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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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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
In 1973 Ricardo Bofill discovered a disused concrete factory on the outskirts of Barcelona, an industrial complex from the beginning of the 20th century.
"In front of me - he says - there were 30 immense silos, a very tall chimney, four kilometers of underground, gigantic machinery rooms.
During my first visit to the old cement factory, I suddenly thought that something horrible could become something very beautiful, just as idiocy can sometimes be transformed into genius. The concrete factory corresponds to the first period of the industrialisation of Barcelona and was not built according to a previous general plan but by juxtaposing different elements. The result was then a series of volumes added to each other and different manufacturing chains that recall vernacular architecture but with an industrial aspect. I kept going deeper and little by little I realised that the different aesthetics developed since the last World War were present in the factory: the hard and sculptural treatment of matter, with broken volumes, stairs that go nowhere, powerful spaces already useless and strange proportions yet full of magic.
I decided to keep that factory with the intention of transforming the roughness into a work of art and set up my Architecture Workshop there which, in the long term, could be used as a foundation for research on the shape and design of the city.
This transformation has been carried out gradually and even now I continue to add new workspaces by adapting the old ruins still standing. However, I believe that the factory will always be a work in progress, which is part of its fascination".
After deconstructing the existing volumes, there were eight silos that Ricardo Bofill adapted to accommodate the offices, model laboratory, archives, library and a space, the largest of all, which preserves the skin and breadth of the old building and is named "La Catedral". This has the function of an exhibition hall for the projects, multimedia projections, meeting with clients and visitors and social and cultural gatherings linked to the professional activity of the architect. The Architecture Workshop is surrounded by large green spaces planted with olive, cypress, palm and eucalyptus trees.
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