RCAB 2

37 T he architect Manel Casadevall has been at the head of the Barcelona branch of the Catalonia Architects' College since November 2013. Architecture, like art, must keep itself linked to its surroundings, for the target audience of its creations are people and society. In this case, moreover, the end result is not limited to a mere representation on pa- per or on a stand, but rather the model gives way to a real construction, a small ecosystem within which existences live. And it is for this reason that, with the passing of time, architectural cri- teria, meanings and values have been articulated around an evolution- ary process that has always borne in mind the cultural context they are found in. Architecture, society and life are aspects that have always been closely interspersed. Architecture as a cultural and artistic expression offers a range of readings from differing points of view, both technical and artistic or humanistic. The Catalonia Architects' College, just like the Barcelona Royal Artistic Circle, carries out a valuable task of pres- ervation and publication of documentary collections through its Pho- tographic and Historic Archive, created in 1969, which at the moment has a collection of over two million references counting plans, sketches, drawings, publications and photographic and audiovisual files. Both for the Circle and the College, this is a documentary heritage of incalcula- ble value as it covers the contribution of professionals from the Catalan Renaixença to current architecture. It is home to a great deal of infor- mation relating to the majority of the most relevant historical Catalan buildings - some of them disappeared - and its consultation allows us to follow the work of architects located all around the world. What relationship does architecture have with art? Arts and architecture are professions that have had a mutual influence on each other that has lasted throughout the years. The historical and social context, the space, the scale, the materials...they are all tools that artists and architects have in common to create their works and proj- ects. As such, it is common to find a huge amount of symbiosis between these professions throughout history: cave paintings - the homes in prehistory - the reliefs and paintings in Egyptian tombs and temples, sculptures and mosaics in Greek and Roman temples, stained glass win- dows in cathedrals, and so on... Without going too far back in time, the Catalonia Architects' College is a clear example of when an architect incorprates art into a project, com- bining their own efforts with those of various artists to give rise to a singular creation in a common workspace. How can we see this relationship at the CAC headquarters? In 1962, when the architect Xavier Busquets planned the building for the Architects' College he took great care over what the solution would be for the 58 metres of façade that surrounded the main hall. This was an important challege for the location of the building, right in the mid- dle of Barcelona opposite the cathedral. The close relationship between Xavier Busquets and Pablo Picasso is clear evidence of the link between art and architecture, which resulted in the five friezes (three outside and two inside) designed by Picasso and later executed by the Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjar. This relation- ship gave rise to an emblematic building in the centre of the city. This harmony of art and architecture is also archetypal in the case of our Gothic Quarter neighbours at the Pignatelli Palace, home to the Bar- celona Royal Artistic Circle. This collaboration between Picasso and Busquets must be documented somewhere... Yes, we have photographic proof. Actually, at the end of last year we organised an exhibition at the CAC with a selection of photos from an album drawn up by Xavier Busquets that show the construction pro- cess of these murals. We have this materials thanks to the CAC's his- toric archive, one of Europe's most important documentary collections, looking after the collections of over a hundred architects, institutions, magazines and photographers linked to the world of architecture. In total it has nearly two million documents, with files on such relevant architects as Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Bonet Castellana, Cèsar Mar- tinell, photographers like Català-Roca, magazines like Arquitecturas Bis or institutions such as GATCPAC or ADLAN. What is the function of the CAC's Historic Archive? The Archive was founded in 1969 with the triple aim of preserving and broadening the documentary collection of the Architects' College, doc- umenting cases of heritage protection and of publishing the historical work architects do. The collection covers the entire spectrum of the profession from the end of the 18th century, with its first document dating from 1776, up to the present day, covering all periods, architectural trends and styles in all kinds of documents and formats: plans, reports, photographs, sketches, correspondence, computer files, and so on. It brings together the activity of architects, institutions, magazines and photographers through the story of projects completed and not, com- petition proposals, reports and opinion pieces: a map that allows us to represent the contribution of the masters from the Catalan Renaixença to today's architecture. As such, the collection includes the majority of relevant historic buildings in Catalonia, both present and disappeared, and allows us to follow the life of many of them through the documents of their refurbishments. It is, then, one of the main tools for studying the evolution of architecture in Catalonia and of its key components. For this reason the Historic Archive is one of the completely priceless main heritage collections of the CAC and is available to registered archi- tects and society at large both in person and online. Does this collection have any wider cultural audience, apart from strictly documentary use? We have, on one hand, the 'Collections' section within our cultural pro- gramme, where each month we present a small format exhibition at the CAC showing material from the Historic Archive. One the other, we also collaborate by lending material from the Archive to exhibitions organised by other institutions, both nationally and in- ternationally. At the moment you can visit an exhibition of artworks complied by the 85th year group at ETSAB (Barcelona Architects' School) for their final year trip to Amsterdam at the Vila-Casas Foun- dation's Can Framis Museum. If we go to Amsterdam we'll be able to visit an exhibition at the Tropenmuseum with models of buildings lent by the Archive. Our collaborations are numerous: photographs for the Alvar Aalto ex- hibition at Barcelona's CaixaForum, photographs from the Francesc Català-Roca collection for an exhibition on public transport in Madrid, a lithograph and images for an exhibition on Picasso and Gaudí at Ferrara's Palazzo dei Diamanti, the Macià Plan Diorama drawn by the GATCPAC architects that has travelled to the CaixaForum in Madrid and to New York's MoMA, amongst others. Continuing with the art/architecture binomial, what role does this rela- tionship have in drawing up projects nowadays? Can a beautiful building be functional at the same time? Of course it can, and it should be so. And the other way round too. The Architects' College has defended the social value of architecture and urbanism for years. We architects have the responsibility of serving society - we have to know what people need and the city that houses them needs, and via a complex series of differing, even contradictory, interests we try to find the best solution. It is our job. However, it is also true that the projects have an intrinsic artistic and creative aspect, which we have always seen and defended. As I was say- ing at the beginning, architects and artists have to take into account var- ious things, the space, natural elements, the surroundings...and be able to integrate them into our projects. Almost every architectural style