SERRA HOUSE | HOUSE OF NOSES | GARROTXA-RIPOLLÈS DELEGATION

The exhibition reveals the history of the Serra House, by the architect Bartomeu Agustí Vergés, which is the current location of the headquarters of the College of Architects of Catalonia’s (COAC) Garrotxa-Ripollès Delegation. It also deals with the relocation process and the commissioning of the school activity through current and historical photographs, original plans and drawings made by the same architect. The building belongs to the rationalist movement and was designed between 1931 and 1933. This block is popularly known as the House of Noses.

2022 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the College of Architects of Catalonia’s Garrotxa-Ripollès Delegation in the city of Olot. In 1997, the COAC opened the delegation in the Artigas House, located in Olot and designed by the architect Esteve Pujol. The headquarters were located on the first floor, in a space with administrative office functions to hold collegiate meetings and small-format conferences and which, for 23 years, allowed the group of architects and the entity to grow and to be present in Olot’s society.

In March 2017, coinciding with the participation of the group of architects from La Garrotxa and Ripollès in the drafting of the Comprehensive Improvement Action Plan (PIAM) of the of Olot’s Old Town, the possibility of changing the headquarters’ location to a ground floor in a place located in the centre of the city arises, and this allows a much closer relationship with the citizens as well as a chance to bet on the reactivation of the old town.

Once the first phase of the works of the Garrotxa-Ripollès Delegation in the Serra House was completed in 2021, school attention and cultural activity resumed. This activity continues more strongly in 2022, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the College of Architects of Catalonia’s presence in Olot, located in a headquarters of and for architects and open to both entities and citizens as it is at street level.