CODA – 2nd Young Architecture Biennal of Catalonia
Graphic identity, website design and printed materials designed by Lara Coromina Parcet for CODA, the 2nd Young Architecture Biennal of Catalonia, which took place at Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC) in Barcelona during October 2025. The design features Comma Type’s CMM Coda in its Normalized version throughout.
Referencing the musical figure of the coda – an independent ending that rewrites itself, that reiterates, that deforms under its own rules – we claim an ending not as closure, but as a threshold. A gesture that is articulated from inherited frameworks and transforms them into possibility.
Following the manifesto’s call to “recognize failed, unfinished, or obsolete architectures as active parts of the landscape”, the graphic identity was built by gathering textures using frottage. This analogue technique, which consists of rubbing paper with a pencil directly against material surfaces, became the starting point for creating visual impressions of the surrounding environment: non-linear traces of architecture, marks of what is worn, unfinished, or already turning obsolete.
From these traces, a visual system of overlapping textures, lines, patterns, and typography was developed, echoing the manifesto’s idea of a “persistent, dense atmosphere”. In this landscape, ruins are not endings but material to work with, and the biennial’s identity embraces the end (Coda) as a place of possibility, where what remains can be reactivated, layered, and transformed into something new.
CODA was curated by Naiara Albizua & Carmen Salas (objet a) and organized by AJAC Agrupació de Joves Arquitectes de Catalunya under the direction of Dani Montes and Guillem Elvira. Website code by Clara Layti. All photographs by Natalia Vaquero. Risograph printing by Do the Print.
