Gaudí Chair

Collections

 

A selection of the heritage collection of the Barcelona School of Architecture and the Gaudí Chair is presented in the form of an eight-stage tour. It includes material obtained from the architecture classes at the School of Fine Arts called "La Llotja" (starting in 1817), from the School of Architecture (founded in 1875) and from the Chair itself (founded in 1956). This exceptional and almost unprecedented collection of architecture and urbanism is undoubtedly the most important in Spain and one of the most important in the world, particularly in academic terms and in terms of the history of architecture education.

Some of the collections are accessible in the Digital Memory of Catalonia.

 

 

 

 

 

The collections of the Gaudí Chair and the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB)

 

The collections of the Gaudí Chair and the ETSAB are composed of around 100,000 documents including drawings, designs, photographs, objects and furniture, newspaper articles and early books. The collections, which cover items from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, include: 

Gaudí Chair archive of drawings and original designs (1874–1954), including works by Antoni Gaudí, Josep Mª Jujol, Joan Matamala, Francesc Berenguer, Joan Bergòs, Josep Costa (Picarol) and Ricard Opisso, among others. The collection contains drawings and projects that Gaudí did as a student, as well as plans of La Pedrera and Park Güell and a drawing of Casa Batlló saved of the destruction of his professional archive in 1936.

The Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) graphic archive composed of designs and drawings from various institutions involved in teaching architecture and urbanism from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.

      • Collection of land surveyors’ maps of Barcelona province (1751–1904) and other early maps. This collection comes from the Escola de Llotja de Barcelona, where surveying was taught until the mid-nineteenth century.
      • Collection of projects made to obtain the “master of foremen and surveyor” qualification at the Escola de Mestres d’Obres i Directors de Camins Veïnals (1850–1855), the Escola d’Agrimensors i Aparelladors (1855–1858) and the Escola Especial de Mestres d’Obres (1859–1872).
      • Collection of academic materials with designs and projects made by students of the Barcelona School of Architecture since its foundation in 1871.

Personal collections, with drawings, designs and photographs by architects such as August Font Carreras, Bonaventura Pollés Vivó, Josep Fradera Botey, Josep Domènech Estapà and Josep Domènech Mansana.

Photographic collections, formed mainly of glass plate negatives.

      • The ETSAB’s collection of photographs of academic travels (1901–1923) and images of the old building of the School of Architecture in Plaça Universitat
      • Collection of original photographs of the exhibition on Antoni Gaudí at the Grand Palais in Paris, 1910.
      • Collections of the architects Ubaldo Iranzo Eiras and Josep Domènech Estapà-Josep Domènech Mansana. 
      • Collection of photographer Antoni Esplugas Puig. 
      • Collection of Bassegoda Nonell family.
      • Colection of Canosa publishing house.
      • Collection of old photography series of nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Collection of furniture, ceramics, flooring, stained glass and other objects from buildings designed by Antoni Gaudí.

Collection of plaster pieces (reliefs and models), furniture and ceramics from the old building of the School of Architecture.

Collection of documents on Antoni Gaudí and his works and other Catalan architects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, composed of magazines and newspapers, correspondence, photographs and ephemera.

Bibliographic collection on Antoni Gaudí and on architecture and urbanism, consisting of books and journals published from the nineteenth century onwards.

Historical bibliographic collections from the ETSAB library, composed of books published between 1515 and 1950, journals published from the mid-nineteenth century, and academic manuscripts.

Historical collections from the ETSAB administrative archive