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The Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Cataluña (COAC) – Official School of Architecture of Catalonia – is a corporation of public right in the professional basis and with public transcendence, of obligatory jurisdiction for the architects that practice the profession independently, and volunteering for those that the practice under other regimes (officials, teachers…) or they practice it as is. Its constitution dates back to 1931, although some of its sections is a century old, like for example the Library, inherited from the Asociación de Arquitectos de Cataluña (Association of the Architects of Catalonia), founded in 1874.
The School groups and represents the whole of the architects in practice in Catalonia, of which in 2008 means a collective growth of, currently, 10,000 professionals.
Currently it is present in all of Catalonia with more than 18 headquarters shared through the whole Catalan territory (Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida, Tarragona, Tierras del Ebro). Each headquarters offers services to the schooled architects and a cultural program opened to the public (expositions, conferences, historic archives, library, etc). It constitutes the first promoter of architectural culture of Catalonia, and one of the most active promoters of contemporary architecture in Europe.
The buildingIn 1962 the COAC inaugurated its first new headquarters a few metres from the Cathedral of Barcelona. Under the impulses of dean Manuel de Solà-Morales de Rosselló, the COAC organised a contest of two rounds to choose the new project for the new headquarters. The proposal of the architect
Xavier Busquets was the chosen winner. Each of the eight levels of the new building was designed by the some of the following architects: Francesc Bassó and Joaquim Gili (ground and mezzanine level);
Xavier Busquets (first floor and performance room); Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías (second floor: library); Pau Monguió and Francisco Vayreda (third floor: publications and office);
Josep Martorell,
Oriol Bohigas with the collaboration of
David Mackay (fourth floor: visa and administration); Antoni de Moragas (fifth floor: central office); Joan Forgas, Enric Tous i Carbó (sixth floor. Dean and Joint Government);
Frederic Correa i Ruiz,
Alfons Milà i Sagnier (seventh floor: Club, and eight floor: Bar and restaurant).
The sign of identity for excellence of the headquarters building of the COAC are the scratch art drawings of
Pablo Picasso that composes the murals of more than 57 metres in the façade, and was transferred to the big panels of concrete by means of the sand blast technique by the Norweigan artist, Carl Nesjar.