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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
The Port Works Board is located in an open space in Pla de Palau Square, next to Bosch i Alsina Pier. It is an isolated building designed by Julio Valdés at the beginning of the 20th century. It has a rectangular plan, with a ground floor and two floors above.
The different façades, and especially the main one, are characterised by a very important accumulation of decorative features following an eclectic style. On the ground floor we find a series of semi-circular arched openings flanked by pilasters with a very simple capital. Above, new smooth pilasters continue the same vertical axis and surmount a decorated balustrade located in the central section of the building. On this level, new multiple openings also half-point with awnings in half-vault. In the last floor, which is like an attic but with a significant height, the openings are smaller and quadrangular. Balustrades and balconies are combined. Throughout the façade, the forging used is very variegated. One of the most defining features of this building is the presence of four large towers with a quadrangular plan located at each of the vertices of the building. Two other smaller towers are located between these and the cornice of the front and back façades. This front cornice is quite prominent and is surmounted by three main sculptures with marine icons flanked by winged lions. It has a wide profusion of applied ornamentation, highlighting the rich cresting of the roof area.
The building was seriously affected by bombing during the Civil War, for this reason it had to be restored from the year 1940. More recently it suffered the construction of a rise that has disfigured the effect of the tower system angles, cresting and pumped roof. It is currently in a good state of conservation.
Both its location in a much wider space than the railway landing and its function as a gateway for travelers arriving by sea to the city allowed the construction of a building, which once again appeals to the typology of the palace, and which takes French architecture as a model. In the same way as the headquarters of Gas Lebón, we find the typical four angular towers with a very inclined roof and a profusion of applied ornamentation, highlighting the rich cresting of the roof area, in addition to a bold combination of the openings of semicircular arch, on the columns on the main fçcade, following the model of the Grand Opéra in Paris, as well 18th-century windows following the Catalan tradition on the lateral and rear façades. The terminal, which housed the "El Mundial" restaurant on the upper floor and its own offices such as customs and post offices on the ground floor, was severely affected by the bombings of the civil war.