Guest Editors: María Elisa Navarro Morales, Trinity College Dublin, Irlanda Juan Luis Burke, University of Maryland, USA
Guest Author: Fernando Marías Professor Emeritus of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
The complex nature of architecture makes it a Quixote-esque labor to define the books of the architect. Today, we include within architectural books volumes composed and edited by architects and monographs, and those that codify the profession’s principles. We think of Renaissance treatises with the wonderful illustrations that made them valued items for collectors, books that contributed to the transmission of architectural ideas and travel books that made travel possible by proxy. For the travelers of the Grand Tour, books were the best souvenirs, and once back home, they would recreate their steps through a city’s streets and revisit faraway sites from the comfort of their salons. For rulers, books were kingdoms in miniature in which views of different cities and renderings of landmarks were collected in volumes, thus slyly employing books as tools of political propaganda. Books documented important events and ephemeral architecture, constituting invaluable testimonies of official festivities and rituals.
The relationship between architects and books only became tighter after the Ancien Régime, and in the modern and postmodern eras, architects returned to the printed word to orient their practice in a world where traditional values had been banished and the art of building lost its foundation. Today, architects continue to write and publish books, and they hold on to their written heritage amassing the most impressive libraries.
This issue of H-ART Journal seeks to reflect on books as cultural instruments inherent to the building of architectural knowledge. Los Libros del Arquitecto (The Architect’s Books) welcomes reflections on the relationship between architecture, the architect, and books in any period and geographic region. Editors welcome contributions that examine the complex relationship between architects and books, whether printed or manuscripts, including, but not limited to, books written or edited by architects, those that have influenced their written and built work, architects’ libraries, architects’ collections in libraries, and any topic related to books and architecture.
More information can be found here.
Manuscript submission deadline: February 15, 2023.