of the Massana School on the other were the new constructions that were proposed to define them.

Once the problems of loading and unloading had been solved underground, the main character of the proposal was this huge void (166 m x 84 m), practically three times the size of the Reial Square and partly occupied by the metal shed of the market. The project wanted to emphasise its temporality, its calligraphic character, its character as a shed and its secondary character in relation to the higher order of the surrounding architecture.

Following one of the first intentions outlined in the 'From the Liceu Theatre to the Seminary' project, everything possible was separated from the surrounding architecture and it was very much insisted that the Boqueria market was a shed and not a closed building; one of those light sheds with high ceilings to facilitate natural ventilation, without closed façades and with vertical blinds to protect it from the sun and rain. We did not want to lose the character of the Mediterranean market that represented the Boqueria all over the world and that related it so directly to Palermo and Istanbul.

The traditional vertical protections were replaced by horizontal tinted crystals hanging from the roof, thus increasing the market's natural lighting and improving the perception of the perimeter colonnade from any point inside.

The reduction in sales points implied by these operations was compensated by the proposal for an extension towards the Hospital area, treated as an extension of the old one with the added intention of balancing the very busy entrance from Les Rambles.

In order not to weaken the concept of a shed treated in the manner of a pleasant thick, protective, exempt and isomorphic forest that could be accessed from any point of its perimeter, the indispensable service building was built as small as possible and at the point that would be, after the expansion, the geometric centre of the shed.

Author: Lluís Clotet i Ballús

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Awarded
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Constellation

Chronology

  1. Interventions in La Boqueria Market

    Clotet, Paricio & Associats, Lluís Clotet i Ballús, Ignacio Paricio i Ansuategui

    Interventions in La Boqueria Market

    Between 1836 and 1840, construction work began on a monumental square designed by Francesc Daniel on the extensive plot of land occupied by the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Sant Josep since 1593, and in the area closest to Les Rambles. Molina designed a harmonious and orderly architecture that was superimposed on a strict Ionic colonnade that supported a generously sized terrace. In this dignified and unfinished square, the Boqueria Market was installed, one of the most popular temporary markets in Barcelona and which ended up being covered - for practical reasons - with a permanent metal shed, poorly attached to the surrounding buildings preventing the perception of its magnificent architecture. On the other hand, between the market and the Old Hospital of the Santa Creu, the so-called Gardunya Square was found, which was actually an open field caused by the bombings suffered during the civil war and which was used as a temporary area of loading and unloading. In 2006, the City Council showed its will to start an operation to refurbish and improve the market and its surroundings. The project was oriented towards the formation of three pieces: the square of Dr. Fleming facing Carme Street, the Canonge Colom Square facing L'Hospital Street and the large square formed by the gaps of La Gardunya and Sant Josep. Housing conceived in the manner of those proposed by Francesc Daniel Molina on the one hand and the new headquarters of the Massana School on the other were the new constructions that were proposed to define them. Once the problems of loading and unloading had been solved underground, the main character of the proposal was this huge void (166 m x 84 m), practically three times the size of the Reial Square and partly occupied by the metal shed of the market. The project wanted to emphasise its temporality, its calligraphic character, its character as a shed and its secondary character in relation to the higher order of the surrounding architecture. Following one of the first intentions outlined in the 'From the Liceu Theatre to the Seminary' project, everything possible was separated from the surrounding architecture and it was very much insisted that the Boqueria market was a shed and not a closed building; one of those light sheds with high ceilings to facilitate natural ventilation, without closed façades and with vertical blinds to protect it from the sun and rain. We did not want to lose the character of the Mediterranean market that represented the Boqueria all over the world and that related it so directly to Palermo and Istanbul. The traditional vertical protections were replaced by horizontal tinted crystals hanging from the roof, thus increasing the market's natural lighting and improving the perception of the perimeter colonnade from any point inside. The reduction in sales points implied by these operations was compensated by the proposal for an extension towards the Hospital area, treated as an extension of the old one with the added intention of balancing the very busy entrance from Les Rambles. In order not to weaken the concept of a shed treated in the manner of a pleasant thick, protective, exempt and isomorphic forest that could be accessed from any point of its perimeter, the indispensable service building was built as small as possible and at the point that would be, after the expansion, the geometric centre of the shed.
  2. Rear Façade of La Boqueria Market

    Carme Pinós i Desplat

    Rear Façade of La Boqueria Market

    The expansion of the Boqueria responds to the need to create a new market façade in the place that until now occupied the loading and unloading area for goods and waste, moved to the basement of the car park. To give continuity to the existing roofs without competing with them, we choose to change the scale by creating lower roofs and closer to what is considered an open market of public space. We decide to change the rhythm of the existing porticos -which currently give us a symmetrical image focused on the office tower- for a freer roof structure that provides it with a more vital nature and allows its integration with the trees and the circulations of the square.

Bústia suggeriments

Et convidem a ajudar-nos a millorar la difusió de l'arquitectura catalana mitjançant aquest espai, on podràs proposar-nos obres, aportar o esmenar informació sobre obres, autors i fotògrafs, a més de fer-nos tots aquells comentaris que consideris.