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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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:
2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental 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 OrnaqueExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 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 Filmax Gran Via Cinema Complex, located in the Gran Via 2 Shopping Centre, opened their doors 15 years ago, with the boom of this business model based on mass consumption and leisure that led to the filling of urban centres of many shopping centres, combining shops, restaurants and multiplex cinemas. After this golden era and faced with a change of paradigm, the client is looking for a project to straighten out the cinemas: reduce their size by optimising their operation and offer an experience beyond what happens inside the theatre.
OPERATION AND EFFICIENCY:
SINGLE POINT OF SALE
The conventional concept of lockers is eliminated, disregarding the volume intended for this function in the restaurant terrace of the shopping centre. At the main counter, the public can now buy cinema tickets as well as popcorn, drinks and others in a single queue.
REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF ROOMS
Cinemas are reduced from 15 to 12 screens. These rooms will be converted into a bowling alley, which will be accessible from the cinemas.
ELIMINATION OF BARRIERS
In the previous distribution, the hall of the cinemas was completely closed to the public except at a single access point where the entrance was blocked. These barriers have been removed, delaying the access passage and opening up the hall, taking over the entire floor and facilitating free movement. You no longer need to go to the cinema to be able to consume their products.
WORK OPTIMISATION
With the execution of the previous points, a counter is obtained that allows the worker to carry out all the jobs without moving or interfering with the circulation of the public: replenishing the products of the points of sale and the warehouse, selling tickets, selling drinks, popcorn and sweets, control access to the different rooms, control the dynamic digital contents, control the lighting of the space.
WORK HIERARCHY
The new bar, made up of the counter and the work furniture, means that the 10 points of sale work only as such and that, from behind and in direct contact with the warehouse, two workers go about facilitating all the products that need to be replenished.
ENVIRONMENT:
SECTION
The entire false ceiling is demolished, so that the section of slabs from the stands of the cinema rooms remains above the hall, in view, enriching the concept of entering the cinema with its skeleton. Given the great height in some points, a comfort height of 2.70m is chosen, up to where all the elements and coverings will reach. From this height, there are only visible installations and structure, painted in the same unifying colour.
INFORMATION
Faced with the original disorder and randomness, the choice is made to organise the digital information along two axes. The first, frontal from the entrance and parallel to the counter, will announce the times of the films, drinks and other consumables. In the perpendicular direction, and shielding the original pillars, it will contain the billboards for the films and trailers. The architecture will be changing to the extent that the information will be, dynamising the space.
LIGHTING
The experience of entering a cinema is, among other things, the transition from light to darkness. At a height of 270cm, a substructure is created to support all the lighting arranged in continuous strips that, with their zig zag, guide from the doors to the entrance to the rooms. The hall therefore becomes the first gradient of darkness.
PAVEMENT
The darkening of the entire atmosphere is topped off with a black terrazzo of large white aggregates which, simulating the effect of dropped popcorn, helps to avoid the feeling of neglect during peak service hours and the impossibility of cleaning.
ENTICEMENT
Within the ensemble, a sweet cart with a reticulated geometry, stands out as a singular, dissonant and wheeled element. This element can vary its position, which changes according to the day and the use of the rooms.
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