Mission. Our organisation’s overarching mission is to ensure the viability of an architecture driven by an interest in helping society move towards fairer and more sustainable models of living. The architecture of the last 50 years has not been neutral, nor can it be. It has provided the foundations for the way our current society lives. Marking a turning point means creating new perspectives. The solutions may not come from the field of architecture itself; nevertheless, architecture enables us to offer and equip our society with community facilities that encourage new bonds of support between users and their environment.

​This is based on the understanding that the touchstone of any drive for change lies in ensuring that those with common goals can come together under one roof. We see architecture as an enhancer, fostering networking and allowing for the development of community projects. Whether they be domestic, public, cultural or work spaces, these facilities can provide the groundwork for everyday life and act as a lever for change wherever they may be.

Networking. Lacol was born from the idea of a space for reflecting on and influencing policy through architectural practice. Our involvement within activist movements has helped strengthen our understanding of the political potential of our field. With a proactive attitude, we aim to build projects that can become levers of change in our immediate environment. Aware of the need to cooperate and share our expertise, we have created new organisations together with other cooperatives that allow us to be more incisive and expand our scope for action.

​La Dinamo Fundació is a foundation created with the aim of encouraging and promoting the implementation of the cooperative housing model via the transfer of rights of land use (transfer of use) in Catalonia. Dating back to 2016, Lacol is one of its co-founders, bringing the knowledge acquired through the experience of La Borda, and actively participating in the provision of technical services (architecture and construction management) and strategic management._

​BATEC – Cooperative Hub for the Energy Transition was established as a cooperative in September 2021 by several organisations involved in the fields of engineering and architecture in the city of Barcelona. It is a socio-economic inter-cooperation project based in Barcelona and its work is focused on benchmarking a sustainable, fair and democratic energy transition._

Cooperativism. After years of operating informally as a group, we took the step of becoming a non-profit cooperative in 2014. Cooperativism has allowed us to put what we want for our society into practice within our business structure: to unite people in a democratic and egalitarian way. Our members play a leading role in Lacol, ensuring our shared needs and ambitions are met. Through our joint work with other organisations, at Lacol we endeavour to encourage interest in cooperativism and to democratise the economy. This work is carried out through a number of different networks:

​La Comunal is a cooperative cultural space born from an alliance between a range of projects within the social and solidarity economy. Its aim is to pool our strengths and resources, cement inter-cooperative ties and, by extension, increase the scope and community impact of the transformative socioeconomic activity carried out by our members. It was founded as a services cooperative in 2020, in the neighbourhood of Sants, Barcelona._

​Lacol is also part of other social economy networks. We are members of the XES and co-founders of the Barcelona Coòpolis cooperative association, the primary focus of which is the promotion of the social economy and the creation of new cooperatives. Within the neighbourhood of Sants itself, we are part of the initiative Impuls, which works for the democratisation of the local community economy.

Team. The working partners of Lacol are Eliseu Arrufat, Ari Artigas, Carles Baiges, Lali Daví, Cristina Gamboa, Ernest Garriga, Mirko Gegundez, Laura Lluch, Lluc Hernàndez, Pol Massoni and Jordi Miró. Our collaborative partners are Arnau Andrés and Anna Clemente.

Also part of the cooperative’s activities are: Clara González, Adriana Parcerisa, Nicco Santana, Arnau Sumalla, Cristina Limiñana and Eulàlia Martín (architects); Marc Maduell and Sergi Cabanas (civil engineers); and Xènia Orfila (administrator).

The following people have, at one time or another, been members of the cooperative: Núria Vila. We have also had the pleasure of working with: Santi Facet, Jon Bacaicoa, Uxue Jauregui, Meri Mensa, Ilènia Molina, Joana Pericas, Vittorio Pietrantonio, Asumpta Rosinés, Laia Soler, Marios Gerontas, Eva Camps and Yolanda Chale.