Come to the COAC Library to prepare your holidays!
Imatge:
© Estudio Menta
Are you organising your holidays? Do you know about the areas and buildings you could see during your trip?
If you’re organising your summer break, in the COAC Library you’ll find more than one thousand architecture guides for cities and countries all over the world to help you plan your trip.
Check out the Library’s Catalogue
Help us to expand our collection
Given the challenges involved in buying or accessing this material, the Library would like to ask you if, when you’re travelling and you come across an interesting architectural guide, you could make a note of it and send us the information. The Library will try to get hold of it to incorporate it into our own collection.
If you’re organising your summer break, in the COAC Library you’ll find more than one thousand architecture guides for cities and countries all over the world to help you plan your trip.
Check out the Library’s Catalogue
Help us to expand our collection
Given the challenges involved in buying or accessing this material, the Library would like to ask you if, when you’re travelling and you come across an interesting architectural guide, you could make a note of it and send us the information. The Library will try to get hold of it to incorporate it into our own collection.
28/06/2018
Sabadell City Council announces a project tender for the Parc del Nord
Imatge:
© Ajuntament de Sabadell
Sabadell City Council has announced a Project tender for the Parc del Nord and the empty spaces in the north of the city of Sabadell and the award of the service contract for preparing the executive project of phase one, which involved the collaboration of the Architects' Association of Catalonia.
The rules of the tender envisage two phases, both involving a jury, one-third of whose members will be appointed by the COAC’s Jury Panel. With regard to technical solvency, all that is required is the corresponding mandatory membership of the technical professional who wishes to bid, but no previous experience is required.
Phase one involves two entrance categories: Category A (the presentation of an idea with a slogan) and Category B (presentation of a completed work similar to that required for the tender). The selection criteria for moving on to phase two will be based on the architectural quality of either the proposals and the works presented.
The deadline for submissions is 24 July 2018.
View the specifications and documentation here.
The rules of the tender envisage two phases, both involving a jury, one-third of whose members will be appointed by the COAC’s Jury Panel. With regard to technical solvency, all that is required is the corresponding mandatory membership of the technical professional who wishes to bid, but no previous experience is required.
Phase one involves two entrance categories: Category A (the presentation of an idea with a slogan) and Category B (presentation of a completed work similar to that required for the tender). The selection criteria for moving on to phase two will be based on the architectural quality of either the proposals and the works presented.
The deadline for submissions is 24 July 2018.
View the specifications and documentation here.
3/07/2018
Big attendance numbers at COAC’s debate on protected housing
Imatge:
© Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC)
On 28 June, the Architects’ Association hosted a debate entitled 'Protected housing on consolidated urban land: the case of Barcelona', moderated by Sebastià Jornet, the president of the Urban Planning Architects’ Association of Catalonia (AAUC). Participants included lawyers Josep M. Aguirre, professor at the University of Girona; Domènec Sibina, professor at the University of Barcelona; Javier Buron, in charge of Housing at Barcelona City Council; Dolors Clavell, from Clavell Consulting SL; Ramon García-Bragado, from Miliners Advocats i Assessors Tributaris; Pablo Molina, from J&A Garrigues; and Gemma Segura, from Pareja & Associats, Advocats.
Dolors Clavell noted that 'in the future it will be necessary to find the mechanisms for access to housing' and that these should be implemented structurally to avoid 'welfare measures, which are not appropriate in a twenty-first century housing policy'. According to Clavell, with the combination of the Spanish land law and the Catalan urban development and housing law, we should be able to generate protected housing reserves and adjust land classification.
ProfessorJosep Maria Aguirre highlighted three key weaknesses which he feels this Amendment of the Plan contains: the first is the issue of legality that may exist over the owner’s responsibilities, as the Spanish law does not mention affordable housing; the second is the loss of profitability that this reserve could cause to owners; and the third is asset liability. Meanwhile, professor Domènec Sibina suggested the need to reconsider an urban plan that was designed 45 years ago.
Lawyer Ramon García-Bragado proposed that the question we need to be asking 'is not whether this measure is legal or not, but whether the law is positive or negative for Barcelona'. The reasons behind his rejection are firstly that 'the law has been enacted without prior debate', and secondly, the violation of the principle of transparency, given that 'the procedure has been hidden'.
The head of Housing at Barcelona City Council, Javier Buron, asserted that this measure 'tackles the situation realistically' and maintained that the proposal already takes into account the situation of a pressurised market due to the lack of land, and that the transitional regime will provide the market with sufficient legal certainty. Buron gave the example of the city of Vitoria, where policies to promote affordable housing have been extremely successful.
Numerous institutional representatives and public administration officers attended the debate, including Janet Sanz, Josep M. Montaner, Ton Salvadó and Aurora López, from Barcelona City Council; Amadeu Iglesias, from IMPSOL; and Josep Bohigas, from Barcelona Regional. It was also attended by councillors Xavier Trias, from PDeCAT; Koldo Blanco, from Ciutadans; Jordi Coronas and Montserrat Benedí, from ERC; Daniel Mòdol, from PSC; as well as Carme Trilla, president of the Habitat3 Foundation; Elena Massó and Marc Torrent, from APCE; and Ramon Sanabria, from AxA, among others.
You can watch the video of the session here:
Dolors Clavell noted that 'in the future it will be necessary to find the mechanisms for access to housing' and that these should be implemented structurally to avoid 'welfare measures, which are not appropriate in a twenty-first century housing policy'. According to Clavell, with the combination of the Spanish land law and the Catalan urban development and housing law, we should be able to generate protected housing reserves and adjust land classification.
ProfessorJosep Maria Aguirre highlighted three key weaknesses which he feels this Amendment of the Plan contains: the first is the issue of legality that may exist over the owner’s responsibilities, as the Spanish law does not mention affordable housing; the second is the loss of profitability that this reserve could cause to owners; and the third is asset liability. Meanwhile, professor Domènec Sibina suggested the need to reconsider an urban plan that was designed 45 years ago.
Lawyer Ramon García-Bragado proposed that the question we need to be asking 'is not whether this measure is legal or not, but whether the law is positive or negative for Barcelona'. The reasons behind his rejection are firstly that 'the law has been enacted without prior debate', and secondly, the violation of the principle of transparency, given that 'the procedure has been hidden'.
The head of Housing at Barcelona City Council, Javier Buron, asserted that this measure 'tackles the situation realistically' and maintained that the proposal already takes into account the situation of a pressurised market due to the lack of land, and that the transitional regime will provide the market with sufficient legal certainty. Buron gave the example of the city of Vitoria, where policies to promote affordable housing have been extremely successful.
Numerous institutional representatives and public administration officers attended the debate, including Janet Sanz, Josep M. Montaner, Ton Salvadó and Aurora López, from Barcelona City Council; Amadeu Iglesias, from IMPSOL; and Josep Bohigas, from Barcelona Regional. It was also attended by councillors Xavier Trias, from PDeCAT; Koldo Blanco, from Ciutadans; Jordi Coronas and Montserrat Benedí, from ERC; Daniel Mòdol, from PSC; as well as Carme Trilla, president of the Habitat3 Foundation; Elena Massó and Marc Torrent, from APCE; and Ramon Sanabria, from AxA, among others.
You can watch the video of the session here:
29/06/2018
Exhibition: 'COAC.16 Collections / The Universal Exposition of 1888'
Imatge:
© Arxiu Històric del Col.legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya
From 19 July you can visit the seventh exhibition in the 'Collections' series of COAC’s Historical Archive, which commemorates 130 years since this key event in Barcelona's history and features a large selection of documents.
130 years ago, the city of Barcelona, which had thrown down its walls and expanded across the plain thanks to the adoption of Ildefons Cerdà’s urban plan, was ready to take another step forward with the organisation of the Universal Exposition of 1888.
Through the Exposition, Barcelona showcased its dynamism, the drive of its middle classes, supported by a powerful industrial sector, and the ability to generate forward-looking projects for large tracts of society at that time.
In the sphere of architecture, it is worth highlighting the generalised use of iron—which previously had been used in the construction of bridges, railway stations and markets—and the as-yet early emergence of the Catalan Art Nouveau style (classified as proto-Modernisme) that could be perceived in some buildings.
The Universal Exposition of 1888 was the first project to generate changes at many levels of the city, and was followed by similar impacts from the International Exposition of 1929 and the organisation of the Olympic Games in 1992.
The plans on display are from the collection of Elias Rogent Amat, the architect who directed work at the Universal Exposition, and were donated by his family to the COAC’s Historical Archive in 1969. The exhibition also features documents from the photography collections of the COAC’s Historical Archive.
To properly conserve the documents, they have been copied and reproduced as facsimiles so that now, 130 years later, they can be viewed without any risk of damage.
With the support of:
130 years ago, the city of Barcelona, which had thrown down its walls and expanded across the plain thanks to the adoption of Ildefons Cerdà’s urban plan, was ready to take another step forward with the organisation of the Universal Exposition of 1888.
Through the Exposition, Barcelona showcased its dynamism, the drive of its middle classes, supported by a powerful industrial sector, and the ability to generate forward-looking projects for large tracts of society at that time.
In the sphere of architecture, it is worth highlighting the generalised use of iron—which previously had been used in the construction of bridges, railway stations and markets—and the as-yet early emergence of the Catalan Art Nouveau style (classified as proto-Modernisme) that could be perceived in some buildings.
The Universal Exposition of 1888 was the first project to generate changes at many levels of the city, and was followed by similar impacts from the International Exposition of 1929 and the organisation of the Olympic Games in 1992.
The plans on display are from the collection of Elias Rogent Amat, the architect who directed work at the Universal Exposition, and were donated by his family to the COAC’s Historical Archive in 1969. The exhibition also features documents from the photography collections of the COAC’s Historical Archive.
To properly conserve the documents, they have been copied and reproduced as facsimiles so that now, 130 years later, they can be viewed without any risk of damage.
With the support of: