In Barcelona there is a building with a giant lobster observing the city from the rooftop. In Barcelona there is a building whose facade seems to show colorful letters raining down in a calculated disorder. In Barcelona, the new House of Technical Architecture has been officially inaugurated. The three images actually correspond to the description of the same unique property: the headquarters of the College of Technical Architecture of Barcelona (Cateb), located at number 5 Bon Pastor Street, in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district and next to Diagonal Avenue.
After almost two years of works and a profound structural intervention, the college's new corporate headquarters reopens its doors, transformed into a pioneering facility in the Catalan capital. The space is born with the vocation of functioning as an urban laboratory dedicated to technical, scientific, and cultural dissemination in the field of building and, for the first time, opens its facilities to the public.
A space for social debate in the face of urban challenges
The House of Technical Architecture has been conceived as an active space that will host a continuous program throughout the year, combining exhibition experiences, thematic cycles, collaborations with international entities, and social debate spaces open to the public.
"The construction sector needs to be rethought from many points of view; society itself is demanding it, and from Cateb we want to welcome all reflection initiatives that, from the cultural, scientific, and social spheres, can contribute to drawing innovative perspectives and participatory future solutions in the face of urgent challenges such as access to housing," explains the college's general director, Isabel Pagonabarraga.
This commitment to dissemination includes projects such as the ARTEC festival or collaboration with other cultural institutions in Barcelona, and consolidates the college's commitment to shifting technical debate towards the public sphere and collective well-being.
The body we inhabit: an exhibition to diagnose the health of the home
The first initiative hosted by the House of Technical Architecture is the exhibition The body we inhabit, an interactive exhibition to teach citizens how to diagnose the health problems of their own homes, and to understand how these constructive pathologies directly affect human health.
The premise of the exhibition starts from the idea that buildings are living organisms: they breathe, lose heat through their skin, accumulate humidity, and age. Throughout the tour, visitors can assess the condition of their homes —analyzing critical factors such as indoor air quality, thermal insulation, leaks, or the presence of harmful substances— and learn concrete improvement actions to prevent respiratory problems or energy efficiency issues. The exhibition is completely free and open to the public and can be visited until January 4, 2027.
The building exposed: the profession explained
A fundamental fact stands out from the comprehensive renovation of the House of Technical Architecture: the building has been designed to explain and vindicate the very profession of Technical Architecture. Instead of hiding the building's entrails behind false ceilings and conventional coverings, the original structures, installation networks, and different construction materials are fully exposed under the concept of a permanent exhibition called The building exposed. In this way, the building pedagogically shows how it is built and makes visible a complex job that normally remains hidden from the public.
For this intervention, the criteria of sustainability and circular economy that the profession advocates for the existing housing stock have been applied. During the work, directed in its Execution Management (DEO) by Betarq Group, 930 pieces of furniture were donated to 17 social entities —avoiding 5.6 tons of waste—, low-impact removable materials were used, and all installations were sensorized to optimize energy consumption, achieving DGNB European certification. In addition, the building's own facade has been configured to symbolize the scaffolding of a work in constant transformation.
The locust, the letters, and the challenge of bringing order to the housing crisis
And the locust? And the colored letters? What exactly do they mean in this whole context? Both elements are part of the visual poem that the artist and poet Joan Brossa created at the time for the college's headquarters.
The locust, located on the rooftop, is the symbol of intelligence, cunning, and the ability to make leaps forward in many ancient cultures. For its part, the chaos of letters that we seem to see falling down the facade's scaffolding represents the raw material, dispersed ideas, and the complexity of the sector.
At the access door, technical criteria bring order to chaos and transform these letters into clear messages and well-constructed structures. Here lies the great message of the new headquarters: the will to apply technical criteria, science, and craftsmanship to bring order to one of the great social problems of our time, which is access to decent, healthy, and sustainable housing.