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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.
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.
The Catllaràs chalet is located in the mountain range of the same name above the Falgars sanctuary. This building was built to house the technicians of the coal mines that supplied fuel to the Clot del Moro cement factory. It seems that Eusebi Güell commissioned the design of the chalet from Antoni Gaudí. It was built between 1902 and 1903, at a time when work was also being done on Park Güell.
It is a rectangular building with a ground floor, first floor and attic, covered by a catenary-shaped vault on the inside and pointed on the outside. The edge of the vault acts as the ridge of the roof. The interior space is divided into six apartments, two on each floor, with a central staircase built on the outside of the building. This was semicircular in plan and concentrically arranged. It was made of stone and formed a volume that stood out on the façade. Currently the staircase is in the same place but is a light iron structure. The slopes of the arches are part of the facades in which mansard-shaped windows open, covered with sloping and slightly pointed visors. The side walls that enclose the building have few openings. There are two chimneys, one that comes out of the roof - it collected the smoke from the stoves of the different homes and the other attached to a side that served to evacuate the smoke from a room on the ground floor.
The interior of the building was very simple but it made the most of the space and sought comfort. On the ground floor there were, apart from the two homes, the kitchens and dining rooms. The space was reduced from the first to the third floor. The apartments had interior divisions, except for those on the third floor which is a single space. The staff was distributed according to job categories on the ground floor, with worse thermal insulation, which was occupied by maintenance and service personnel, managers on the middle floor and junior staff in the attic.
Although there is no document to prove it, the Catllaràs chalet is attributed to Antoni Gaudí. The architect Viladevall in issue 35 of the magazine ‘Cortijos y rascacielos de Madrid’, dated June 5, 1946, explains that Domènec Sugranyes Gras, a collaborator of Gaudí, assured him that he was the author.
This chalet was built as housing for technicians and other workers in the Catllaràs coal mines, which had a period of great activity, but finally the chalet was ceded to the City Council of La Pobla de Lillet. It is known that in 1907 the slope of the window visors was modified and the base of the building, initially covered with river pallets, was covered with cement. The villa suffered severe degradation and in 1971 renovations were made to adapt it as a summer camp.