About

WHO WE ARE

COLL-LECLERC is a Barcelona-based practice combining both an academic and a professional agenda dedicated to the research on New Urban Landscapes: new answers for the contemporary public space, architecture, landscape and infrastructure in the city. Operating almost exclusively out of architectural competitions of public promotion, COLL-LECLERC is highly committed socially with the development of new social programs.

COLL-LECLERC was co-founded in 1996 by Jaime Coll (Mallorca 1964) and Judith Leclerc (Montreal 1967), on having won simultaneously both the competitions of the Music, Dance and Theatre Conservatory of the Balearic Islands and of the Sports Complex of Sant Just Desvern in Barcelona in 1996.

Their work has appeared in more than 300 articles of international journals and newspapers. They have lectured at the AA in London, Aarhus, Frankfurt, Graz, Montreal, Tucson, Phoenix, Sao Paulo, Beijing and Mexico City. Their work has been exhibited in the 8th and 11thVenice Architecture Biennial (2002, 2008), the 8th and 9th Spanish Architecture Biennial (2005, 2007), DAM of Frankfurt (2007), Arkitekturmuseet Stockholm (2008), Arc-en-Rêve of Bordeaux (2008, 2012), Art Basel (2009), Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine of Paris (2009) and Arizona State University (2010).

In 2007 COLL-LECLERC received the awards: City of Barcelona of Architecture, IX Spanish Biennial and the Housing National Award for the facilities in Londres-Villarroel and were selected by Herzog&De Meuron-Ai Weiwei out of a 100 international teams to design one of the villas of the Ordos 100 project in China. In 2010 they received the AVS award for the best public housing of Catalonia for the residential housing in Lerida.

In 2012 COLL-LECLERC has obtained the certification of Quality Management Systems and ECODESIGN according to the standard ISO 9001 and 14006.

Since 1996 founding partners Jaime Coll and Judith Leclerc have been committed with teaching in Canadian and Spanish universities and since 2013 are expanding their professional activity in Canada.

WHAT WE DO

The experience of Coll-Leclerc spans 3 fields:
Urban design with the restructuring of the Plaza Urquinaona (2006) and the TMB Park (2005) retrofitting the roof of the bus station of Horta in Barcelona. Public housing, with projects in the Forum of Barcelona (2008), the complex in Londres-Villarroel of Barcelona (2005), residential housing in Pardinyes in Lleida (2008), Casa Germain in Terrassa (2009) and Carabanchel in Madrid for the EMVS (2010). And at last public facility with the Health Centre of Gerona (1999/2008), the Theatre School and Music Conservatory of Palma (1999), and the Schools of Nostra Llar in Sabadell (2003), Mallorca School in Barcelona (2005), and the extension and renovation of the Sant Gregori School (2011).

At the moment COLL-LECLERC is working on TANGER, a new experiment mixing collective accommodation for vulnerable groups with subsidized housing in the new 22@ district of Barcelona, implementing the use of passive devices like green-houses as well as the use of district heating to improve the thermal behaviour aiming at an A Certification: consuming less than 80% energy than an equivalent building. In parallel, they are developing a proposal for the retrofitting of THE MONTREAL BIODÔME into a new renewed biophilic experience, together with a large team of experts and scientists.

OUR APPROACH

1. THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE PROFESSION AND NEW CHALLENGES.
New changing needs of the society can only be met by new changing solutions. We design new responses through the development of new materials, creating new programs and testing new design guidelines hand in hand with the public administration.
2. CLIMATE FRIENDLY
Architecture is responsible for 70% of the CO2 contamination worldwide. We are climate-friendly, designing with the conscious of saving at least 80% of normal energy consumption on all our buildings, using environmentally friendly materials and constructions methods and providing self-adaptable climatic comfort for our users. We follow the principle of Biomimicry, and Living Building Challenge.
3. HEALTHY ARCHITECTURE
Like Slow Food, Healthy architecture is a reply to the excess of technology and the acceleration of our life. We introduce health as a new design factor to promote a new healthy way of living in our buildings and public spaces, following Biophilic principles.
4. SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE AND FLEXIBLE FOR THE FUTURE
Architecture must remain a tool to achieve social welfare. We put our knowledge to the service of the broadest and most varied possible public, co-learning from and with the users. Social responsibility involves commitment to public investment budgets and guarantee of flexibility to avoid creating early obsolescence.
5. SHARING INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Increased mobility in the global economy allows for the introduction of new and better ways of doing in the local architecture. We share knowledge through the constant dissemination of our work in foreign universities, exhibits and temporary association with foreign practices.
6. CREATIVE RETROFITTING
The most environmental and social architectural commitment is that of Retrofitting an obsolete building to a new demand. We believe we can go beyond that with creative retrofitting, more than adapting, metamorphosing into something new.
7. TRANSDICIPLINARY TEAM WORK
A crucial part of our design process involves the design of the team of experts to accompany us in every specific mission. The design process is integrative right from the start.
8. QUALITY.
Our office follows the principles of Quality Management Systems and ECODESIGN according to the standard ISO 9001 and 14006 since 2012.