The production of the colloquium Architectural criticism, medias and memory originated the book with the same title. It is dedicated to interpreting architectural criticism in the 1940s, 1950 and 1960s. However, though with the required attention to the situation of enunciation of the sources utilized, the publication is also a document of its own time.

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By gathering the papers produced for the colloquium – texts written for the presentation of some of the participants and other documents related to its construction, such as thematic bibliography, commentaries, and notes of the preparatory meetings – the publication makes visible part of a work performed by many in the period 2020 to 2022.

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Therefore, the publication can also be read as a testimony, a register of the process: the preparation of a colloquium in which the will to construct collectively – by means of meetings, work groups and exchange of correspondence – was traversed by uncertainties and the limitations imposed by a pandemic. At the same time, it documents the vulgarisation of communication technologies – which turned the exchanges between colleagues from different parts of the globe into commonplace and instantaneous – and the increasing debate about the role of the media in the construction of a critical judgment.

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This is an invitation for a history of architectural criticism focusing on the specificities of the debates on architecture in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and a project of collaboration among researchers engaged in present-day issues, though without simplifications.

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If you wish to buy the publication, please check our editors’ websites.