When we read an architectural publication, we almost all assume that we control the information that is presented to us. Whether in a book, a magazine, a postcard or a photograph, we assume that we are merely faced with a mechanism for the transmission of transparent, innocuous messages – it doesn’t matter if we consume them through print or electronic media. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that publications form a central part of the way in which we construct reality today; media of all kinds and the playback of all types of content constitute our sense of stability. Nevertheless, a superficial review of the history of architectural publications reveals that they are ever-changing objects that have responded to different conditions and cultural needs, in accordance with the time in place in which they have been produced.

Reading as an individual act, with no interaction with others, only emerged once modernity was well established. The age-old social ritual of group readings – along with an oral culture of architecture – gave way to a new way of transmitting and consuming knowledge that was directed towards the masses. There thus arose industrial publication, with high rates of reproduction. In the nineteenth century, the textual understanding of architecture was definitively substituted by the visual understanding of the discipline: words were replaced by images, whether blueprints (floor plans, facades and cross-sections), axonometric projections, perspective drawings, daguerreotypes and, finally, photographs. Buildings from other lands, instead of being described in words by the few fortunate souls who had visited them, were seen for the first time in their (treacherous) reproductions: photographs. The industrial media quickly became a democratic apparatus that depicted reality – or a version of it that was flat, lacking all depth and movement. 

Essential to any investigation on architecture, and used primarily as reliable sources of information, it is easy to overlook the fact that architectural publications do not communicate innocent, transparent information: the information they contain and the way in which it is presented obey the intentions of their authors. The history of modern architecture is inseparable from the history of its publications. In fact, it is possible to argue that modern architecture was not born from the technological and formal experiments of European architects, but from the pages of early twentieth century books and magazines. The very existence of these publications and their logics has affected society and the discipline much more deeply than the information they contain. In this issue, we seek to reflect on some of the achievements, plateaus and outlooks of a field of knowledge – that of architecture and the media – that is just beginning to define its field of work.