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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
Memory
The Barcelona Botanic Garden extends along the upper side of the Montjuïc mountain that overlooks Barcelona, and holds spectacular views over the city.
It is a garden where plant species from areas of the world with a Mediterranean climate live together, sorted by geographical area. Therefore, the species found there adapt quite well to the city and can be exhibited outdoors.
The garden is created by accommodating a geometry of paths that cross each other forming triangles (you can clearly distinguish a main circuit that makes the visit very easy) adapted in a very natural way to an uneven slope. This powerful geometric order served the architects to organise the entrance park, and will be replaced, over time (already happening in some areas of the park) by a vegetal order that is the result of an intelligent planting of undergrowth, bushes and trees that will grow over time and give the whole set a natural order as logical as the artificial one. The two currently coexist perfectly in various areas of the park.
The palette of artificial materials is basic: wooden fences, rusted iron and concrete. The auxiliary buildings are also built with these materials. The beautiful high school that crowns the park should be highlighted, a prism that levitates a few metres from the ground and that leaves a rusty iron window as a privileged vantage point of the city.
The complex constitutes one of the most beautiful urban spaces in the city, and the multiplicity of routes created by its geometry of paths makes it a very pleasant place for a long stay.
The Botanical Garden is built on an area of about 14 hectares on the Montjuïc mountain, in front of the Olympic Ring, on land that for the last hundred years was a dumping ground for all kinds of waste.
For this reason, funds were requested from the European Community to recycle this old landfill and turn it into the new Botanical Garden of Barcelona.
The project is carried out entirely with strict criteria of sustainability and elimination of physical barriers.
To build the new topography, the reinforced earth of the mountain itself is used, recyclable and ecological materials are used for the fence, etc. An integral irrigation system that from the central computer activates the different electro-valves through a radio transmitter, assisted by photovoltaic energy also by the lighting of the emergency lighting.
Obviously, all the planting criteria, by grouping plants from areas with similar climates, are also carried out in a sustainable way by bringing together the homoclimatic Mediterranean flora, California, Chile, South Africa, Australia and our eastern and western Mediterraneans.
The layout of the garden is based on botanical issues of ecosystems, using the concept of morphological convergence. The aim is to turn it into a tool of great scientific, pedagogical and leisure value.
The method adopted, which in a certain way can be described as ultra-artificial, ends up assuming the fractal dimension of nature itself, achieving a synthesis between the ecological balance of the plantations and the artificiality that the built infrastructure gives to the territory.
The logical intervention occurs without scale.
The final dimension of the interventions is unrelated to the project mechanisms, the initial layout and measurement are not necessary to deepen the project. It will be the use of the triangular mesh that will be faceting and fractalising the landscape while solving the complex demands of the project, drainage, circulation, irrigation...
This will be the place itself, the one that provides the guidelines for the intervention, making its morphological and topographical conditions emerge and the forms of the new landscape.
Authors
On the Map
Constellation
Cronology (10)
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Barcelona Botanical Garden
Josep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras
The Barcelona Botanic Garden extends along the upper side of the Montjuïc mountain that overlooks Barcelona, and holds spectacular views over the city. It is a garden where plant species from areas of the world with a Mediterranean climate live together, sorted by geographical area. Therefore, the species found there adapt quite well to the city and can be exhibited outdoors. The garden is created by accommodating a geometry of paths that cross each other forming triangles (you can clearly distinguish a main circuit that makes the visit very easy) adapted in a very natural way to an uneven slope. This powerful geometric order served the architects to organise the entrance park, and will be replaced, over time (already happening in some areas of the park) by a vegetal order that is the result of an intelligent planting of undergrowth, bushes and trees that will grow over time and give the whole set a natural order as logical as the artificial one. The two currently coexist perfectly in various areas of the park. The palette of artificial materials is basic: wooden fences, rusted iron and concrete. The auxiliary buildings are also built with these materials. The beautiful high school that crowns the park should be highlighted, a prism that levitates a few metres from the ground and that leaves a rusty iron window as a privileged vantage point of the city. The complex constitutes one of the most beautiful urban spaces in the city, and the multiplicity of routes created by its geometry of paths makes it a very pleasant place for a long stay. -
Premi Ciutat de Barcelona
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Architecture and Urbanism
Barcelona Botanical GardenJosep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras
FAD Award
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Outdoor Spaces
Barcelona Botanical GardenJosep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras
EU Mies Award
ShortlistedBarcelona Botanical GardenJosep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras
International Biennial of Landscape Architecture
Finalist
Barcelona Botanical GardenJosep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras
Building of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona CSIC
The Botanical Institute building – a centre dependent on the Superior Council of Scientific Research – is located at the highest point of the Barcelona Botanical Garden on the side of the Montjuic mountain together with the Olympic Ring. The building faces the north-east wing of the garden, the area dedicated to the phytoepisodes of the Western Mediterranean and North Africa, with views over the city of Barcelona. It is structured as a horizontal line that intersects the natural sloping terrain like a hinge between two topographic elevations. In this way, the section allows the different programs to be organizsd with independent access from the back road and from the network of paths in the garden. The Botanical Institute is divided into three different levels according to its program: – A first underground level located in the large concrete vessel that forms the foundations and that contains, with specific air conditioning, the plant deposits, books, the large herbarium, as well as the installations and the small work area both illuminated and ventilated through patios. This plant acts as a structural counterweight to the constructive mechanism of the upper plants; a set of reinforced concrete screens, walls, girders that organise the program and support the intermediate level at the level of the garden and from which the upper floor is suspended at the level of the access platform and rear parking lot. – The multipurpose room and the Salvador Museum, the exhibition area and the cafeteria-restaurant are on the intermediate level, connected to the Botanic Garden’s path network. All of them have access to the garden. – The restricted area intended for scientists; the library, research areas and laboratories and the administration area are on the upper level. The six-metre corridors adapt to the different structural and lighting requests, making up a continuum in which the gusts become more powerful as the topographic fall of the land becomes more pronounced. The construction uses the same materials already present in the construction of the garden; exposed concrete and Corten steel.FAD Award
Finalist. Category: ArchitectureBuilding of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona CSICEU Mies Award
NominatedBuilding of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona CSICExtension of Barcelona's Botanical Garden
Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri
The current program of uses envisages a substantial expansion of the Germplasm Bank, which represents a key piece in the Garden's conservation programs and the role it must assume in relation to the conservation of Catalan wild flora in the near future. The best and most logical solution seems to be the coverage of the unloading docks of the Garden maintenance building that we call Northern Semicircle, which is currently used for storage. This solution is possible from the enabling of the spaces for piling up material, substrates and machinery at the southern end of the Garden. It is proposed to cover the current unloading docks in such a way that an entire level is enabled, with the exception of the one located on the far right, since according to the elevations extracted from the last topographical survey by means of a small slope executed at the level of the lower path, it is possible to split the plant and thus locate a new space for a public use of the Garden. The incorporation of female staff in the maintenance tasks of the botanical garden made the forecasts that were established at the time in relation to the hygienic and work facilities insufficient. It was convenient to segregate a space for showers and changing rooms larger than the current one to separate the changing rooms from the sanitary ones. The coverage proposed there, proposed at the time in anticipation of the growth of the Garden's needs, seems uncomplicated since part of the screens and the foundation are pre-existing. Finally, other improvements are proposed for users in the use of the maneuvering and work yard such as, on the one hand, the paving of a perimeter concrete sidewalk in the previous circle and, on the other hand, the protection of the incident solar from the interior of the offices through a pergola, which also serves to travel from one space to the other without getting wet in case of rain.Extension of the Maintenance Building of Barcelona's Botanical Garden
Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri
Given the requirements from the Barcelona Botanic Garden for the expansion of the Germplasm Bank and a reorganisation of the work spaces, we plan to rationalise the uses of the current offices and colonise the northern semicircle (built on the irrigation water tank). In this way, we preserve the current footprint of the circular route in the landscape around the maneuvering area. The current program of uses envisages a substantial expansion of the germplasm bank, a key piece in the conservation programs of the garden and in the role it will play in relation to the conservation of Catalan wild flora in the near future. The best and most logical solution seems to be to cover the unloading docks of the Garden’s maintenance building, what we call northern semicircle, currently used for storage. This solution has been possible since spaces were created for the storage of materials, substrates and machinery at the southern end of the Garden. It is proposed to cover the current unloading docks in such a way that an entire level is enabled, except for the one located on the far right, given that, according to the levels extracted from the last topographical study, they allow through a small unevenness executed in the level of the lower path, split the plant and thus locate a new space for public use in the Garden. The inclusion of female personnel in the maintenance tasks of the botanical garden made the forecasts that were established at the time in terms of hygienic and work facilities insufficient. It was convenient to segregate a space for showers and changing rooms larger than the current one, in which the changing rooms were separated from the sanitary ones. The coverage that is proposed was already proposed at the time in anticipation of the growth of the needs of the Garden, which is why carrying out the work to adapt the building of the northern semicircle seems not very complex, given that part of the screens and of the foundation are pre-existing. On the other hand, we propose other improvements for users in the use of the maneuvering and work yard, which are to pave a concrete sidewalk in the inner circle and to protect the offices from solar incidence through a pergola, so that you can move from one space to another without getting wet in the event of rain.