Informes de la Construcción: most what a technical journal

Abstract

Informes de la Construcción is a magazine of undoubtable value to document the history of construction in the 20th century. Its unquestionable technical load is well known amongst professionals of the field. However, as readers immerse themselves in its pages another aspect stands out: the special attention the magazine paid during its first two decades of existence to the dissemination of the most singular architectures of the time. The current project tries to vindicate the role that this magazine played as a means to inform about the foreign production during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s within the Madrid architectural scene. It is true that when one asks the leading figures of the time, Informes is not the first publication they recall, but it is also certain that the data produced by the analysis of the articles included in the magazine and the comparison with other professional publications of the period are conclusive. Of all the reviews on foreign architecture or architectural activity featured in a considerable group of them, Informes de la Construcción gathers almost 50 percent. This figure encourages to embark on a more exhaustive itinerary through the contents of a publication that well exceeds the usual consideration of what a technical journal is.