The Architects’ Association of Catalonia has signed an agreement with the association ArquinFAD. The dean of the COAC, Lluís Comerón, and the president of ArquinFAD, architect Sílvia Farriol, formally signed an agreement on 31 May giving the COAC   access to the documentary collection of the FAD Awards for Architecture and Interior Design.

Since 1958, the FAD Awards have distinguished the most outstanding architectural projects in Catalonia and the Iberian Peninsula. Thanks to its long track record and history, it has generated an important collection of documents, known as the FAD Awards Collection, which includes photographs, panels, plans, film proofs and other documents. It also includes the photographs, documents and plans of the Awards for Urban Buildings and Establishments granted by Barcelona City Council, and the material of the 1988 travelling exhibition, ‘Barcelona City Council Awards for Urban Buildings and Establishments (1899-1930) and FAD Awards (1958-1979)’.

The collaboration between ArquinFAD and the COAC is aimed at making the FAD Awards Collection available to researchers, professionals and the general public in order to disseminate and promote the collection, which reflects the wealth of architectural and interior design activity in Catalonia. In doing so it is essential to guarantee the proper conservation, cataloguing and digitalization of the documents.

In exchange for the loan of the collection for 25 years, the Association has undertaken to catalogue and classify the documents so that all the information can be recovered from the database of the COAC’s Archive, and so all the documents are available to anyone who is interested in them. The process is expected to take up to four years. Subsequently, ArquinFAD will be responsible for digitalizing the documents.